Cooling trick and face lift on Xbox 360s

[rkrol]

I am the copper plating manager at my father-in-laws shop. I came up with a trick to help keep 360s cooler while people use them. For those mod buffs out there I can plate in copper, nickel, and chrome for the steel carriage and cd drives. Now, of course, the copper and nickel do oxidize, but that is a cool finishing touch.

I have helped plate mod xboxes for the Play 'N Trade game store. It is actually my second job working there too, but what they would do is cut windows in the side of the box and place a plexiglass panel in it. From there they would also have extra fans, sometimes with lights in them, more often than not a great artist could even design customer's favorite games characters or scenes on the box or even on the plexiglass.

I was getting side tracked there. Copper absorbs heat. So plating the carriage and cd drive helps take the heat out of the motherboard, other electrical parts and cds too which sometimes overheat. The fans would then work on dissipating the heat from the copper. We have had some really excited customers with this trick... and as of yet, no complaints have been brought up to us with the 360s overheating.

These guys are really stoked by this! I am willing to offer any ligit business in the lan industry and especially here in this forum a great pricing on plating these parts email for info or ask in this forum jrkrol@yahoo.com

[Deeds]

I am the copper plating manager at my father-in-laws shop. I came up with a trick to help keep 360s cooler while people use them. For those mod buffs out there I can plate in copper, nickel, and chrome for the steel carriage and cd drives. Now, of course, the copper and nickel do oxidize, but that is a cool finishing touch.

I have helped plate mod xboxes for the Play 'N Trade game store. It is actually my second job working there too, but what they would do is cut windows in the side of the box and place a plexiglass panel in it. From there they would also have extra fans, sometimes with lights in them, more often than not a great artist could even design customer's favorite games characters or scenes on the box or even on the plexiglass.

I was getting side tracked there. Copper absorbs heat. So plating the carriage and cd drive helps take the heat out of the motherboard, other electrical parts and cds too which sometimes overheat. The fans would then work on dissipating the heat from the copper. We have had some really excited customers with this trick... and as of yet, no complaints have been brought up to us with the 360s overheating.

These guys are really stoked by this! I am willing to offer any ligit business in the lan industry and especially here in this forum a great pricing on plating these parts email for info or ask in this forum jrkrol@yahoo.com

Got some pictures you can Photobucket for us?

That's pretty cool man maybe me and you need together and come up with a game center solution for consoles.  Oh and PnT is a taboo name around these parts (Whenever I get on a license rant I'll explain why)

[rxp darkbox]

That does seem like a good idea... and understandable why alot of people haven't done it yet. I would really like to see some pics as well! Could be a nice business for you!!!?

[rkrol]

I did not think of photographing any of the xboxes that I had done, but I am sure I can speak to the "taboo" store boss (LOL) I am sure he might have a few extras lieing around that I can plate and have some sample photos sent to you. I work Wednesday so I will speak to him then... if I can get one of each I will have them done before the end of Friday. I should be able to stay a few minutes late and run them Thursday night. I could then probably get photos Friday and get them to you Friday. This is as long as he still has spares.

If not perhaps I can get my wife to say yes to allowing me to take mine apart and doing it... She has not wanted me to void the warranty     Perhaps this can help her change her mind.

And, Deeds, if you want to talk more on the subject of us coming up with the game center solution for councils I am 100% willing to discuss and do my best to work with you on it. Will be new stuff for me, but I was thinking about puting my hand at cooling the pcs and 360s better.

Great thing about copper is it absorbs heat and the two main parts that are steel and I would suggest plating would be the two nearest the outside of the box, which is what helps keep the heat in, but this way the copper would absorb it and the extra fans would help dissipate it.
I think this could be very useful.

[rkrol]

Rxp and Deeds, I was not able to get the steel carriage or cd drives. If either of you have an extra of each I will plate them for free for sampling for the two of you. All you guys would be out is the shipping cost to me and then I would even pay shipping back to you guys. We do need to get 360s to keep cooler better and I have seen one of these with a plexiglass window, extra fans, and the copper plated carriage and cd drive run 12 hours straight and the box still felt cool.

If you guys are interested I will give you contact information once you reply to me. I could probably get them done fairly quick too.

[Deeds]

Rxp and Deeds, I was not able to get the steel carriage or cd drives. If either of you have an extra of each I will plate them for free for sampling for the two of you. All you guys would be out is the shipping cost to me and then I would even pay shipping back to you guys. We do need to get 360s to keep cooler better and I have seen one of these with a plexiglass window, extra fans, and the copper plated carriage and cd drive run 12 hours straight and the box still felt cool.

If you guys are interested I will give you contact information once you reply to me. I could probably get them done fairly quick too.

So you need the cd drive? Is that just the face plate on it or the whole tray for the cd drive?  And the carriage do you mean the whole shell?

-deeds

[rxp darkbox]

I sold my custom 360, for an exorbitant profit I might add... I had a plexiglass window installed and a fan installed to the window, custom paint, LED, it was nice.... But the cooling probably wasn't as nice as what you are offering...

When you say "carriage" do you mean the housing for the DVD drive?

[rkrol]

I would just need the steel plate/ cover that goes over the sliding tray. Sometimes, BenQ has the top of it cut out. That is the part of the cd case I plate. I prefer them to be fully cleaned if possible. If your father does motorcycle restoration I am sure he has a sandblaster of his own. If so sandblasting the cd case is best for me. It took me quite a few hours trying to get the coating off of it myself. My expertise is in plating not removal of other materials besides plating metals. Now the steel tray where the entire xbox components sit on and the xbox box shell connects to is fine as is. My hydrochloric strip takes the zink off of it quickly. It is the cd drive casing that I have problems with.

