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Okay just to start i have two Maxtor Onetouch drives for my video editing. The problem with these drives is toting them around from work to home and school. Setting both drives up, finding plugs and conecting them. it made my laptop much less portable. Not only was portablity an issue, but so was heat. The drives have a pretty tightly sealed aluminum enclosure with out a fan. This had me worried when i took apart one of the drives and it nearly burned me when i touched it. Anyhow, i had this small aluminum breif case looking-mah-thing. I don't know where i got it from, and i think it was originaly used for make up. As soon as i got the 2nd drive, i thought, "i need something to carry these in." The small briefcase immediatly came to mind. The first thought that ran through my mind when i put the two drives, both power bricks, and cables in the case was, "Wow... i bet i could get that all mounted in there WITH a fan too." Thus it begins.
tools used:
soldering iron
Phillips screwdriver
nuts and screws
X-acto knife
dremel
tinsnips
moneyspent:
$1.00 for a fangrill
Things found laying around:
Old cookie sheet for bracket
Old graphite airport BS for wiring
Aluminum attache for case
80mm PSU fan
screws and nuts
indoor extention cord
three inch molex extention for fan connection
two external 200 gig maxtor drives
two spare powerplugs to make shorter
power plug from old stereo for power socket
Here is my set up before. You can see the two drives next to each other.
And here is the case previous to any modding
Can you understand my inspiration after seeing how the
two drives fit inside?
Here's a picture with one drive out of it's case
This is what the back of the drive looks like. One USB2,
two Firewire, power and switch. How do you like that
vent? Heat dissapate-alicious
I had to remove one of the front latches to put on the side
of the case. Otherwise it would have prohibited accessing
the drives ports.
Lining up one of the drive bezels
I used an x-acto knife to cut out the holes. the case was
built out of 1/4 inch plywood and REALLY thin
aluminum sheeting.
I later cut out all the individual holes. it was difficult to
align and size them correctly. also the lower hole is for
the power plug
You can't see them too well, but the holes drilled here
provide some exaust for the fan pulling in air to cool the
two drives. I tapped power from one of the drives.
The hole in the center of the braket needed to be a little
bigger to make room for a nut to fit. then i used my
dremel to cut a slot for a washer to fit as well.
These are the custom wirings i had to solder together.
from top to bottom, cord from extention to powerbrick
(i still need to make one more), the extention cord for one
of the powerbricks,(stupid feredite cores getting in the way)
parts taken from and Airport BS. And lastly a shortend
indoor extention cord with custom socket from an old
stereo, this makes it possible to use a removable cord.
Okay here is everything mounted. and running mind you.
I mounted the brown extention cord with contact tape. cut
a hole for the fan and screwed it into place. cut out a strip
of metal from the old cookie sheet. then bent it, and drilled
holes to screw into the case. this holds the powerbricks in
place.
Here are the two drives now mounted into place. you can
see on the left drive where i used the molex to tap into the
power for the fan.
There is even enough extra space for the cables to fit when
closed
A picture of the side with fan. you can also see where i
repositionend the latch.
Being as it's the only thing i spent money on. i figured i
should give the fan grill a proper close up. i think i might
get an led fan, but then again, the black keeps you thinking
what is that thing a bomb...?
A picture of the case on it's side with the cables coming out.
this is how i want the drive to sit typically, but i need to get
some feet for the case. otherwise the the vent is covered.
The final product. The B.O.M.B all in working order.
For the future: i will be adding some case feet to one side, a switch for the fan to adjust between 12v and 5v,
and i'm still contemplating an led fan.
I hope you like it, and for those who don't..? bad, bad kharma.
macDeviant
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