Modding Monitors / Painting / TFT

[Christo]

hi

i have been looking at chieftec Dragon Blue cases for a while now, and i
reckon i can pretty easilly take a keyboard apart and spray the shell in a
similar sort of blue and as for mice well i already have a lue/black mouse

but my TFT monitor is silver

is there any way at all to take the whole thing apart like the shell or all
the plastic, in order to spray it
I has been thinking about just taping around the screen and not bothering to
take it apart, but then the grills for the spakers attatched the bottom of
the monitor and all the gaps (grills) at the back if the paint got into them
it might damage the hardware of the monitor, infact it probs would.

also anyone any nice ideas for how i might get around the small matter of
the LED? or will that not be attatched to the case of the monitor? (if i
were to take it to pieces)

mainly about removing the front part of the monitor i wouldnt have a clue
how to do this because the screen area seems as though it is attatched to
the plastic frame... anyhow any advice much appreciated on the matter

finally kinda OT from the header of this post but how about painting CD
drives?

i know the fronts are meant to clip off aren't they?

i havent tried this but is it pretty easy to get them back on once they are
off?

and floppy disk drives, mine is currently silver, can the fronts of them be
removed? in order to paint in the same blue as monitor and keyboard and
cd-rom drives

i just wanna get it all blue as much as i can

Thanks (in advance)

Chris

 

[Jerry G.]

You are best to leave things alone if all is working well. After taking
everything apart, and painting them up, you may have problems.

--

Jerry G.
======


hi

i have been looking at chieftec Dragon Blue cases for a while now, and i
reckon i can pretty easilly take a keyboard apart and spray the shell in a
similar sort of blue and as for mice well i already have a lue/black mouse

but my TFT monitor is silver

is there any way at all to take the whole thing apart like the shell or all
the plastic, in order to spray it
I has been thinking about just taping around the screen and not bothering to
take it apart, but then the grills for the spakers attatched the bottom of
the monitor and all the gaps (grills) at the back if the paint got into them
it might damage the hardware of the monitor, infact it probs would.

also anyone any nice ideas for how i might get around the small matter of
the LED? or will that not be attatched to the case of the monitor? (if i
were to take it to pieces)

mainly about removing the front part of the monitor i wouldnt have a clue
how to do this because the screen area seems as though it is attatched to
the plastic frame... anyhow any advice much appreciated on the matter

finally kinda OT from the header of this post but how about painting CD
drives?

i know the fronts are meant to clip off aren't they?

i havent tried this but is it pretty easy to get them back on once they are
off?

and floppy disk drives, mine is currently silver, can the fronts of them be
removed? in order to paint in the same blue as monitor and keyboard and
cd-rom drives

i just wanna get it all blue as much as i can

Thanks (in advance)

Chris

 

[John]

You are best to leave things alone if all is working well. After taking
everything apart, and painting them up, you may have problems.

Yeah however hes got to do whats he got to do. Ive done many wacky
projects like hes thinking of doing and at the time you couldnt talk
me out of it though later I sorely wish someone did.

Unless that guy is REALLY lucky and things come out great , hes going
to wish he didnt do that. Resale value will plummet. The paint most
likely is going to scratch off sooner or later and look like hell. He
may get a silver case next and then it wont match his case then.

It often looks like hell anyway - drips runs , blobs , orangepeel.
Problems as you point out from taking it apart.

Unless he is really lucky its going to look amateurish and tacky.

 

[kony]

hi

i have been looking at chieftec Dragon Blue cases for a while now, and i
reckon i can pretty easilly take a keyboard apart and spray the shell in a
similar sort of blue and as for mice well i already have a lue/black mouse

but my TFT monitor is silver

Consider a silver Chieftec case instead.

is there any way at all to take the whole thing apart like the shell or all
the plastic, in order to spray it

Any way? Sure, it's no different than anything else. There
are screws, tabs, etc, etc. Much more of a PITA to take
apart a monitor but certainly do-able. HOWEVER, a CRT
monitor stores a potentially lethal voltage in the tube long
after unplugged. If you plan on doing this you ought to go
ahead and unplug the monitor now, else Google-search for
safe methods of discharging the monitor prior to
disassembly. TFT should be no different in regards to
disassembly, a PITA with screws and fragile plastic tabs,
but at least no high-voltages are stored after power is off.

I has been thinking about just taping around the screen and not bothering to
take it apart, but then the grills for the spakers attatched the bottom of
the monitor and all the gaps (grills) at the back if the paint got into them
it might damage the hardware of the monitor, infact it probs would.

