Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Aluminum Water Cooling Case

Two cutouts were routed out of the back sheet for the bottom mounted PSU (left hand side of the pic) and intake fan, and two intake fans up top.



Eventually, some "adapter plates" will be mounted over the two cutouts.


To attach the MB tray to the back sheet, four PEM cinch nuts were pressed into the interior side of the .10-inch thick aluminum sheet. I love these nuts because they make quick work out of adding some threads to sheet metal.

 

Another awesome feature of this case is the "false" back, which is simply a sheet of aluminum between the removable back panel and the motherboard tray. The "false" back prevents the case from racking and is the primary cable management feature. In this case, the "false" back consists of three pieces of .10-inch thick aluminum.

The sheets that make-up the "false" back are threaded along the top via PEM nuts. Fastening them to the top support beam is simplified via the addition of slots routed out of the support beam. These allow the hex wrench to be raised into position as the socket cap screws are driven into the sheet.










Along the bottom, the sheets are fastened to some 1/2-inch angle.

 

That thing is a f***ing behemoth!

Hope it's gonna have wheels on? Or are you not taking it to lan parties??

 

Top and bottom sheets cut. Still needs to be fastened though.

 

plenty of space in there, i like it! do you plan to use all of your 5.25 drive rails?

 

Wow!! I have to keep watching this. +sub

 

Slots for wire and tube routing were cut out of the top and bottom shelves. I attempted to use a pattern router bit, but the deep cut forced the bit's bearing into the 3/8-inch thick particle board, ruining it.



So I switched to using a pattern to guide the base of the router.



The slots along the edge of the bottom shelf were cut in such a way to allow tubing and wiring to pass without significantly weakening the 1/2 x 1-inch u-channel.




Bottom shelf slots:




Top shelf slots:







Finally, two slots were also cut out of a portion of the "false" back:

 

The three pieces of "false" back were attached to the bottom shelf via three pieces of 1/2-inch angle and some socket cap screws.

 

man you work is very inspirational love your routor skills. look foward to more updates

 

Yes. That sums up my thoughts exactly. There's plenty of room to grow...
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...cats in there

 

Loving this build man !
I wish I had your skills with alu!
Keep it up !

 

Up until now the front of the case has been held on with masking tape, but its now time to attach it securely. I had originally planned on drilling through holes and bolting the front to the case, but there wasn't much room for my hands to hold onto a nut, so I increased the size of the through hole a bit and pressed-in some PEM nuts.




The front frame consists of 1x1 1/2x1 u-channels.






Button head bolts were used to attach the front to the case.

 

this is a good start!

 

Thanks guys!





The side panels were cut via the help of a large makeshift square made from a small square clamped to a ruler.






The radiator ventilation cutouts were made with the help of a router template. Some bits of scrap aluminum were bolted to the underside to eliminate any errors with placing the template accurately on the sheets.




Determining where to make the cutouts was easily done via a dab of India ink on the head of a screw and some masking tape. The panel was repeatedly pushed up against the inked bolt.

 

Cool idea for a giant square .

 

In order to accurately drill the bolt holes to attach the perforated aluminum to the side panels, I fabricated a drill template from some left over flat bar stock and a drill bushing I had lying around the shop.



A couple of spacers was used to quickly and accurately place the jig on the work piece (to avoid having to measure/layout the location of the holes).




Some .063 perforated aluminum cut to size:





To accurately cut the rounded corners on the side panels a router jig was fab'd from a piece of the corner round used on the body of the case, 1-inch u-channel and a couple of 1-2-3 block hot glued to some particle board. Two strips of Mylar from an old drum head was used to smooth out any irregularities.




Tah-dah!

 

coming along well mate keep up the good work

 

it gets better and better !
I cant whait to see this finished

 

Looking good as always Rich.

 

Awesome