How NOT to modify a case!!

N

Nivram

Gawd
Joined
Aug 31, 2004
Messages
586
Not that anyone likely noticed, since I'm not the most vocal person on this forum, but I was MIA (missing in action, for those of you too young to know what that means) pretty much all of last week.
Why? Oh, a little thing, really.....it seems the rental house I lived in had a natural gas leak, and at 3:30AM on Monday, the 26th of Feb, it had finally built up sufficiently to go KABOOM!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Enclosed, some photographic proof:


Yeah.......believe me, nothing you can say hasn't already been said! The way I figure, the good Lord above has something planned for me, and it simply wasn't my time yet. Sure is a heck of a rude way to be woken up at that time of the day, though!! ;)

Luckily, there was no resulting fire (the fire dept figures the explosion pretty much blew itself out, much like when they use explosives to blow out oil fires), and I've been able to save a lot of "stuff" that might've otherwise been lost. Pretty much all my furniture was crushed when the ceilings came down, and my clothing was a loss (due to the insulation coming down), but lucky for me, 90+% of my computer hardware & saved info on disks was recovered. Gotta have your priorities straight, right?? LOL

Anyways, back to the wrong way to mod a case........and that would be 1-explosion, followed by 2-falling ceilings, which leads to 3-one f'n-A borked case!!


Yeah, doesn't look like much, but that case has a definite LEAN to it now! :rolleyes:

Oh yeah, and before anyone worries too much, I heard from my insurance company today, and it looks like my $25K renter's insurance is pretty much going to pay in full, to replace everything that was lost. I knew that replacement clause was a great idea!! :D
 
hey that bend at the bottom of the case looks kinda cool to be honest with ya....:D
 
must of been a hell of a fireball. too bad you didn't have a security webcam to catch it all.
 
The good thing about gas explosions is that they dont really burn anything, so theres no smoke or water damage to much of anything, at least your pictures and other stuff should be in fairly good shape.
Other than the case the computer looks to be in good shape, at least as far as I can tell.
 
Nope, never smelled any gas. I'm thinking it was leaking under the house (pier & beam construction), possibly leaching up through the walls to the attic as well. Will probably never know for sure!

When the fire department got to the house (under 3 minutes from the time the 911 call came in), they immediately cut off the gas at the meter (out by the street) and pulled the electric meter. They found one small spot, about as big around as a golf ball, on the back wall, that was smoldering, in the vicinity of the refrigerator. They assume that was the ignition point, possibly when the fridge compressor kicked on. The blast was strong enough to lift the house straight up (there were footer nails sticking straight up, indicating a fairly straight lift on the walls nailed to the footer, versus a slide that would've bent over the nails), and it came down anywhere from 4-8 inches off the foundation. The house is a total loss.

As far as my stuff, the hardest point is finding it! Amazing what can happen, especially when a room "avalanches", and everything topples over! A few fragile things didn't make it, but mostly it's been finding things amongst all the blown-in insulation that was up in the attic. Add to that the fact that (like I said earlier) every ceiling came down, and most walls lost drywall, and oftentimes I've found objects upwards of 8 feet away from where they started! :eek:

I'm done with pulling stuff out of the house now, and the owners will likely have it dozed and removed within a week or so. It's not worth building a new house there, as it would cost more to rebuild than it would be worth in that neighborhood. Oh well, at least in the apartment, I don't have to mow the lawn anymore!! :D
 
That must suck sorry to hear that and hopefully you can get all your stuff replaced. And damn that must be some pressurized high content gas that exploded to do that. The worst I have seen was just an stove top that had blown off. As for the case I'm sure you could just bend that back out can't you? But the feet... lol
 
LoL your house died on my birthday.I just finished reading, wow, dude I'm so sorry i couldn't imagine. At first I thought it was from the tornadoes in north Florida by my 2nd house. You can see about 10000 tarps everywhere. Anyways, it looked like a tornado ripped it out, but good luck with getting everything replaced.
 
Now that must suck. I like to blow shit up, wish i could have been there to hear it....sorry. Well i hope you spend the money wisely.....wink..send me a PM and ill give ya my paypal..wink.

Sorry for your loss.
 
