GameCube Fusion, rev 4.

[Ashen]

Scotch tape is <3 on a roll. I bet I use a roll per portable.

Also, I see your next big project involves something green and a box of Puffs.

Not sure what the Puffs were for, most likely my wife rubbing acetone on her toenails. Every time I'm like, eh, you know that flax melts plastic right? Gotta be good to rub on your body.

lettuce know

 

[Spiicyice]

You gotta love pistachio ice cream!

 

[ShockSlayer]

Ice cream cooling solutions for Gamecube portables, the next "wiikey fusion" of the modding scene.

SS

 

[lyberty5]

Looks great so far. How awesome of you to give us such detail. I'll be sure to link to this thread when I asked for a 'tutorial' since this seems to be an actual tutorial.

 

[Ashen]

Looks great so far. How awesome of you to give us such detail. I'll be sure to link to this thread when I asked for a 'tutorial' since this seems to be an actual tutorial.

Thanks man, thats pretty much what I'm going for I guess. people ask for full blown guides all the time. This will probably be as close as it gets without actually doing stuff for them.

Making some progress on getting the case done, almost there.

Front is pretty much done. As you can see I've kept things simple for this, no extravagant tiny holes for speakers or such as it would be a nightmare to replicate with the silicone/casting that I'll be doing. I have to pay special attention to little things like this to [hopefully] make my molds last as long as possible and making de-molding as easy as possible in the end. Still looks pretty boss IMO:



The fan/vent holes in the back are pretty much wrapped up also. Again, trying to keep things simple to help with casting and de-molding. No tiny holes and such. Used vents from an N64 for the hot air escape. So handy, those N64's:



Got most of the stuff done for switches, buttons, charge jacks, etc done on the top/bottom of the case. Again, roughly measured where I want stuff to be. Drill some small preliminary holes and file, fit, file, fit:



The SD slots are obviously not finished yet.

And started some work on sculpting/adding some of the inner case. You can see that there is a spot to just drop the heatsink in and will hold it there securely. Also some preliminary work on the shoulder button mounts and the mounts for the [dual] tact switches:





And my modified N64 shoulder buttons. I'm especially proud of my solution to the Z button. These are pretty much ready to be primed and clear coated for replication:





Un Ga Du Ha.

 

[ttsgeb]

Looks like complete flax. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Still pretty concerned about how well it will all work out.
How are you planning to handle the holes on the top and bottom so they don't mess up on release?

 

[Ashen]

Looks like complete flax. You should be ashamed of yourself.

<3

Still pretty concerned about how well it will all work out.
How are you planning to handle the holes on the top and bottom so they don't mess up on release?

I'm not quite sure what you mean?

 

[ttsgeb]

Great wording is great.

First off, to clarify what I call the different faces of the portable, you have

• Front, where the majority of the buttons are
• Back, where vent holes tend to be
• Top, Where you've put the triggers
• And Bottom, Left, and Right I think you can discern from that

So, considering that on the back half of the case, you have holes on the back, top, and bottom; what do you plan to do in order to get a clean release from the mold without tearing your silicone plugs on the top and bottom? Especially with all the neat stuff inside from your heatsink ridge and button mounts.

In other talks, do you plan to actually use the original as a case, or exclusively use it for mold-making?
I like what you're doing with the triggers... I like your last setup more for the sexy, but this is pretty sweet in it's own right.

 

[lyberty5]

If he does it as bungle did it a while back on MBB he'll have no problem : the silicon his molds were made of was very deformable (to some limit i guess). He'll just need to tape the holes from the inside so that the silicon doesn't drip and sag to the point where he'll have to break it to take the mold off.
This is just a guess.

I'm concerned about that heatsink contraption on the inside of the back of the case. Do you plan to mold it too? Or just rebuild the inside with putty once you've molded the outer shell?
I'm following this closely, I was meaning to do this one day but my cases are never clean enough, always an angle that makes molding impossible..

Excellent work so far.

 

[ShockSlayer]

Way too sexy.

