I just googled for 'iMods" and the results I got look crappy, except for maybe the first one. But that cigg one looks like the person who made it couldnt hold their hand steady with a pair od scissors. And that one in the cd player looks Photochoped. Anyway, how could you compare these to Zap's Awsomness????!!! Just for ****s and giggles heres the link: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.07/imods.html
Originally Posted by Krikkit $1900 each! BTW Zap, nice idea, great crafting, but as DeX said, the glossyness really just ballsed it up for me. How many attempts did that take to get? Or was it just 1 very slow and careful job?
It was one very slow careful job.
As in the thread, the wood split four times while dremeling it. Mostly due the dremel catching one something. This wood though is very strong and even when split it was hard to pull apart enought to get glue into the seam.
I did make three wheels, one so I could choose which one would fit the best after coating, and two because I wasn't sure how the icons would come out.
I laser etched the function icons three times into the back of a finished wheel. (one on one wheel, and twice at 45% angles on a second wheel)
I tried clear, black and silver paint to fill in the etch, but nothing looked good enough or sharp enough to keep.
If I had etched the wheel before coating (didn't think about it) it would have looked better.
1: Dissassemble your mini. There are some good instructions in the ipod lounge forum.
2. Use a Dremel moto tool with the small wire brush to strip the clearcoat and paint from the mini, and bring it down to the bare aluminum. I have a digital Dremel and used 10,000 RPM on the indicator. Don't overdo this, as simply touching a single spot will bring it down to the bare metal. Too much will leave scractches and divots. the Mini Shell is really thin, so too much will be catastrophic.
3. Sand the shell until it is completely devoid of paint, and rough spots. You'll need to sand the aluminum in a series of steps with sandpaper, preferrably by hand. Use these grits, in order. The finer grits will take out the scratches from each previous step.
320, 400, 600, 1000, 1500.
4. Polish the mini using a drill polisher. Craftsman sells a great kit for $9.99 at Sears with three wheels and 4 polishing compounds. I used the big wheel and the white compound. Take your time, and use small clamps to affix your mini to your workbench. If the mini goes flying off, it will be severely dented. Not good.
5. Do some final polishing by hand using SimiChrome polish. (This is also really good for touching up your full size stainless steel backed iPod.)
6. Reassemble the mini, and take some glamour shots!
Originally Posted by ZapWizard Welcome Stormy, and I have seen you blingpod before. I love it.
Right on man! I have no idea why I haven't been here before... oh well, I'm hooked... and thanks for the kind welcome.
I'll have some of my own mods and projects included in the next Hook Up. I've been pretty busy. I have to say, your projects make mine look like kindergarten fingerpaintings. I'm working more with alumninum nowadays anyway, so perhaps I can be the yin to your yang. Next up is a 1/4" thick aluminum Shuttle computer case for PAX. Should be fun.
Wow, that's some impressive woodwork. Maybe I missed it in the article, but what did you smooth the edges with? The edges on the wood look about as rounded as the edges on the touchwheel pieces.
A seriously excellent effort. How does the click wheel feel now withthe wood on it ? Any operational problems ?
I'm tempted to try this with an old Ipod first, using Huon Pine from Tasmania, because I don't think my hands are steady enough with a Dremel to work on 2mm tollerances.
Luvvly work zap, the thing that gets me with these (what i class as) high class mods, is not the thought to do them, but the fact that you didnt dismiss outa hand doing this thing with a dremel outa a solid block of wood!
Massive big up to you for not only attempting it, but pulling it off so well :D
Yeah, one or two people dropped by... I was pleased to see our new server structure barely broke a sweat at the Slashdotting - ggwp to RTT & Spike.
There's nothing worse than sharing a top mod with the world and nobody can get at it because the servers couldn't handle the load. We've invested heavily in decent infrastructure so that should basically never happen :)
CNN money. ;) The modding community gets a frontman...