Yeah, it's good that you didn't have an explosion like the guy had in "Fight Club". His stuff came down from 14th floor and his adventures into a split personality began from that point. :D

On the serious side, I am about to get insured as well (but there is no gas in our apartment building), and I'll look into the replacement clause as well. Thanks for the info! :cool:
 
that'll buff right out.


glad to hear you are ok. Great prep work with the insurance. Better safe than sorry. Good to see you are in good spirits after such an event.
 
That sucks about the house, but at least you now have an excuse to upgrade.
 
Man.. That house looks like it would break even in a small storm. The walls look so damn thin to me. Oh well, what do i know about american houses.. :D
 
Looks like the walls were standard 2x4 construction. Bummer about the house. Or, at least, bummer that you weren't there to see the boom. :D

Is it just me, or is that video card slightly bent? I'm glad most of your hardware survived ok. It looks like the case really took one for the team!

 
sad part is if you would have died no one on this fourm would have known. But anywho glade your gas problems are over becuase the smell ok yeah I'll stop there jokes not funny.

What about your monitor did it live.
 
Hmmm.......didn't even notice anything about the video card (old 9800pro, that's still working a-ok), but think it's just the angle I took the pic from. Lucky for me, I found an online store that's still selling the old Chieftec Dragon aluminum case, and for a reasonable price! Yeah, call me old fashioned, but I still like the design of those cases, and miss the fact that you can't really find them too much anymore, except maybe in some weird colors! ;)

As far as the house went, that was a strong little house. I live in north central Texas, and while it never saw a tornado while I was living there, we did get a couple times with straight line winds in excess of 70mph, and that little house never creaked or groaned, getting hit with those. But, just like an eggshell, while the outside could withstand some massive pressure, once it was exerted from the inside, it cracked..........big time!!
 
dude you could totaly pull off that case for a lowrider! Seriously, just say your laying frame :p
 
WTF IS THAT CASE CALLED LMFAO it can survive a effin explosion damn that really sux thought hey atleast you're ok!
 
Ultra sells an updated version of the case, available in grey and blue iirc. Decent prices, esp if you're down w/ rebates.

ps Damn, you're lucky it didn't turn out worse. Good thing you got insurance..Which reminds me - I really *should* get off my ass and get a policy; I couldn't afford to replace all my crap if there were a major disaster or something.
 
Definitely anyone who rents should have renters insurance.......amazing how everyone has homeowners cause the mortgage company requires it....but many people don't know about renters...the policy I had when I was active duty covered some of the most amazing shit...and was very affordable.
 
Mad Machinist said:
Definitely anyone who rents should have renters insurance.......amazing how everyone has homeowners cause the mortgage company requires it....but many people don't know about renters...the policy I had when I was active duty covered some of the most amazing shit...and was very affordable.
Click to expand...
QFT ..... 100% agreement.
 
dude,i seen your house on the news...we live in altus ok,just north of the red river...glad to hear your ok,excellent excuse to build a new pc...
 
after seeing this explosion and resulting mess..

if your in need of any hardware I have a few things I can offer you to help get you back on your feet, it's the least I can do for the job you guys do overseas..

Ojibewa - IndianScout
 
Sorry to hear about your house man...good thing you had insurance but it still sucks having your life turned upside-down (literally and figuratively).


Good luck getting back on your feet!!


(after seeing the pics I'm amazed your hardware pretty much survived...if that doesn't make your computer [H] worthy than I don't know what will :D )
 
Guys, thanks for the kind words and offers for assistance. I really appreciate it! :D

The case in question is a Chieftec Dragon aluminum case. Pretty tough stuff, for sure! I also had an old Chieftec steel full tower server case, that I used for my very first computer mod (cut a couple windows and a blow hole for a fan), that took a helluva hit on the bottom of the door, right where the window cut-out is. Not sure if I'll try to bang that one out, or just buy a new case & rebuild the system. I'm just glad the window's okay, as it's a custom-etched model I got from that company in Utah that was in business a few years ago. No way to replace that one easily!! :eek:

Yeah, I'm hoping to get at least a new system out of this. Talked to the insurance adjustor today, as I had an add-on to my renter's insurance policy, specifically covering computer equipment. Reminded him about it, so that he can make sure that any computer related hardware that was lost goes on that, not on my regular insurance. That was put on when I first got my policy, back 7 years ago, when computers still cost an arm & a leg!.......and it's for $2000 coverage. Now what kind of system could I build for $2K???? ;)
 
glad you're alright man, at least a house, case or wallet can be rebuilt.
 
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