Case Mod - In Progress Project Elite 360 Double Barrel *updated pics* August 9th

I've just started a mod. My objective is to transform a humble $39.99 chassis into a lanbox! I begin with a Cooler Master Elite RC-360. This worklog is also being entered into the Cooler Master 2009 Modding Contest. I am going to start with this small MATX style ATX chassis since this is my first chassis mod! I needed something manageable.

Going to add
- Red painted internals *done*
- Twin Aluminum Rail Handles to look like a double barrel shotgun *done*
- Custom Side window using HAF 932 window *done*
- Something else? (case feet maybe)
- LED lighting WIP
I just bought the case on Cooler Master Store as a refurbished since it will make no sense to get a new one and strip it down. Hopefully it will be done by September to enter into the CM 2009 Modding contest. Worklog beginning in June follows:

 

The first thing I had on the agenda is stripping the chassis. While I could paint it all as is, since I am only going to paint some of the insides red, I needed to drill out all the rivets. This task is much harder when the rivet heads get stuck in the drill bit. Is there a tool that can pop out a rivet in one go?

After drilling the case apart, it comes away in about 10 pieces! It's pretty simple. I then had to sand and scuff up each pieces so that my primer would stick. I ran into a problem with some greases and goos left on by the factory so I decided to give each piece a bath, that is why I have a towel on the floor. Sorry that is my heel of my foot there.

 

6/16

Once the surfaces were prepped and dry I could paint some primer on them. I put on a thick layer of Duplicolor self-etching primer. This primer was a little green, but it would allow my red to stick on quite nicely to the bare metal. I am roughing up the metal with a 600grit sanding sponge. In the future I would not use a sponge since all the bare hooks, screw threads and vent openings rip the sponge up.

Next I think I needed to sand a little using 360 grit wet sandpaper I bought at an auto parts store! Gotta love Pepboys, as they have everything I need for light modding! I made a homemade block using a 1x1 lumber piece. I stapled 360 grit sandpaper to this. I think I have to repaint my balcony.

 

7/4

I lost some photos of the inbetweens! But imagine here I am painting the third coat of duplicolor flame red SUV and truck paint. I've stripped it down and every week when I come home from work I use tack cloth and wetsand the paint. Then I apply a thin coat of red and let it sit over night. A whole week and this is done, and I am sorry I don't have pictures from this step. I will upload them later if I can find them.

 

7/9 Early Assembly Woes

I had a few problems riveting it together. The first is that a certain order has to be followed as opposed to ripping the chassis apart. I failed the first attempt to install the hard drive cage to the top of the chassis rather than to the motherboard tray at first. I learned that the hard drive assembly was originally attached to the motherboard tray first.

Then while putting it together, the force of the rivet gun can sometimes cause it to scrape against the chassis. Since this is my first mod, in the future I will cover the rivet gun tool head with the blue nonstick tape. I also borrowed a completely unmodded Elite 360 and used it as a riveting reference, a virtual map if you will, so I could conceptualize how it goes together.

I did my best to keep the chassis straight even when I had no clamps or jigs to hold it square. The Elite 360 is a small rectangular cube type box so I was hoping that it would rivet back together and still be aligned. Since most chassis are made with stamped steel, when un-riveted the stamped metal will contract or warp into their original forms. When I assembled it, I made sure to test it with a side panel. The panel slid on, so It looks true.

Also, the best size of rivet to use when installing is 3mm 1/8" rivets. I used arrow brand a 100 pack with white paint since it is good contrast with red and black. I think the contrast helped me see easier especially in tight areas of the hard drive trays.

One last picture before I install a side window. The red color is actually a bloody red that matches my carpet. The flash so close distorts the image color.

Notice I kept the top, sides and bottom unpainted since the factory black was a better finish than I could achieve. The theme is red and black anyhow and I think it helped since I didn't have to mask anything. It is my first time painting and modding after all.

 

looks good so far.

 

Nice start, looks good! Never seen that case before.. tis cute!

 

7/10 Brainstorming what comes next

Thanks for the comments guys. BTW I am just modding this chassis for fun, and not for competition since it is my first time.

Now that the chassis is painted and ready for other things. I decided to start cutting and actually working in the chassis. My motto framing my whole project is to create as much as I can, using refurbished and scrapped parts from other chassis. I did some shopping on CM Store and bought alot of promising replacement parts from other chassis. When I couldn't find it on the site, I submitted a spare parts request and bought it direct. Below are 3 exiting pieces of kit belonging to three different chassis that I am going to put in my mod

- 2 x Hollow Machined Aluminum Handle Bars (ordered as a special order refurb from the front panel of the Centurion 532)
- 1 x Side Panel window with security grid pattern (ripped from an HAF 932)
- 1 x Scrap of thick, acoustic foam insulation (ordered from a special order refurb from a Sileo 500)


The handle pipes are a really fine piece of scrap part. They are hairline treatment finish, solid aluminum and a diameter of about 2cm in diameter and 17.4" long (a little longer than the length of my chassis), and one of them is 1.5mm thick and the other is 1mm. If you look inside you can see they have two holes about 5mm apart that are threaded for the standard long chassis type screw (like the one used on radiators to attach a 120mm fan).