I doubt it'd damage the monitor except the audible qualities
of the speakers (so technically the speakers would be
ruined). Even so, it would be worthwhile to disassemble it
IF you decide to paint it. Speaker grills though could just
stay silver, being covered over? Keep in mind that plastic
is relatively soft and paint will tend to scratch or chip
off. Vinyl dye would be better for all plastic components
but not metal parts (like speaker grills?), but maybe vinyl
dye doesn't come in the right shade of blue. I've seen blue
but the odds of it being an exact match for Chieftec Blue
seems low.

also anyone any nice ideas for how i might get around the small matter of
the LED? or will that not be attatched to the case of the monitor? (if i
were to take it to pieces)

The LED should pop out like any other part. Remember, they
DID have to assemble it in the first place. EVERYTHING
comes off the outer shell in one way or another. Mainly you
just need to be careful that whatever you do while handling
it, doesn't scratch up the outside. Sometimes they'll use
plastic studs which a circuit board or other part is slipped
onto, then the ends of the plastic studs are melted to hold
down the part. In such cases you'd take an exacto knife or
gently grill out the melted edge of the stud, then when it
comes time to put the part back together you'd have to
super-glue it, or epoxy, or a screw, whatever applies per
the specific situation. Often none of that is needed, the
LED just pops out or is held on with hot-glue or a blob of
rubber-cementlike adhesive while can be gently pulled off
with needle-nose pliers... or it could easily be on a
circuit board and when board is removed the LED comes with
it.

mainly about removing the front part of the monitor i wouldnt have a clue
how to do this because the screen area seems as though it is attatched to
the plastic frame... anyhow any advice much appreciated on the matter

Probably attached from behind. You'd have to open it up and
see what's what. Again it might be easier to just settle
for a silver case. Silver is much more common.

finally kinda OT from the header of this post but how about painting CD
drives?

Vinyl dye the bezel after removing it. Do not paint the
tray itself, only it's faceplate if it has one instead of a
flap on the bezel.

i know the fronts are meant to clip off aren't they?

yes, gently or they'll crack.

i havent tried this but is it pretty easy to get them back on once they are
off?

Yes, a little easier than getting it off, but again slight
risk of it cracking.

and floppy disk drives, mine is currently silver, can the fronts of them be
removed? in order to paint in the same blue as monitor and keyboard and
cd-rom drives

yes, again vinyl dye.
Given the number of parts you want to paint, even if you
can't find a vinyl dye that is an exact match, you might be
better off finding a complimentary color for everything,
rather than settling for ordinary spray-paint to get a
nearer match. Paints specifically for plastic (like Krylon
Fusion) do NOT work as well as manufacturer suggests, they
still flake and scrape off relatively easily from what I've
heard. Vinyl dye is much better in this regard but it's not
good for metal.

i just wanna get it all blue as much as i can

Wear dark blue sunglasses?
Mood lighting?

 

[Norm De Plume]

Unless he is really lucky its going to look amateurish and tacky.

Maybe he's aiming for exactly that look.

 

[Jerry G.]

I fully agree with you. You couldn't have said it better.

From working in the service industry, I have see this type of thing done,
even to expensive HiFi equipment. In many cases, painting the equipment also
voids the warranty, because it was taken apart to re-paint it.

Just like you said, when equipment is re-painted, the resale value becomes
NIL.

--

Jerry G.
=====

You are best to leave things alone if all is working well. After taking
everything apart, and painting them up, you may have problems.

Yeah however hes got to do whats he got to do. Ive done many wacky
projects like hes thinking of doing and at the time you couldnt talk
me out of it though later I sorely wish someone did.

Unless that guy is REALLY lucky and things come out great , hes going
to wish he didnt do that. Resale value will plummet. The paint most
likely is going to scratch off sooner or later and look like hell. He
may get a silver case next and then it wont match his case then.

It often looks like hell anyway - drips runs , blobs , orangepeel.
Problems as you point out from taking it apart.

Unless he is really lucky its going to look amateurish and tacky.

 

[John]

I fully agree with you. You couldn't have said it better.

From working in the service industry, I have see this type of thing done,
even to expensive HiFi equipment. In many cases, painting the equipment also
voids the warranty, because it was taken apart to re-paint it.

Just like you said, when equipment is re-painted, the resale value becomes
NIL.

And even a little in resale value can go a long way to offset some of
the cost of a new system when the new technology starts falling in
price. You can upgrade for pretty cheap.


Also Ive had my share of disasters. Ive routed a Fender strat - a REAL
Fender strat so it can take a humbucker and even thought of routing it
more at the time to take a Floyd Rose Trem ! Everyone said I was
crazy but I did it anyway. Boy I wishI didnt do that.

I tried painting a 3 series BMW once ages ago and boyyyyy I wish I
hadnt done that. After that it sat around a rusting hulk. I tried
modding the body of a Z car another bright idea in which I sunk
hundreds and hundreds on fiber glass parts etc and sanded for hours on
end which I never finished. You should really try to paint say a kids
wagon or something with a compressor and spray gun before attempting a
car.

My latest disaster was trying to put together a custom stratocaster
---- solid quilt maple body from Warmoth and birdseye neck , Floyd
Rose trem real thing made in Germany and Bill Lawrence pickups
.............disaster ! Still have all the parts but after I decided
to swath it tung oil to really make the highlights standout ---- it
turned beet red !

My next project is going to be ---- make a tube hifi preamp - Im set
on that one.