Case Mod - In Progress Project: LEXA

I have some updates for you guys.
First some modifications to the drive bays for cable management.
Here is the drive bay before modification:

After modification:


Next I have to expand on a pre drilled hole to make a piece of plexi sit flush.
Here is where the hole is (with mounting bolt still in it):

And here is the hole after some surgery (sorry about the bad pic, I guess you can't really see the hole):


Next we have a bent piece of mesh, no pics of the bending process but I basically used a rubber mallet and a bench vice/
Here is a pic of the bent mesh:

Here are a couple of pics how it will look when mounted:


Here is a pic of the mesh drilled and with the protective covers removed:

The mesh primed:

And painted:

And a final installation shot:


Ok now this is the final part of the update. I have to drill holes in the interior reservoir cover for tubing pass through.
Here is the piece of mesh, mounted:

Next I have to drill the holes, here is my trusty drill:

Well halfway through drilling the first hole the drill went dead, bloody battery, even the spare is dead.
Here is a picture of the hole so far:

Batteries charged and both holes cut:

I scratched the mesh a bit while drilling so I gave it a touch up coat of paint, looks much better now:

Rubber grommets installed into both of the holes:

And the completed mesh re-installed onto the drive bays:

And finally Here is a pic showing you how the reservoir inlet and outlet match up with the holes:

The hole on the right looks a bit out but it is just the angle the camera took the picture on, both of the holes line up perfectly.

Well guys that's all I have for you now, I am hoping to paint the drive bays over the weekend and get them into the case but I guess I will have to wait and see how that goes. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Ok guys like I said it's time for a very small update. School is back on (my final year YAY) so you will probably be seeing less of me but I will try to get you weekly updates.

Ok, on to the modding.

Here is the drive bay section completely dismantled and ready for it's coat of primer and paint:

And here is the piece being primed, well almost (I'll explain the "almost" later):


Well half way through priming this piece I ran out of primer (that was the "almost" ) and it may take a few days to get some more primer. Due to this set back I have nothing else to really show you guys but as soon as I get the primer I will finish priming and get straight on to the painting. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Well I painted those drive bays so here are some pics.
The finished priming:

Half Painted:

Completely painted:

Now it's time to add the plastic:

The front installed first:

And now the side:

Well I'm in a hurry guys so no more pics for now. Enjoy. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Well very little happening on my end. I am just getting bits and pieces together so when it comes time to put the case back together there is minimal fuss.

I have however done the final little adjustments to the drive bays.
I cut this hole to pass some molex cables through from the PSU to power all the fans, CCFLs etc. It is a bit sharp so time to put some fan hole molding on it.
Before:

After:


Next we have the hole I cut in the mobo tray and the PSU support.
Before:

After:


Here is the cut I made to allow fan cables to enter the drive bay area.
Before:

After:


While I was at it I decided to also cover one of the mesh edges that was visible on the drive bays.
Before:

After:


And finally to cap it all off, two progress pics.
Pics:

 

Well I just got back from my local hardware store. Yeah they had caster wheels but they looked like ass, crappy industrial ones or cheap plastic ones. I wondered around for a bit and eventually ended up where they display all the fastenings (door handles etc.). I found some awesome handles so I grabbed 4 and went and paid for them.
This is what they look like:

Closer shot:


My only concern about getting these is that they would be a bit too short...I was right.
Pic:

As you can see the original feet are about 3-4mm taller than the new ones.

To over come this issue I have decided to cut and polish 4 green plexi strips to go between the feet and the case...it was either this or chock it up with washers lol. The green plexi I am using in this mod is around 3-4mm thick anyway so they should end up around the same height.

Another issue I have found is with the front fascia. The front fascia has half of the front feet molded into the design. I don't want to hack up the front of the case so I was thinking of taking the feet off the rear of the case, add 4 new feet (2 front, 2 back) while still keeping the front feet. I think this will look OK because the top of the fascia overhangs so if the bottom does it shouldn't look out of place. This means the rear will be missing the overhang but this doesn't bother me because you will be able to see the radiator there anyway.

I am hoping to install these Thursday. We have sports day that day which I wont be attending and then Friday is Good Friday so another day off for me, just one of the percs of going to a Catholic school. So that makes a 5 day weekend for me (got Monday off also). Until then my friends...

Happy Modding...and a Happy Easter

 

While I had some free time I thought I would show you how the feet sit on the case.
Here is a distance shot of the feet under the case basically where they will be mounted:

As you can see the front feet aren't touching the metal. This is because the front original plastic feet are slightly taller. I will be making plastic spacers for each of the new case feet to bring them back up to the correct height.
Here is a close up image of the front gap:

And another with a different perspective:

As you can see this part of the mod isn't overly hard. I just have to drill some holes and cut some plastic. I am still undecided weather I am going to polish the plexi spacers or leave them "frosted" like the rest of my plexi pieces. Well more tomorrow guys. Until then...

Happy Modding and Happy Easter.

 

Another really quick update before the modding begins tomorrow.

Firstly I would like the thank b4i7 for his help with this design.
Here is a sketch I did quickly, it is out of scale but you get the idea.
Pic:

As you can see the spacer (will hopefully) look like this. I will cut the plexi into a shape hopefully resembling this. I will then mask off the ends and paint the center strip black. Then for something different I will cover the painted area with a piece if silver mesh. Also to make the green plexi glow I will drill holes in the case floor above all the green bits to let the interior UV light shine through and illuminate these pieces.

