Building a high-end PlayStation 5 (it was HARD!)

there's no denying that the playstation 5's design is extremely striking with its sweeping curves an iconic black and white colour palette is basically a modern sculpture and is undoubtedly going to go down as one of the most recognizable consoles ever however at the end of the day it is after all just plastic and feels mass produced which isn't a surprise because it is but this has got me thinking what if it was made out of higher quality materials what if it was made out of brass this video is sponsored by kiwiko more about them later brass is a centuries-old alloy of copper and zinc and has historically had a wide range of uses from intricate decorative pieces to durable mechanical components what makes it so exciting to use for homemade projects however is that it can be bent cut soldered to and polished with relative ease allowing for incredible results even using just basic tools as i've discovered with some recent builds despite this workability the ps5 is such an unusual shape that it's going to be a huge challenge to recreate its outer chassis with brass and still retain its sleek appearance but if i get it right it's going to look stunning the first step is to strip the playstation right down to its individual components this is actually fairly straightforward and as you can see it's quite a remarkable device internally especially with its unique looking heatsink continuing the strip down process allows me to remove this central glossy plastic mid cover which is the first part i'm going to recreate in brass for this i'm starting with some sheeting that's 1.5 millimeters thick to match the original part but predictably marking its shape for cutting out is a bit tricky as it's well curved so can't be easily flattened out the solution for this is to instead make a template using paper as it can be bent to match the parts curvature once cut out it can simply be stuck to the brass and a jigsaw used to trim it down to match [Music] this leaves me with quite a nice shape and i can now manually bend it to copy the original curves this takes ages to do accurately but it's worth it as with a little time patience and precision it ends up being an almost exact replica nice there are a few more jobs to tackle here though before it can be considered complete the first of which is recreating the power button this button actually triggers a little surface mount switch mounted to a pcb on the back and as brass is fairly soft using files is a great way to make a replacement for it the hump in the middle allows it to press against the surface mount switch while the little side wings prevent it from falling through a groove made for it in the new brass front as the switch's pcb needs to be held precisely in position for it to all work properly i can simply solder some pcb pillar supports in place with a blowtorch this is one of my favorite characteristics about brass as when it reaches the right temperature the solder just melts on contact and gets pulled in between each part by capillary action resulting in a nice strong joint when cooled looking good a similar process can be used for the front usb ports and some additional mounting points will later allow it to be held securely to the console like everything these need to be as accurate as possible for it to actually fit but we'll have to wait until later to see whether it will or not for now though it's time to work on the trickiest part of this build which is the side panels i'm quite skeptical about being able to recreate these with brass as they're such unusual shapes with opposing curved directions on each axis so making this out of this is not going to be easy attempting to bend it by hand reveals another characteristic of brass that causes a few problems here which is that like many metals it has a certain amount of elasticity this basically means that it will spring back to its original shape unless it's forced past the point at which it yields and goes into plastic deformation as you've perhaps predicted this means that it's extremely difficult to put enough force into it to get it to bend at all and despite trying for an hour or so it just looks awful and nothing close to what i need thankfully though there is a way out here take this small strip of brass as an example you can see its elasticity as i push against it and if i push hard enough it goes into plastic deformation if i wanted to bend it to touch the vise however nothing i do will make it stay flush as its elasticity prevents it from fully yielding however things get interesting if i hold it in this position and then add some heat once cool again it actually stays in this shape because the heat has relaxed the internal stresses in the brass in a process known as normalizing and i can take advantage of this by devising an alternative construction method for the new side panels for this i'm going to make a template of the original panels by tracing each outer edge onto some strips of wood and then cut them carefully out using the lines as a guide after sticking them to a sheet of mdf you can hopefully see where this is going as the wood perfectly matches the original panel's outer shape with the original panel removed my brush sheeting is going to be pushed against this wooden framework using the other side of the cuts to help it form the curves properly and as i'm going to be using a lot of heat in just a minute i've wrapped each one in foil to help avoid charring with the help of clamps these pieces really do force the brass into shape and it's looking quite promising but for reasons i explained earlier if i were to undo the clamps now without any extra steps it would just return to being a perfectly flat piece of brass as it hasn't been pushed past any yielding point and this is where the heating process comes into play out of an abundance of caution i'm going to do this outside as heating brass up a lot can produce nasty vapors it's unlikely that i'll hit anywhere near temperatures that will result in this but it's better safe than sorry especially as it's such a nice day outside taking a close look at the brass as i heat it we can see that it's actually changing in shape as part of its increase in temperature and it's certainly looking less solid there is a strange discoloration patch in the middle though which also seems to be disformed with it now cooled we can take a look at it and there's some good news and some bad news here the good news is that once the clamps are released the metal stays in its newly curved form which is the exact result i was hoping for after the heating process however taking a quick look underneath we can see that the internal side of it has bent inwards substantially causing it to touch the mdf and char it which is what caused the ugly patch this means that while the outer curves are absolutely on point and match the original panels closely the inside is warped far enough inwards to prevent the panel from sitting properly against the side of the playstation so it's time for some modifications and this time i've thickened the base mdf to make it even stiffer and covered the inside mounting