So today was the day that I visited Plastic World at Sheppard and Allen Rd in Toronto. I picked up 3 sheets of scrap Plexiglas to use for my carputer build for $7.00 plus $3.99 for the cement.
I must say the gentleman there was EXTREMELY helpful and knowledgeable... I highly recommend dealing with this place and will do in the future.
There are a lot of pictures as I am trying to document each step of the fabrication process as well as possible.
I didn't run into any major problems at this step other than not being able to score and break the Plexiglas in a straight line.
For the smaller bits located in later pictures I ended up just using a hand saw to cut it.
I was able to score the Plexiglas and then snap it into the following pieces in order to make a faux box in which to mount my laptop internals into...
This is WELD-ON #16 Clear Solvent Cement, perfect for joining Plexiglas, acrylic etc. It is a thicker consistency rather than just using liquid epoxy.
It was recommended to use this product by the guys at Plastic World because it is perfect for welding two or more pieces of plastic together that are not perfectly perpendicular to each other (or perfectly square) as in my case with the poor attempt at cutting the Plexiglas.
Below is a close up shot of the cement in action, it flows viscously into the spaces created from a non-perfect cut, melting the plastics together and then forming a solid joint within a minute.
Almost done...
AND THE BOX IS DONE!!! I was so excited... I still am just talking about it.
This was my first attempt at cutting and welding plastic together and it was so easy... I youtube'd some videos on using Weld-On #16 and found some useful tutorials... I'll try and dig up the links and post them here.
So I dropped in the laptop guts and started to mock up the fittings...
There will be ample room in this case for cooling, which i will document in later posts once it is completed
This is the back of the LCD screen from my VAIO laptop, I had to modify the housing to make the wire come out where the board is so that I have enough play to hook it into the motherboard without extending the wires.
You can see here that I dremeled out a hole before actually measuring anything and had to abandon it in favor of one with easier access
And the proprietary connector...
Just a quick mock up of the case and how the motherboard will be mounted.
Dremeled out a hole for the single USB port that will power my 7 port hub I got off of trusty ole eBay
A closer shot... This Plexiglas stuff is really hard to work with, it can be so brittle yet a dremel will melt it causing it to warm when trying to cut straight... I haven't yet figured out what tool would be best to create holes like this...
Here is the hole that the LCD cable will pass through... I started it with a drill bit then played around with the dremel... not the cleanest, I will fix it up later...
The next two pictures show how the USB will line up with the opening, The motherboard has it on a ribbon cable that I will have to bend up and mount to the Plexiglas in a weird manner... I will be experimenting with different screws in which to mount them with... see below...
Here is the monitor connector beside my drawing of where it will actually be...
These are the feet that will be glued to the bottom of my case that the motherboard will sit on and be screwed to... I didn't want any metal to be exposed therefore I glued three 1/8 thick sections of Plexiglas together, I must now find screws small enough to actually hold the motherboard into these "feet"
The box was made to fit snugly into the factory DIN space allocated for any stereo. I will be bolting it into the metal brackets you see on the left and right side with rubber grommets to dampen any harsh road conditions...
Here is a back shot of the LCD in place... There is little room between the LCD and the computer case, which is intentional as this setup requires the LCD to be close to the motherboard as I didn't want to extend any LCD ribbon cables...
So that was my day today...
tomorrow I will be mounting the "feet" and motherboard to the case, I will be mocking up the top lid of the case and fabricating the cooling system...
My Dynatron arrived in the mail a few days ago but I cannot start to mold the LCD into the center console until my case is completed...
Stay tuned for more updates...
I am also working on a piece to contribute to the WIKI under the plastic fabrication section... I am hoping that I can document some good pictures and write some instructions... We will see how dirty my hands become when attempting this as that will affect how many pictures I can take (don't wanna ruin my borrowed camera... THANKS SIS!)
94 Accord Wagon CarPC Worklog
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