 

[Spiicyice]

Way too sexy.

Also good idea on the Z button.

 

[Ashen]

Geb, Yea Lyberty's pretty much hit it spot on. The silicone molds are still pretty pliable after they're poured and have cured, so release after casting should be pretty simple. I'm actually less worried about the button/switch holes on the case being easy to de-mold than I am worried about the amount of venting I'm going to need. Any vents and pour spouts I add are also going to need to be de-molded and trimmed after the resin is cast.

The "faces" of the case will be poured first, with all of the button holes and other stuff taped off from the inside so when poured the silicone wont flow through and entrap the whole Dang thing. After both the front case half and back case half "faces" are poured the "pre-formed" case (the one you see now) is left in the silicone and any tape/whatever is used to block flow through the holes is removed. Then pour spouts and vents and anything else I decide needs to go on the inside of the case forms is done from there with the face still encased in the silicone.

It'll all make sense soon. I promise.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, for now the "pre-formed" case will be for making the molds only. If things go horribly wrong at that point then I may just break down and use this one. We'll see how it goes.

Lyberty, I dunno why you're worried about the heatsink/fan enclosure on the inside of the case. As long as its vented well it should cast ok. /crosses fingers.

 

[bouchandre]

That case is just pure sex. i'm more excited right now than I was when I first saw the Envision presentation. (Sorry Tchay)

May I ask what do you use to drill those holes so perfectly? When I use the dremel everything is just so messy.

 

[lyberty5]

That case is just pure sex. i'm more excited right now than I was when I first saw the Envision presentation. (Sorry Tchay)

May I ask what do you use to drill those holes so perfectly? When I use the dremel everything is just so messy.

Cut small and sand&file big. I think ashen said it in a post above.

 

[Ashen]

I don't use a dremel to drill holes. Nor do I use a drillpress or anything else real fancy. Its all hand drilled with these:



I use a center punch to accurately mark my starting point after I've measured then drill using the smallest size bit available and work up to whatever size I need to fit the component.

 

[SNEAKxxATTACK]

Ashen drills holes like a man.

 

[Spiicyice]

I always figured that you drilled all of your holes using a drill press...

There really is a God

 

[kill00man]

I can't believe it is possible to be so precise with such a drill
You must be really patient !

 

[Ashen]

After priming, sanding and clear coating the shoulder buttons they were finally ready to go. I super glued a piece of polystyrene in between both buttons to act as a pour channel or "runner" if you want to get technical. I also taped off the hole from the inside for the z button:





Then I cut out a bunch of pieces of foam board to use as my small mold box and added little "guides" to where the face of the mold will be. This will help line things up once both halves are poured:



I then jammed the buttons down into a chunk of clay and sculpted around them where I wanted my parting line to be. I tried to pick the best spot where any flash could be trimmed off easily and also a spot where flash defects of trimming wont be seen from the outside of the finished case:





Then boxed it in completely and taped off all the seams so silicone won't flow through. Mixed up a small batch of silicone and poured it in very slowly from one side of the box, letting it flow slowly around everything and fill the box:



I had a bit of silicone left over so I quickly improvised a small "box" out of clay and jammed a 3DS analog cap down inside so that I can replicate it. Best way I could think of quick to make the most out of whatever waste I had:



I did all of this around 3am est last night. So by 8pm tonight I should be able to de-box these and get ready for the second pour.

I've also got most of the rest of the work done on the actual case. A little more sanding and things will be ready to be primed and clear coated. I added in the "sidewalls" and bolt brackets:



These are simply thin pieces of lexan cut to length and super glued to the inner walls of the case. These really help sturdy things up and make the case halves align perfectly.



I bolted the nuts to the bolt brackets adn added some epoxy putty around where they will seat off. Waited for the epoxy to cure and popped the bolts out. Now I can easily drop the bolts in and superglue them in place once the case is cast:





Voila!:

 

[LOCtronicz]

Case looks slick!!!! Can't wait to see how you make the mold.