It's space week on "The Screen Savers," so it's time for me to do a space-theme mod. Instead of being serious, I figured, why not go Looney Tunes-style. After all, Marvin the Martian is The Man.

On today's show I'll show you what I've done with this project. It's a little behind schedule, so it may not be done by the time the show airs. Tune in and find out.

Foaming the idea
I thought about it for a while and decided that foam would be the best material for the rocket. I also wanted to do most of the work by hand, so foam is a great choice.

After shaping the foam, I want to be able to coat it to give it some surface strength.

I found some balsa foam II at a local architectural supply store. It had been sitting on its shelf for a while, marked at $105. I asked the store for a discount, since the corners and edges were dinged. I didn't tell the store that I didn't care about the damage because I would be cutting off that material anyway. The store agreed to sell it to me for $75.


Instructions

1. The first step was to decide where exactly I would cut the block to make the top and bottom halves. I will hollow out the top, so I decided it would be better if I made the top the smaller section. In the photo you can see the cutting proportions. I drew the centerline so it would match up after the piece had been cut in two.
2. In this photo you see the motherboard sitting on a cross section of the block. I will leave enough room for the wiring and air circulation. The block will not be rounded so much as oval in the middle. The bottom and top will be circular, which I hope will give the block some dimension and make the oval less noticeable.
3. After I cut the block into two pieces, it's time to cut out the material I wont need. The first photo shows the planned cuts. The second photo shows the block after I made the cuts.
4. It's time to start taking off the side material. You can see the circular guide marks I put on the bottom. I removed material starting with the sides. In the second photo you can see the pattern makers file I've been using.
5. Now that I've cut down the sides, it's time to work on the corners. I marked the radius on the joining line of the bottom piece as a guide.
6. I filed off the corners by going straight down. I'll clean up the angles later.
7. Now I blend the shapes and take down the material on the areas between the circular bottom and oval top (joining line). You can see me at work in the photo. Don't follow my example. Wear a dust mask. Although the foam is inert, you shouldn't inhale it. You can see how much fun it is to blend these shapes. It feels more like art than building a PC case. It's just my idea of fun, I guess. Use your hands to feel the shape take form. You can feel surface imperfections and irregularities you can't always see. You don't need to practice to know what you're feeling. Just shape it into what you want it to be.
8. Here you can see the bottom after it's gone through a preliminarily shaping. The unshaped top is sitting on it. You can already start to see the rocket form taking shape.
9. Here it is after doing half the top piece. I had to stop at this point. I had filed for over five hours and my arms were tired. I hope to finish the shaping and cut out the internal areas soon.
10. To remove large chunks, I used a saw. Make sure not to cut of too much though. Cut close to what you need, then file it down. In this photo I cut away a large section. You can use the removed material to make other stuff.
11. Here's the basic shape. I used a sander to oval it a little more to give a illusion of being more round than square.