pegs of the panel with blue tack this is because i'm going to make a plaster mould with it to perfectly copy its shape on the inside of my frame and having the blu-tack there allows it to release easily once the plaster's set having not worked with plaster of paris before though i foolishly didn't think to read the instructions about it and well basically wasted it all as it set before i could get it into the chamber oh dear second time around though i've mixed it properly allowing it to simply be poured into the mold at this point however another disaster strikes as it's unfortunately started spewing out of the bottom as its weight is too much for the seal this is definitely the messiest day i've had for a while and it just goes to show that not everything goes to plan at diy perks hq anyway after doing it in batched layers to reduce the chances of leakage it appears to have worked as despite the setbacks the plaster has set perfectly around the inside of each panel and after filling the blue tack holes and sanding them flush it's time to try them out brush sheet again as expected nicely follows the curvature of the frame only this time its central section is much closer to how it needs to be moving the torch around a lot should heat the whole thing up more evenly than last time avoiding hot spots and with that it's the moment of truth you know i think it's just about worked comparing it directly to the original side panel we can see that its curvature is only a millimeter or so of perfection which i'd say is pretty good going and it's possible to improve things even further by trimming down the excess on the sides and curving the corners with a file absolutely brilliant the success of these side panels means that the project has a chance at working so i'm very happy that they've come out this well especially after all the disasters as you can see though they are rather messy looking and definitely need some cleanup and polishing work before they really start to look good but before i get on with that and then put everything together to see just how good it really looks it's time for a quick add from this video's sponsor kiwiko kiwiko is a super cool company that makes hands-on projects for kids that are designed to expose them to concepts in science technology engineering art and maths also known as steam the idea is to get them thinking about how things work and how to problem solve early on but in a way that's fun and engaging each crate contains everything needed for its project and the included magazine is stuffed full of extra content to learn even more about each crate's theme they offer eight subscription lines so that you can get a new project every month to look forward to with each line catered to different age groups so that everyone can get involved and have fun now kiwico believed that small lessons learned today can mean big world-changing ideas tomorrow and sometimes when you're small it's easier to think big now on a personal note i actually did similar kits to these when i was small and it definitely set me on the path to being able to run this channel and make all the things that i do and while that's not world changing it is an example of things that you are exposed to when you're a child can really impassion you for the future now if you're a viewer of the channel and go to kiwico.com diy perks 50 you can get 50 off your first order on any crate and you can find that also linked to in the description so if it's of interest to you or anyone in your circle i hope that it provides plenty of enjoyment now the polishing process that's going to make these brass pieces shine is actually very time consuming but it's totally going to be worth it the first step is to use some wet and dry sandpaper to take the worst scratches out of the surface gradually using finer and finer grit values in several passes until it's extremely smooth after which it can be followed up with some metal polish this really takes it into another league entirely and the shine polished brass has is just sublime to finish this part off all it needs now is its new power switch mounting in place followed by the acrylic side wings from the original these side wings work in tandem with an led board to make a really nice gentle glowing effect which should look quite interesting reflected in the brass so with that it's time to see whether it can actually fit onto the playstation while it is a little stiff everything does clip back together nicely and after screwing it all down we can catch an impression of the final aesthetic and oh boy i'm pretty excited having seen this at this point the side panels too can be finished using the wet and dry method though before doing the final pass with polish i need to devise some kind of mounting method for them you see the original panels use individual pegs that clip them in place but as mine are blank at the moment there's nothing to stop them from falling away so to recreate these pegs i got a few more brass pillar supports and trimmed them down at an angle this allows me to set them against the inside of the panels using the original shell as a template as they have a hole down the middle of each one it allows me to stick some solder down them and very carefully and briefly heat them up from underneath which melts the solder and strongly welds them in place as you can see i've gone with different lengths on each one to match the peg lengths and i have soldered a little disc in the top corner which acts like a clip just like on the originals this leaves me with one last thing to do which is to finally polish up these side panels after which they can be clipped in place are you ready for this [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] the warm reflective nature of the brass combined with the delicate curves of the original design refined the ascetic far beyond what i could have hoped for resulting in what is perhaps one of the most stunning consoles in the world [Music] a couple of things to note here is that compared with the original the look really is quite striking and certainly more eye-catching and makes a nice companion to the brass monitor that i made in my last video i did have to move one of the wi-fi antennas outside at the back though to keep the wi-fi signal strong but as the back will rarely be seen this isn't too much of an issue now brass always looks great when it's polished up but in this case because of all the different curves and the angles on the playstation 5 it looks particularly stunning almost like it's something out of the old star wars which can only be a good thing in my book now i don't normally do this but if you want to directly influence the video i make next hear me out because i've got an idea of what i can do with the playstation 5 that's aesthetically the polar opposite of what you can see right here so if you want to see that all you've got to do is press like on this video because i'll just be monitoring the likes and if it's above average i'll get making it so if you want to see that you know what to do but until then i'm matt you've been watching diy perks and i hope to see you next time goodbye for now you

