My Laptop Project

Its a v2000
Plan: cut a hole in the lid, put transparent plastic in the hole, spray the thing, reassemble and use.

[4/6/10] Disaster, cutting the pattern in plastic was near impossible. The dremel i have also sucks. Now i have a hole in the lid which looks shabby and won't look nice. I'll have to figure out a way to get the shape in the lid correct. Getting another lid is a last resort

[5/6/2010] Getting quotes on laser cutting services in the UK

[6/6/2010] Its a sunday so i'll have to wait until tomorrow for quotes, sanded the bezel and made a start on the touchpad, having trouble with sanding details of laptop such as edges and grooves. I've filled some grooves but others are proving much tougher.

[7/6/2010] Found a laser cutting service, buying my own materials. Will also be putting a second internal hard drive.

[8/6/2010] I'm waiting for connectors so i can solder the new sata link and see if it works. If it works i will need to cover the dvd rom slot and sand it smooth like it never existed. I'll be sanding while i wait

[9/6/2010] OMG ! i thought this thing had 2 mini pcie slots on it and now it turns out that it only has 1! So i've just wasted money on sata data and power cables as well as the soldering iron. Now i've also sent an order for plastic to be cut for it. I'm going to have to work around this. Might go for an express card sata device. /// Update: going for a hard drive caddy which will allow the hard drive to stay in the dvd slot. i'm still deciding on sealing it in or keeping it removable.

[10/6/2010] Filled in the difficult to sand area. Will take 24h to dry, but i have the feeling this new filler isn't up to the job. Car body filler would have been better. Soldering iron wasn't a waste, i will need it.

[11/6/2010] Getting messed around by laser cutting companies who are taking days to respond to the simplest message. Really don't like this. I'm going to go the self service way, will cost 10 times as much though and i still have to wait until monday to arrange a day. Argh!

[12/6/2010] Removed all the new filler, wasn't up to the job. Will have to fill again with the old smelly stuff

[16/6/2010] Chose the final design for the back and getting it laser cut. Will write code

[17/6/2010] Waiting for parts, working on getting control circuitry for mods i'm adding

[19/6/2010] Started prototyping the circuitry thats going to run things. Working well so far

[24/6/2010] Still waiting on parts. This is frustrating. I might use a combination of gloss and matte, if anyone knows good paints let me know for the matte effect

[29/6/2010] Laser cut pieces have finally arrived. Time to do the lighting array

[14/7/2010] Soldering

[16/7/2010] Sprayed lid primer

 

Get some pics up!
lol

 

It looks aweful, i can't show this off

 

oh please do

 

Wait so... what are you trying to do exactly?

 

Macbook like glowing logo but with a much better design

 

if you're using a dremel, make sure you're at a low speed. Anything higher will start to melt the plastic and make it look messy. Also, if you score the plastic with a knife first, I find that it's easier to follow the lines of the pattern.

 

This thing has only one speed, it was the cheapest one on ebay

Anyone know a cheap laser cutting service in the UK?

 

Can anyone help me with this groove, how do i sand inside it, i really want the primer to have a solid grasp of the surface:

 

Are those separate panels? You might want to consider taking all the plastics off BEFORE you paint. Otherwise you'll never be able to take it apart without tearing the paint.

 

That is a single piece

 

Get some of the paper backed sandpaper. Folder it, and run it across using a pencil or something to apply the pressure.

 

Sanding that area is proving to be very difficult. I'm going to fill it.

At this rate this laptop isn't going to look anything like the original. Not quite sure how i feel about that

 

To be honest, it doesnt matter how it turns out.

Because the 2nd laptop you will work on, will turn up great for sure!

1st is always the sandbox, 2nd is the masterpiece.

Keep it up!

-Mel

 

NO IT DOES MATTER!

I've spent so much on parts for this, if its messed up then i'm up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

I just hope i get away with using clearcoat and basecoat from different manufacturers, thats my only worry so far

 

Relax. Take your time and the painting will go fine. Just sand, coat, sand, coat, sand etc until everything shiny as a beast and you like the way it looks. Worst comes to worst, just sand down to plastic and try again.

 

Actually, if the worst happens the laptop will never work again.

I'm also adding some mods i've found on the eeepc forums

 

Once you've separated electronics from plastic, a bad paint job really can't kill your computer.

 

Lots of ways to damage the electronics once its out of the plastic though.

 

Ideally you bagged all the parts you took out in anti-static plastics or stowed em somewhere high and away from cats...

 

I just put it in a card board box, i don't have any anti static packaging, but it should be ok.

 

make sure when you paint it that you do very thin layers. if you put too much paint on at one time it will never dry properly and youll be left with a horrible sticky surface which will peel. So tons of really thin coats will give a far better finish.

 

Paint was past its sell by date

Won't be buying from ebay again, thats for sure.

At least i can see all the scratches on the lid, they look like very deep scratches hith the white primer, saw none of them without it

Edit: Might have been the date of manufacture, how do i know?

Edit2: Sanded and resprayed the primer, looks much better, still every little tiny crack shows, very annoying.

 

Second paint job and scratches are still showing up.



Imageshack sucks, wasted time

 

Pic isnt working

 

Fixed, second pic:

 

what kind of material is that ?

It looks pourous like wood...

bondo is your friend

 

Its my notebook's lid, not sure what it is made of but it didn't have a smooth gloss finish, more of a rough plastic finish. I sanded it and thats the primer coat, i also filled most of the large scratches with fine filler.

What is the equivalent of bondo in UK/Europe?

 

it should be in any auto parts store or hardware store, look for body filler.

 

Since this morning i've purchased body filler from a hardware store, car plan stuff, it did a good enough job filling the large holes.

When i sanded it a little the texture became smooth. I'm hoping to do the colour coat tomorrow.

 

hope it works out for you, i just got my laptop powder coated myself. would love to see your results.

 

That base coat shouldn't be so roughly. I wonder why that is.

Definitely sand it well before applying color coats.

 

Where are the pics of yours? i want to see it, post it in a new thread

 

posted it them for you.

 

The pics are on page 3, might be taking too long to load.

 

This thread is epic!______________________________________________________________________________________________ FAIL

 

ok, i'll just post the results when i'm done