Update time! (now that OCN is back up
)
Bondo bondo bondo, my old friend/nemesis, we meet again,lol. Nothing much going on here but some work with the front bezel and bottom stand. Alot of these will be going into a Q&A on bondo (somewhat like Syrillian's acrylic faq) I'm in the process of making, but I'll go ahead and post my thoughts/tips here as well since I'm updating, and you all have been so patiently waiting on my slow behind
That said, on to the pics!
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The key's Euro sent me!
Zomg they fit!
This is/was the reset switch on the front panel; however, I think I'm going to dothe remote ROM eject mod here and use this as the button. It will still be a stock button and not leave anyone the lesser to it's use. You might like flashy and new, but I think modding a stock part to remain stock but have an entirely new purpose is awesome.
Buttons in their respective positions.
Now, at this point I start sanding where I had filled in the floppy drive hole with bondo. This leads me to some pointers and tips.
You see how I'm holding my hand? With the edge of my thumb/palm having the most contact? That's not the way to do it. Let me show you why-
You see how uneven the sanding area is? Ideally you want the largest and most uniform contact area possible, this keeps you from sanding grooves or high/low spots in your bondo. This is why you use a block, usually not your hand (on flat surfaces. rounded surfaces are completely different in the approach somewhat).
Now you see how I'm holding my hand? With my fingers and palm all making contact? This way you can 'feel' the surface and also have a flatter area your sanding with.
Notice how much more area you're sanding with now? (My middle finger had too much pressure, you can see that in the paper, you want even pressure though.) This maximizes sanding and helps you get your filler smoother.
Now, that was fine and dandy, but I really need a block. I don't have one at the house, so I made one, and don't laugh, it works!
Yes. It
is an old ROM drive. I just taped the paper on at the edges. Hey, it works! I did remove the front bezel though so the side was completely flat.
Using the 'block', I made back and forth passes, sanding the filler. Also go in a "X" pattern if you can, this avoids any seams you might sand in going just one direction.
This evened out my hand sanding pretty well. But I wanted to be sure. Here's my next tip. Use some spare paint you have (preferably black, it shows up better, I used gray, that's all I had) and spray the filler with it. Doesn't have to be a good even coat, just enough to show up.
Like this. Now that you have the paint on it, resand with whatever you're using (hand, block, ROM drive...
)
Now here you can see that even though it seemed even, I have a clear low spot in the middle. Obviously since the paint wasn't sanded off here, it was lower than the rest. Depending on how many coats of filler you have one, you can either A. put a small coat of filler in the low spot OR B. keep sanding until it is smooth. I went with B. since I already have a few build up coats on it.
See how even it is now? Perfect! (or close to it
)
It didn't show up well in this shaded pic, but I sanded most of the bezel. Let me tell you, that old plastic is stronger than new plastic,LOL.
Next I started sanding the base that was cracked (show in a previous update). This is after I finished one corner.
This is the other corner. I still have a little sanding to do around the edges, but it's pretty well smoothed out and looking good.
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That's all for today! The heat index was 105F, so I got what I wanted done and moved inside! LOL. I hope you enjoyed this installment, maybe you learned something