Case Mod - In Progress Cosmos Cruizer - Final Pics!

For everyone's benefit I offer the side by side:

Amazing how such a little thing can dramatically change the look. And you are right for the better.

Just curious, what is in the corner of the acrylic (as seen below)?

 

Thanks Noob. (lol)

Thanks for providing the side-by-side comparison. I should have thought of that when I posted!

What you see in the corners is the epoxy putty I used to reinforce the joints. 1/8" acrylic sheet is pretty flimsy, especially when gluing pieces end-to-end like this. The putty is strong and light.

 

Jumping back onto the lower back panel to finish off the PSU fan grill area.

I last left off with bending the 1/8" aluminum bars to match the hinged fillport door up top. Here I cut out the portion of the panel that will be replaced with mesh.


Speaking of mesh, here it is, with curve to fit the rounded corner at the bottom of the panel.


Mesh fit into cutout area of panel.


And here are the alu bars with the ends bent to follow the lower curve. I also made end caps to join the ends and complete the design.


I clamped them all together with the correct spacing and marked the underside for screw holes.


In between bouts of drilling/tapping 2-56 holes in the 1/8" alu bars, I made the bottom acrylic piece that will pick up the two PSU mounting screws.


Finally, with all the mounting screw holes done, I could fasten the bars down.


And with the lower end caps in place. Still needs some adjustment here and there, and I will take care of that later.


Lastly, an overall shot of the back panel in its present state. Inching dangerously close to being done methinks!

 

wow... and that's just the backpanel...
looking great, I love the curved mesh and alubars, and they fit so well...

 

Bloody hell, clamp tastic ! That's sick dude.

 

Looks fantastic! Well done.

 

love those details, and more details.....

 

Those grills look amazing, nice progress since I last checked, completion will be a proper jaw dropper, is already in it's unfinished form.

 

Ooh fancy... and that is the back of the case!

 

This was pure awesomeness broth from the beginning and as it's boiling and reducing, the awesomeness turns into a a sweet, thick awesomeness SYRUP, which suits my taste buds pretty well.

 

LOL nutman that post was fresh-picked awesomeness, and NOT from a can. Love it! (and now I'm hungry..)

 

Was a beautiful weekend, so I took this opportunity to take care of an issue I had with the fiberglass panel that's been bugging me ever since I switched motherboards. I originally designed the panel to accommodate the EVGA X79 Cheesecake, but when I exchanged that for the X79 Dark, the graphics cards did not line up with the cutout anymore. Slot #1 is positioned differently, so now the first card interferes with the edge of the cutout. And widening the cutout didn't solve the visual problem.

As you can see here, the card goes past the "shock tower" of the panel and just looks like a mistake. It's been driving me nuts, so I gotta fix it!






This close-up shot shows that the HDMI ports are inaccessible.


Thanks to the forgiving nature of fiberglass, this is a relatively easy fix. I cut out the corner of the shock tower on both sides...


Then cut 5/8" off the right side and put it over on the left to fill the gap, effectively moving the corner over and widening the towers. I temporarily tape it all together from the back.


Then I tape it from the front and block it so the pieces stay flat.




Then I removed the back tape and proceeded to fill in the gaps with thickened resin. After a few hours of curing, I removed the blocks and tape.


Everything is filled in for the most part, and level with the rest of the surface. All I need to do now is apply a bit of bondo filler and sand smooth.


A slight set-back, but well worth the effort. My OCD is once again back down to nominal levels.

 

Bummer. I was hoping for updates twice a day.

 

Hey guys, got some updates for you. Yes, plural, as in more than one! I just got back from my vacation in Hawaii, and I'm refreshed and ready to make the final push to finish this project by PDXLAN 24 in July. I returned home to a bunch of acrylic pieces waiting and ready to assemble, thanks to Brian at Primochill/ModSmart. This update will cover one of the parts I got... actually two: Fan shrouds for both sides of the 240mm radiator.

I designed a shroud that would cover both fans, and incorporate a cool flame grill for them as well. Here are the pieces for both shrouds, straight from the laser.


I took the pieces for one of the shrouds and taped them all together. As you can see, it's just a simple box.


After some aligning, I clamped them down and glued them together.


A few minutes later and I could take the tape off.


It fits snugly around both fans. Only thing I had to do was cut some notches in the bottom to clear the alu mounting posts underneath.


Now here's the coolness factor... Flame grills! Cut out of UV orange, these will be glued into the circle cutouts of the shroud. I elongated the flames so the tips extend over the edge. That way I can glue them down and they won't be prone to breaking off.


I should be able to finish these tomorrow, as well as a few more part assemblies. So I'll have another update for you then.

 

MOAR!

 

Man I love this mod... I spent a summer interning at a street rod shop and looking at your pictures brings back memory's. I can almost smell the bondo!

 

Thanks AlderonnX. I can't help but smell the bondo... all the time lol.

Fan shrouds part 2: Flame grill bending

I wanted to push the flame grill concept a bit further and see if I couldn't get a more realistic 3D look by adding some heat. I grabbed a bunch of dowels, some craft sticks, and my heat gun and went to work.


A lower angle shows the curves better.


It doesn't take much to get the thin licks soft. I used the craft sticks to shield the other parts I just bent from getting soft again.


After finishing all the bends, I stuck it on the shroud to see how it looked. I made sure there was enough clearance between the fan and the flames.


Looks great but I'm not done yet! Time to add a second layer...

I had a bunch more extra flames cut so I could intertwine them with the first layer. I took individual licks and bent them according to where I wanted them placed.


Here's two pieces temporarily clamped together.


This took some time, as there was a lot of trial fits and re-bending. I ended up using three separate licks (a double, and two singles) to fill in the gaps, giving it a nice random feel.


A top view shows the depth well.


I'm loving this look!


And now I get to repeat it for the other three fans on this rad, plus the 140mm fan on the rear panel.

 

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I really like the idea but I would like to have seen a different color in one of those layers; maybe add some red or something.

 

I find myself avoiding your updates because they make my head explode.
Not sure if it would work, but airbrushing a bit of transparent red on the back/base of those flames might look cool. -Kind of a color fade cheat.