The cd drive casing I normally leave at a sandblast finish, but the carriage for the whole xbox has the smooth finish that it was originally from the factory.

Deeds, I heard rumors legally you cannot sell customized 360s as a company. Is this true? Like Rxp said you can make a lot of money doing this. Is the loop hole saying you sell the normal 360 to them and then  Quoteo un quote have them pay for the mods then too, which really were already there but considered seperate? I am just curious.

Rxp, how professional did your mods look? The reason I ask is because the guy that I was considering doing this with at one point had good concepts but used cheape paint, could not cut the shell well for the plexiglass, and his clear coat was out of a can. I have a guy who said he would use profesional auto clearcoat and would do auto detailing, which he does concept art for video game companies and he said he would charge about $10 each if I sent 10 shells at a time. If not it would be about $30. But I mean he is really good. COurse, the pricing I mentioned is for the clear coat only, but then like the other guy I knew personally his would scratch off. This ones would not. What do you guys think is this probably a good price?

[rxp darkbox]

To me.... I thought they looked pretty professional, and so did the guy buying them. I just had the problem of painting them too fast, and not giving proper drying times. I fixed that after a dozen boxes or so.

I too used spray paint, Krylon for the actual paint, and automotive Clear Coat for the finish. I think it depends on their methods, but you can buy REALLY NICE spray paint, as long as you know how to do it properly... give the correct distance, sand between coats, sand after clear coat.. etc.

I also found this metallic paint, green red purple blue etc, and you just do a color underneath and then spray your metallic paint over and you get the different colors from different view sort of finish... that is what I had on there.

I had a green/silver xbox with a window, bright green LED's and a silver 12mm fan installed just about the graphics card heat sink, the one that pipes out from under the dvd drive.

I, for some reason, don't have any pics on my computer right now. will try and get one up.

I am sure it's against some sort of copyright, but I also made a Gears of War Xbox for a friend, and got a controller painted up to match it! Talk about a pain in the A$$.... But it looked bada$$. I REALLY need to find those pics! I have done about 12 xbox's and at least the same in controllers....

[rkrol]

So do you just do other people's xboxes or will you buy just the shells and try to sell them.

There's a guy in WI somewhere who owns three gaming centers. I believe, Gaming Generations or Gaming Gen. He sells 360 mod stuff for very cheap. Gets them wholesale. I am trying to find his information. Will let you know what I think of him when I get the info.

[Deeds]

I would just need the steel plate/ cover that goes over the sliding tray. Sometimes, BenQ has the top of it cut out. That is the part of the cd case I plate. I prefer them to be fully cleaned if possible. If your father does motorcycle restoration I am sure he has a sandblaster of his own. If so sandblasting the cd case is best for me. It took me quite a few hours trying to get the coating off of it myself. My expertise is in plating not removal of other materials besides plating metals. Now the steel tray where the entire xbox components sit on and the xbox box shell connects to is fine as is. My hydrochloric strip takes the zink off of it quickly. It is the cd drive casing that I have problems with.

The cd drive casing I normally leave at a sandblast finish, but the carriage for the whole xbox has the smooth finish that it was originally from the factory.

Deeds, I heard rumors legally you cannot sell customized 360s as a company. Is this true? Like Rxp said you can make a lot of money doing this. Is the loop hole saying you sell the normal 360 to them and then  Quoteo un quote have them pay for the mods then too, which really were already there but considered seperate? I am just curious.

Rxp, how professional did your mods look? The reason I ask is because the guy that I was considering doing this with at one point had good concepts but used cheape paint, could not cut the shell well for the plexiglass, and his clear coat was out of a can. I have a guy who said he would use profesional auto clearcoat and would do auto detailing, which he does concept art for video game companies and he said he would charge about $10 each if I sent 10 shells at a time. If not it would be about $30. But I mean he is really good. COurse, the pricing I mentioned is for the clear coat only, but then like the other guy I knew personally his would scratch off. This ones would not. What do you guys think is this probably a good price?

Aesthetic Mods, I've heard nothing that makes it illegal you just need to make sure you customer understand there is NO factory warranty.  Mods that allow you to play backups I have heard that it is illegal to sell this kind of service but I've never seen anything to back that up.   Personally I stay away from those type mods too much hassle in the first place.

-deeds

[rkrol]

I know for a fact the back up mods are illegal, at least, in WI. A guy in WI had the police come in and take every electronic item in his house to take it in for evidence. But that is good to know about the other half of the modded xbox. My brother and I were talking about ways to get boxes modded. He has a friend who does interesting painting and can make a wall appear to be ten feet deep he said. He told me it was complicated to explain, but it would be awesome to have on one or all the walls in a game center.

You know of any good places to purchase 360 parts or get broken ones. I would like to be able to start getting carriages and the drive cases to start copper plating them. My brother said he wanted to help me out and see if we could start modifying other things on 360s to. First we have to look into finding a good company to buy the parts from.

The other company I mentioned above was not quite what I was looking for.

If I can get parts and such I want to see about copper and nickel plating the heat sincs too. This might be very helpful. My brother and I are looking into figuring out how to plate over plastic so maybe we can plate the cases. We have some awesome ideas for this if it works.

We got a lot of ideas with plating and similar things. 

[Deeds]

Broken boxes I get from Ebay.  I don't really know anywhere to go to get "parts".

-deeds

[rxp darkbox]

I have also had alot of success on www.craigslist.org. they are almost my favorite site to shop for things

we have a business around here that gets broken xbox's in and tries to fix them, and if they cant... the sell it for parts, like $30 minus power brick and vid cables... no controller of course

[rkrol]

Hey, thanks. We will start looking for some. We want to be able to start displaying the options available for the xboxes. Especially, the plating options. We can offer copper, nickel, and also Chrome plating.