Channel: DIY Perks

Views: 2,995,986

Rating: 4.9435997 out of 5

Keywords: playstation 5, ps5

Id: VRo-lnBKhLo

Length: 16min 26sec (986 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/VibeGeek]

For those who are considering doing this metal brass work in the future, here is some things that can help you:

• The artist in this video likely used a temper of brass that wasn't annealed. Likely it was spring, half hard, or full hard temper, which is why he had to heat it to get it to form better. Using an annealed temper of brass would have meant less work for him, as annealed metals bend much easier and don't have nearly the kind of spring back as other tempers.

• If you discolor your metal because of heating or because it oxidizes, your local auto parts store likely carries a product called Naval Jelly, or a similar product with a different name. The key ingredient in these products is Phosphoric Acid and will really help remove any tarnishing and most surface level oxidation.

[u/Abnmlguru]

I really like the brass middle bit, but I can't help but wondering if it would look better with something that contrasted a bit for the outer pieces, like a different metal, perhaps.

[u/sBracko]

Very nice! Be nice to see game console shells done in full OEM metal. Maybe cast anodized aluminum to keep manufacturing cost down and allows for plenty of interesting color options. Surprised it hasn’t been done before but correct me if I’m wrong?

[u/MasterCassel]

This is sweet!

[u/PhilHist]

This was really amazing. My initial thought is that it would disperse the heat as well though, right? Especially when it’s powered on for long periods?

[u/[deleted]]

Wtf I love brass now

[u/nomnaut]

Why didn’t he just cut out a big square hole in the MDF rather than do all that plaster stuff?

[u/Twigling]

Note: not my video.

[u/Tabboo]

And here I can't get a plastic one.