The next step was too see if I had any plexi available for this small mod.
Here is every bit of plexi I have:

The stuff on the left is green, the right is clear and the pieces at the bottom are white.
Here is all the green plexi that is usable for this mod:

I want to keep that big piece on the top right for another part of the case mod which I forgot about.
So here is what I have left to work with, easily done:

I should be able to fit 2 spacers on the un-protected piece of plexi, it is all scratched but there are 2 areas that are big enough that haven't been scratched. I should be able to fit one spacer on each of the 4 other pieces of plexi shown. So I can have 2 spare .

Well this looks like more work than I thought. I also have to re-mark those mounting holes for the case feet due to the size of the spacers, they would over hang the side of the case. Hopefully I can get all this done tomorrow, if not there is always Friday. Until then...

Happy Modding and Happy Easter.

 

Ok guys, I have made a start on my plexi spacers, here are some pics.
Firstly I drew up 4 identical templates on a sheet of graph paper, this way they will all be 99% the same.
Pic:

Here is a shot with a case foot roughly in place:

An aerial shot:

Now I masked off 2 good spots on my un-protected piece of plexi and glued a template onto each of the marked spots:

I then stuck the other 2 templates onto 2 more scrap bits of plexi:


Time to start cutting.
Here is the first spacer cut out, quite roughly I should add. Damn I wish I had a scroll saw, jig saws suck lol.
Pic:


Well that's it. Now I have to go cut out the other 3 spacers and then file them all smooth and sand them *sigh* well it will all be worth it...I hope. Until then...

Happy Modding and Happy Easter.

 

Well my final update for today.

Bad news is one of my spacers snapped while I was cutting it out.
Pic:

I have made another template and glued it to another piece of plexi.

Another bit of bad news. I was about to go out and cut this last bit of plexi but the rain beat me to it. I usually work in the shed but there is no bench space at them moment so I was stuck with working outside. I guess I just have to do it tomorrow, along with the filing.

Well at least I have 3 out of the 4 spacers cut.
Pic:


Well that's it for today. Before I go though, I will leave you with a teaser pic of what this will look like once completed.
Pic:

See ya tomorrow. Until then...

Happy Modding and Happy Easter.

 

Ok so I have cut out my last spacer.
Pic:

One thing I didn't realize while cutting was the backing paper had come slightly unstuck. Now I have a crappy cut on one side of the spacer.
Pic:

This shouldn't be a problem though. After I file and sand down the edges there shouldn't be that much difference along the line. I can always mount it with the bad side facing towards the center of the case and besides the mesh should mask it anyway. Well I might go do some filling now, I'm not promising anything though. Until then...

Happy Modding and Happy Easter.

 

Ok only a small update before I have to go out for an Easter lunch with one half of the family.

I have filed down two of the spacers. I did the one with the crappy cut first and it took me near an hour to do. The other one I filled only took me 20-30mins to completely file, and may I say it looks great.
Here is a pic of both the filed spacers (bad one on left, good one on right):


Well that's it for now guys, I may have more tomorrow but I have another Easter lunch so I don't know. Until then...

Happy Modding and Happy Easter.

 

Sorry I haven't updated in a while guys. I have been really busy but managed to squeeze some modding in this arvo.

Ok. I have filed down all 4 spacers so now I need to cut some mesh strips.
Marking the mesh:

The 4 cut strips of mesh:

There is a bit of filing to do but that can be done later.
Some sneak peek pics of how this should turn out:




I am still undecided whether to use 2 or 3 domed nuts to help hold the mesh flat. Do you think 3 is a little bit crowded?

Well that;s all for now. May have some more later this week, it's getting close to the end of term and I have ons of work to finish. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Time for a special birthday update.

I left school early today (had a double study after lunch, stuff staying for that) and when I got home guess what was waiting for me???
Yes you guessed it, my package from GAM Mods.

So this is what was in the package:

Here is my new radiator, 1/2" fittings and a fill syringe:

A sneak peak of how it will be mounted:

And a underside shot:

Plenty of room...well there is now since I removed the rear feet.

Well guys, time for me to get back to the home work and on my birthday too . I may finish off the feet this week and get the radiator mounted over the weekend. This is my last week of term so once I get this radiator mounted my work is almost done, then the whole thing can go together. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Well that's my worklog up to where it is at the moment. I hope to do some more work on it tomorrow. I hope you enjoy what I have done so far.

 

After reading through all of that, I must say it looks great. The combination of plexi and mesh appeals to me.
Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks 500mph. I am just about to go do some more modding so I should have an update later today. However it is raining at the moment so I'll see how I go.

 

hey boy 4rm oz... lookin great

 

Thanks mate, so is your mod.

 

Yay, time for an update.

Here are the spacers for my new case feet. They are marked with the mounting holes.
Pic:

The holes drilled:

But unfortunately, one of the cracked and broke while drilling. I wasn't even going fast.
Pic:

I had two choices in this situation, fix it or cut a new one; I decided to fix it. As it turns out the break was on the bit of the plexi which will be painted so either way you wont see the crack in the plexi.
Some super glue and 30 seconds later I was left with this:

Now it's time to drill the holes for the decorative bolts which also help to hold the mesh in place, I went for 2 domed nuts over 3 because after some consideration it looked a bit crowded.
Pic:

I drilled and countersunk the holes:

Perfect fit:


Well that's it for today. The rain is starting to set in now and I have no bolts to mount the mesh with so I'm not going to bother drilling the holes in the mesh just yet. Later this afternoon I may mark the floor of my case for mounting the radiator.Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Lookin good! Where did you get the rubber grommits and what were they originally used for?