I'm not as amazed at the work (it's your usual, beautifully done style that I've sadly come to expect from you) as I am at the massive amounts of feedback that this has obtained. Is it just because it's an iPod, you think? I wonder if this was like messing with the consumer holy grail, and that's why it caught so much non-modder attention.
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:| I didnt say it wasnt intracate or required skill because it does, I just think it looks like what it is.
As in the thread, the wood split four times while dremeling it. Mostly due the dremel catching one something. This wood though is very strong and even when split it was hard to pull apart enought to get glue into the seam.
I did make three wheels, one so I could choose which one would fit the best after coating, and two because I wasn't sure how the icons would come out.
I laser etched the function icons three times into the back of a finished wheel. (one on one wheel, and twice at 45% angles on a second wheel)
I tried clear, black and silver paint to fill in the etch, but nothing looked good enough or sharp enough to keep.
If I had etched the wheel before coating (didn't think about it) it would have looked better.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/isu98/Blingpod3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/isu98/Blingpod2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/isu98/Blingpod1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/isu98/BlingPodmulti.jpg
To do this:
1: Dissassemble your mini. There are some good instructions in the ipod lounge forum.
2. Use a Dremel moto tool with the small wire brush to strip the clearcoat and paint from the mini, and bring it down to the bare aluminum. I have a digital Dremel and used 10,000 RPM on the indicator. Don't overdo this, as simply touching a single spot will bring it down to the bare metal. Too much will leave scractches and divots. the Mini Shell is really thin, so too much will be catastrophic.
3. Sand the shell until it is completely devoid of paint, and rough spots. You'll need to sand the aluminum in a series of steps with sandpaper, preferrably by hand. Use these grits, in order. The finer grits will take out the scratches from each previous step.
320, 400, 600, 1000, 1500.
4. Polish the mini using a drill polisher. Craftsman sells a great kit for $9.99 at Sears with three wheels and 4 polishing compounds. I used the big wheel and the white compound. Take your time, and use small clamps to affix your mini to your workbench. If the mini goes flying off, it will be severely dented. Not good.
5. Do some final polishing by hand using SimiChrome polish. (This is also really good for touching up your full size stainless steel backed iPod.)
6. Reassemble the mini, and take some glamour shots!
Cheers,
Stormy
hand made, I don't really like the wood, but I can appreciate the level at which your working at there! Very nice job!
Still an ipod though tbh :p
edit: ignore all that i just read the comment properly
And stormy, preeeetttttyyyyyyyy...
Right on man! I have no idea why I haven't been here before... oh well, I'm hooked... and thanks for the kind welcome.
I'll have some of my own mods and projects included in the next Hook Up. I've been pretty busy. I have to say, your projects make mine look like kindergarten fingerpaintings. I'm working more with alumninum nowadays anyway, so perhaps I can be the yin to your yang. Next up is a 1/4" thick aluminum Shuttle computer case for PAX. Should be fun.
:o
You should change the images/fonts/text with iPodWizard to give it some extra moddedness :)
I'm tempted to try this with an old Ipod first, using Huon Pine from Tasmania, because I don't think my hands are steady enough with a Dremel to work on 2mm tollerances.
Moldor
Visit www.qprox.com to learn about these types of sensors
Massive big up to you for not only attempting it, but pulling it off so well :D
I'm thinking for example that the logo could be engraved, or better, embossed.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24413
...and I just noticed all the other sites as well.
Excellent work man!
Most of the sites seem linked to bit-tech.
Some linked directly to the Flickr stream from the Makezine Blog.
My site recieved over 26,000 hits from bit-tech alone so I know bit-tech had to have more then that yesterday.
There's nothing worse than sharing a top mod with the world and nobody can get at it because the servers couldn't handle the load. We've invested heavily in decent infrastructure so that should basically never happen :)
I'm not as amazed at the work (it's your usual, beautifully done style that I've sadly come to expect from you) as I am at the massive amounts of feedback that this has obtained. Is it just because it's an iPod, you think? I wonder if this was like messing with the consumer holy grail, and that's why it caught so much non-modder attention.