Case Mod - In Progress Project CheckMate by E.E.L. Ambiense - Completed

the work looks great.. nice and clean

 

Wow talk about freakish measurements!

Fitting a 360 rad in the top then? Good to know it fits up there!

Looking good though.

 

Thanks!

LOL, John. Back in the late 80's or so, as a kid we used to play football with fruitcakes from the last year. I can honestly say I've never eaten a fruitcake; too unappealing.

Thank you!

Thanks! Oh yeah, a triple easily fits up top in the A05, sure. You will lose the top 5.25" bay though (depending as well on rad thickness), but that's a given with liquid; I came to terms with that years back, lol.

 

Looking really good mate, they are the exact same handles I used on LEXA as feet lol, except mine weren't as long.

 

Thanks, M8! Yeah those same bloody handles I always seem to use. There's just something about them... dunno what it is. Simple, yet attractive for some reason.

 

May 3rd Update!

Alright, update time. I was able to get a few more things done today. Let's get right to it.

I wanted to drop something in here that's not really log-related, but that some of you may find humor in. See, E.E.L.'s family is full of a bunch of deviant, disgusting and hilarious people, with an equally twisted sense of humor. This is just one small portion of said humor...

My younger brother had told me that he was sending a belated birthday gift for me, but that it'd take a few weeks to show up in the mail. Well, it showed up yesterday.



And as I opened the envelope, I was accosted with this...



Nothing like a personalized autograph from Judge Judy. Man, we're both certifiable! Apparently, he has one for himself that he framed in an expensive frame and it's hanging on the wall at home. LOL.

*Note: This post is in no way affiliated with CBS Broadcasting Inc. or it's parent company, Viacom. All rights reserved.

Anyways, on to the update proper.

Last we left off, I needed to mark out and drill the top holes for the rad's fans. Let's get to that. First off, I switched my custom stencil to the underside of the top panel so allow easy fit on my drillpress. I marked off the holes needed to be drilled in it with an exacto knife. Anything would probably work, but I'm an artist with artist's tools, and that happens to be exacto knives.



After I removed the stencil I was left with marks in the aluminum which is sufficient for me to be able to drill out. Everyone has their own methods.



Before going to press with the top, I flipped around and taped off all the aluminum. Sometimes I skip this step since I've done it a hundred times at this point, but it's a good idea to do so, so you're not running the risk of the drill and/or hole saw jumping up and skittering across your new panel ruining the finish. If you're painting it's not as much of a deal, but it's still good practice. I taped this off since that's the side laying down on my drill-press and I don't want to deeply score the aluminum with shavings, etc. It's just a good habit to develop.



One-Two-Three-Four! I like drilling holes in aluminum more!



After I hit it three times with the hole saw, I removed it and cleaned off the majority of shavings from the work. I prefer drilling the fans' mount holes with a regular drill, but again it's personal preference.

After I drilled out the four holes for the two handles, I did a test install. There we are!



Now I have a convenient way to get the top panel up off my bench for easier drilling!

Drilled holes for one fan, and quick test-install of a crap fan laying around...



And again for the next one...



And of course for the third one...



And flipping the panel around, we find this...



All done! Now I just need to clean up the edges of the cuts with a sanding drum attachment for the rotary tool.

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Until the next update, I got nuthin'.

 

Damn, I forgot your birthday I'll find something appropriate to send.



John - I know where you live

 

LOL, John!

It's not a problem, man. Hell, you even hit me up with a b-day wish when I was hoping I'd slip by unnoticed! I'm sure you know where you reach a point where you don't even notice it until someone points it out. Heh heh.

 

Another year older AND a new avatar. I like it.

The first 5 decades is a fun time but the aches and pains accumulate.
If I knew I was going to have this much fun now, I would have taken better care of me when I was younger.

john

 

That's a great birthday present mate, I'm not a big fan of Judge Judy but I can appreciate the trouble your brother went through to get it for you.

The top panel is looking very nice, the handles just look so......good. I'm the same as you lol, they just look good, I can't explain it haha.

 

Nice gift and nice work and you are a nice man

I'm A Big Fan E.E.L

 

White colour schemes are always a good choice, great work so far!

 

Ooh I like the white!! Good luck!

Dave

 

I don't know about you, but that sweeping corner in the mobo tray is driving me up the wall, when compared to the much tighter corners

Looking forward to seeing more of this wee beasty!

 

Thanks, M8!

Thanks, CK!

Thank you!

Thanks!

Meh, mobo will cover it, lol.

Thanks! Coming up soon...

 

May 7th Update!

Alright, I have another update! Let's jump right in, shall we? Everyone have their swimsuits? Good.

