After the downfall of Circuit City's Brick-and-mortar stores, I was able to pick up an Averatec buddy Netbook (a re badged MSI Wind). Wanting a decidedly steampunk case, and running low on funds, i decided to make one out of what was handy:
Materials:
The box it came in
Brown faux leather fabric (local craft store, or even some big box stores)
Cheap cotton clothesline
2x sheets of white paper
Delicious, delicious White glue
Tools:
Boxcutter
Hammer
Caffeine
Techniques Used:
Cutting straight lines
folding fabric
smacking things with a hammer
Glue use
This isn't so much a definitive guide how-to, it's closer to a how-i-did-it guide. Also, I'm going off memory for this guide, the creation of the original was almost mystical. After getting everything unboxed and working properly, we, like most college age people, got really bored. After an errant comment of "I should so make a hollowed out book for this to live in" Inspiration struck like a bag of bricks from low earth orbit. It took two nerds 40 Minutes to complete construction and overnight for the glue to dry.
Materials:
The box it came in
Brown faux leather fabric (local craft store, or even some big box stores)
Cheap cotton clothesline
2x sheets of white paper
Delicious, delicious White glue
Tools:
Boxcutter
Hammer
Caffeine
Techniques Used:
Cutting straight lines
folding fabric
smacking things with a hammer
Glue use
This isn't so much a definitive guide how-to, it's closer to a how-i-did-it guide. Also, I'm going off memory for this guide, the creation of the original was almost mystical. After getting everything unboxed and working properly, we, like most college age people, got really bored. After an errant comment of "I should so make a hollowed out book for this to live in" Inspiration struck like a bag of bricks from low earth orbit. It took two nerds 40 Minutes to complete construction and overnight for the glue to dry.
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Netbook boxes are like pie. After opening, you have a flakey topping of manuals, an ever so delicious netbook filling, and a filling enhancing but bland on it's own power supply crust. between the power supply and the netbook is a cardboard tray, that is what we're going to need. Depending on your manufacturer, the tray may be glued in. If so, carefully cut the tray out at the right-angle seams. The box should have a half inch or so "Crumple zone" around the netbook during shipping. Cutting in the crumple zone should release the tray, and leave most of the rest of the box intact. Now, you should be able to cut the remainder of the box so the long sides of the box fold out like a cross
I apologize for the paintbrush diagrams littering this article, i fail at documentation
I apologize for the paintbrush diagrams littering this article, i fail at documentation
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I plan on doing the project once more, and this time I hope to make full use of the laser cutter at the local hackerspace. I plan to break down and rebuild the battery casing, and to mount it in the spine of the book, covered by one of the laser-cut living hinges. I will probably post my project log here once it's complete.
I am very glad to not be the only one doing this.