Scratch Build – In Progress Project: EVGA Classified SR-2 Case [Completed]

I've been commissioned to build a very large wooden case to house his upcoming watercooled EVGA Classified SR-2 rig. This case is designed and built to run cool, quiet and be ultra-flexible for future upgrades.









Note how the side panels are constructed as air ducts for supplying cool fresh air to the front and sides of the case:




The walls will be constructed of 1.5-inch solid oak face frames with 5.2mm oak veneer plywood "panels" bolted to the inside of the frames and with aluminum "adapters" bolted to the front of the panels. The openings in the panels are sized to the largest pieces of hardware envisioned to be mounted in a particular location. The adapters could be exchanged with different adapters depending on what particular hardware is to be mounted in a panel opening.





Here are the specifications and some of the features of this case.

Physical Characteristics:

• External dimensions (HxWxD - inches): 44 x 26.5 x 35.5

Materials:

• 3/4-inch solid red oak, 3/4-inch and 5.2mm oak veneer plywood.
• .100-inch aluminum sheet and 1/8-inch aluminum angle, channel and rectangular tube.
• 1/8-inch clear acrylic.

Features:

• The side doors act as air ducts to supply fresh air from the bottom, top and back of the case to the front/sides.
• Unique modular panel construction provides flexibility for the placement of drive bays, fans, power supplies, etc.
• Mounting locations for two power supplies.
• Air flow is: fresh air enters from the side/front and exhausts out the back.
• The bottom case has two custom radiator holders for mounting up to four 140x4 radiators.
• The case is actually two separate cases bolted together.
• Removable ten slot motherboard tray.
• Motherboard tray can be mounted in a horizontal or vertical position.
• Powder coated aluminum.
• Wood finished with black water-based stain and polyurethane.

​

The bracket to hold the two Black Ice GTX 560 radiators is a simple affair, consisting of some aluminum 1x2-inch square tubing and channel.



All of the pieces are held together with two long 1/4-inch threaded rods which act as clamps to hold everything together. The ~4mm tall acrylic bumpers get compressed down to ~2mm to keep the radiators in place:







All of the aluminum bits will eventually be powder coated gloss black.



Edit: Final pics are here.

 

Wow that is some design. It will certainly do EVGA's board justice, if not outshine the hardware.
Really looking forward to seeing this progress.

 

Going to weight a ton! But look amazing!
Give more!

 

Going to weight a ton! But look amazing!
Give more!

 

CRIKEY...

Subscribed... I can see this being a good 'um :throb:

 

oh my god that case is huge !
I can't wait to see how this will end, good luck !

 

Oh come on, its not that big. Here's the case "swallowing" a Mountain Mods Ascension:

 

Cool, another Spotswood build. Time to bring out the popcorn and watch the show! You are going to have to start calling yourself the king of cases builder. These things are huge.

 

Some serious real life events have kept me out of the shop most of the week. However, I did manage to create a couple of patterns which I'll use to router out the holes for the 5.25-inch drive bays:




And I built a jig to guide my plunge router to router out the 3/16-inch slots in the 5.25-inch drive bay rails.








A full size drawing is taped to the .10-inch thick aluminum to guide the placement of the jig.







Two sets of stops are used to accurately position the router at the beginning and ending of each slot.

 

Fabrication of the 5.25-inch drive bay rails continues. After breaking all 3 of my 3/16-inch woodworking router bits I ordered some standard end mills and they have performed awesomely. Because they are run without any lubrication I needed to keep the feed rate really slow.




After many hours I managed to complete 28 out of the total 35 rails for this case.

 

That is incredible! Dam good work with a router!

 

Sweet! You just need to make sure it will fit through the customer's door!

 

Tired of routing all of the 5.25-inch drive rails, I switched to fabricating the PSU(s) mounting plate:




I made a router pattern for 5.25-inch drive cage.




And routered out the .10-inch thick aluminum.




The round corners were filed square.







Another pattern was made for the PSU mounting holes:





Here's the finished plate (it still needs to be trimmed to the correct final length):

 

Next up were the two internal mounting plates for triple 140mm case fans.




A 140mm fan was sacrificed for use as a router template:




3/4-inch aluminum flat bar was epoxied to the fan frame to keep it nice and square.




The jig was placed over a double layer of .10-inch aluminum sheet and routered out with a 1/2-inch flush/pattern router bit.




The finished cuts require zero filing/sanding.

 

damn thats some nice routing! your going to have to change your sig soon dude, "custom wooder case builder" just doesnt seem to do you justice now with all this ally work

 

I need to take some routing lessons from you. Those drive rails look outstanding.

 

Next up are the bottom mounting plates.




Which requires fab'ing yet another router jig.






The finished result:




Voigts, here's a grainy video of me routing one of the 140mm holes:

 

nice but wheres the hardware ?

 

I assume this means he'll only be building the case, and not filling it with awesome hardware...

 

Now that I know how wide the widest plate is, the PSU mounting plate was cut to size and mounting holes were drilled.




I'm really proud of how well this turned out.




Another plate requires yet another router jig.






Both plates were routed out of one big sheet because the big sheet is easier to clamp to the workbench.








A test fit: