The Modded Chassi Project

I had an old Fujitsu Siemens(TM) chassi laying around which I decided to mod a bit. The idea was to just continously work on this chassi making various "improvements". Mostly to learn more on how to do chassi mods and have some fun.

So far what has been done is this: 

1. repainted the front, 
2. made a circular shape on one of the sides, 
3. added some LED lighting, 
4. and finally put a hinge to hold the side a little bit better.

1. repainted the front

The front was grey and had seen its better days, so I repainted it using black aerosol paint and clear lacquer.

Colour matched with the CD/DVD.

 

2. made a circular shape on one of the sides

I got some help from a friend cutting this circular shape since I didn't have much experience with an angle grinder. I did however learn to use an angle grinder, and have used it in a different chassi project. An angle grinder can be difficult to use but is a great tool when modding a chassi, especially thin metal sheets. Be careful and make sure you have the proper training if you decide to use an angle grinder, as it is a very powerful and a potentially dangerous piece of equipment.

 

My first cuts with an angle grinder.

 The circular shape.

 

The final result.

 

3. added some LED lighting

I basically just used a LED stripe which had adhesives attached to it. Then it was connected to the USB-port. The LED is RGB so it can switch to many different colours using a wireless remote control.

For future improvements, it would be cool to be able to program the LED stripe and maybe have it synced to music.

RGB LED + remote control plugged in & working.

 The RGB LED stripe attached to the side of the chassi.

 

In action.

 

 Illuminating the darkness.

 

4. put a hinge to hold the side

 

I always thought the side was difficult to take off, so I wanted a hinge solution. I opted for one hinge which was not enough to hold the side in place. Therefore it is a bit tilted right now. I think I need two hinges for it to be more stable. There was quite the bit of work to get this in place but I hope I will be able to make it more stable in the future - adding another hinge.

 

 Drilling the holes in the side for the hinge.

Cutting out some superfluous material...

 

 The hinge attached to the side.

 

 The hinge attached to both the frame and the side.