Last we left off, I needed to mark out and drill the four holes going into the chassis frame itself for the top handles. This is great because it creates even more stability and reinforcement for the case overall when it's being carried.

I dropped the top panel onto the chassis and slipped in a pop-rivet into the holes where the panel is fitted to the case, that way I know I'm aligned properly.



After that, I mark off with a simple marker and remove the top panel again.



I drill the holes out and test things again. Eureka. Moving on!



I decided when I was compiling to start this mod, one of the first things I would do is actually mod the chassis itself; namely the fan up front. I do not like the way it's cantered to the right as you at the front of the case. So I decided I'm going to fix that. This way it will align with the eventual custom front exhaust grill the case is getting, as well as looking more tidy to me, not to mention increasing the flow-rate of the hot air coming out of the rig. One thing this chassis suffers from stock is terrible temps!

Here's my custom stencil that corresponds to the front acrylic as well.



With a simple piece of scrap aluminum from a side panel I think (?), I marked out the holes and cuts I'm going to make to the aluminum. Mind you, I'm not totally worried how this is going to look, because the bottom line is it's getting covered by the front panel anyways.



After a quick bit of work with my jigsaw and drilling pilot holes for the jigsaw again, I have this.



Now, after a few mins. of struggling with keeping the thing clamped down, I finish it off. Now comes the fun part....if you enjoy this sort of thing, anyways... Filing the edges straight and clean. I was at it for 1.5 hrs. or so until I was happy with the results.



The holes I drilled along the sides actually correspond to the previously-drilled out rivets that held the stock HDD cage. No sense in drilling more holes if you already have a perfectly good set of them already available!

Wait-- that came out wrong...

Anyways, here's a quick test-fit to make sure I'm on the right track.





The holes for the fan itself was actually drilled out for the rubber grommets that was in the stock holes on the case. Might as well use them, right? I had to figure out the right hole-size for the grommets, so I simply measured the stock holes, and figured out the approx. size hole I needed to drill.



Since the holes are approx. .3", that means the grommets are probably .4" in outside width. So I simply drilled holes using a 5/16" drillbit. You'd think I'd use a 3/8" bit, since that's .375 in decimal size, but nope. I wanted it snug, so the grommets don't just push through with the fan installed. .3125" works great!

Let's drill out the two holes to the left for the plate mounting really quick...



Now, let's cut out the stock metal to allow a place for the new plate, shall we?

After marking out using my stencil, I began cutting with the rotary tool.



Frequent breaks are good for both you and your rotary tool. Don't want to kill it before its time, right?

And here we are after a bit of cleanup and sanding with a flat-file...



Now, if you look here, I had attempted to keep some small strands of metal connecting across the chassis to try to allow a bit more stability, but there's a small problem; the fan's grommets themselves.



I attempted to sand out little areas for the grommets, but realized I'm running out of room thickness-wise between the chassis and the front panel. Considering a layer of modders mesh is going in front of the fan, I'm going to have to do something else. Granted, I chose to use a 20mm "thin" Yate Loon up front to try to gain back some space, but still not enough.

So I decided to mount the new panel on the inside of the case. This way I gain back a few millimeters of space to account for any mishaps, etc.

I went ahead and finished the work on the plate itself, including drilling the hole for the power switch to run through, as well as additional filing.



And after some sanding, I have this...



I'm not totally worried about finishing everything silky smooth. I'm going to media-blast the chassis before I coat it, so sanding is irrelevant at this point. LOL.

And a test install of the plate showed additional problems...



Now I can't use my grommets because of the very same lips I decided to leave on the chassis, even after I attempted to clear the area. Oh well. Let's get rid of them. That should fix the problem!



There we go. I was just paranoid. It's plenty strong.

And after final riveting...



Now, because I was using the previous rivet holes for some of these, I decided to drill out the other two. Why not, right? More structural integrity!



And now let's slip in those grommets...



Perfect fit! Yes... Now let's install the Yate really quick and see where we are.



Great. Seems fine! Now let's slap the front panel on and see how things look...



Seems to clear fine! Let's have a look down the back side here...



Yay! Everything's fine. I could've saved myself the trouble and just ditched the grommets, but I wanted to use them, dammit!

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Until the next update, I got nuthin'.

 

2 comments:

1.) You STILL have a nasty habit of removing very large pieces of whatever case you work on (microFly?)

2. Your fan is upside down. The purists will nag you about that.

Excellent as always E.E.L.

Didi you clamp that piece to a desk to file it? You must be single.

john

 

Grommet good! -T-shirt good!

Pic with fingers under the drill bit bad!

@John - Single would be using the bathroom sink.

 

That's why the US has rental property!

john

 

Making nice progress, I wanna chop up a Lian Li sooooo bad, I love their design simplicity and build quality.