The tubes are really robust, and served no purpose hanging vertically on the front of the original 532 design by Cooler Master. In my RC-360, I will need to use them to bear the weight of the chassis and create a bracket that will be able to attach to the flat plane of the chassis top. This is compounded because I have no metalworking skills! I was thinking about using 90 degree bent lexan. I would cut a mini lexan book stand riser display in half and use both ends.


I need help:

- Any suggestions on how to securely mount the top handles to the chassis?
- Would Lexan right angles support the weight of the chassis AND be able to be screwed using existing holes 5mm apart?
- I don't want to use wood if possible
- I don't know how to create a bent frame with steel

 

I have included a sketchup view, but I am not so good at sketchup yet. Both aluminum bars have to run parallel to the top of the system chassis. Because of their length I will have to attach them using L shaped brackets on two sides (similar to a bathroom towel rack). Functionally they need to hold the weight and will be drilled with 4 small holes on the top and 2 holes on the bottom to bolt into the chassis frame. I need to know if I should use lexan/polycarbonate since they will be easy to work with normal wood tools, or use an aluminum right angle of which I do not have all the tools to cut and drill yet .

 

7/15 Doing the easy task before doing the hard task

I did something easy while I am thinking of how the top piece is going to work so I decided to put in the window. Being that the chassis is around 15-16" long it makes no sense to have a huge window. Also since the chassis is too narrow, I still need plenty of vents for air circulation for the video cards. So with this being said, I needed a small window exactly the width and length of the chassis that didn't cover the grills for the power supply or grill so I can maintain my cooling.


Here is where the HAF 932 window comes in! It fits the perfect size and includes the 10 holes pre-drilled as another bonus. I just had to tape it off very carefully since by installing this window I am cutting through and over a 120mm fan grill. While I lose the airflow over the cpu, I think the window fits my look even better than the HAF being its unique shape and grid pattern.


I taped off the window, and made sure to mark all the little holes. These holes I will cut out to match the windows holes. I need them to be clean so the window can close and also need them to be accurate since the side panel of this Elite 360 case warps a little when the side panel isn't on the chassis.


I simply make the cut using the dremel to eat a guideline for my jigsaw to follow up. Since it is my first time I screwed up if you look at the top left corner. I held the dremel too close to the chassis. I ended up scratching the finish with a long gouge from the spinning dremel chuck :shock: . I ran to the store, and got some flat black paint krylon general purpose paint to touch it up. I also had to file the edges of the chassis since they weren't so cleanly cut.



You can see the ragged areas where the grills were that I couldn't remove since I was worried about taking away excess material too close to the window holes. I used the CM stock plastic rivets which are easy, just push into hole and they expand and fix the window firmly. I got these as a Storm Scout part request and you can see that they add to the side panel's strength rather than taping it. Note the painting is a little flat in some areas because I had to use flat paint on top of the satin finish, next time I will use satin finish.

Viola, here is the final product of the first RC-360 + HAF 932 Frankenstein side panel.

 

I disagree about the tube serving no purpose on the original 532 chassis. I own a 532 myself and it sits in a desk cupboard that has a roller shelf built into the bottom. From my sitting position the tubes make for great grab handles for sliding the case towards me (when inserting a USB device, a CD/DVD or just for switching it on).

My only gripe about the handles is that the design looks wrong without a matching pair on the back. Fortunately my case is in a cupboard as I mentioned so you only ever get to see the front!

 

You are right. One of the aluminum bars has a chunk of the plastic still on it. Looking at that plastic tells me that the whole part was more sturdy than I thought. Do you ever use the handles to lift the chassis from the front? I don't know of anyone in USA who has this chassis.

 

7/18 Fun with no power tools, a hacksaw & a miter box

I decided to get to some real work of making something new tonight rather than just cutting and bolting. I am going to take these pieces of angled 1.5"x1/8" Aluminum stock and make my top right angled brackets for my handles.


I tape out the cutting area with painter's tape and the handle brackets are taking shape. Since I only can cut a 45 degree angle with the tools I have I decide to start by cutting the angle. The aluminum handles I have from the 532 have twin holes about 7/16" apart on center for screws. I will precisely have to drill 4 tiny holes in each aluminum piece.


I had a plastic part from the 532. I cut this original mounting out and made into a template. Using this I can trace a line and also place holes where the screw holes would be.


Now I traced these parts out I clamp them in my miter box and start using a hand tool to cut the aluminum. I can't afford to rent a miter power saw to cut a simple angle in 5 seconds, so I have to do it by hand which takes while longer. I use a fine tooth 32 teeth per inch aluminum cutting blade because I need to be confident I can have an edge that requires little or no preparation since I have no tools.


About an hour later I am working on the second cut for the other side. Then I also cut another piece off my stock to be almost the same as my first piece. Two hours pass slowly hacking away at the aluminum bar and I have a second piece.


Now I have two angles taped together to make it stronger. I may not have enough height clearance to get my fingers under the handles comfortably.


Now I can test fit for length using the brackets. My problem is that although it looks perfect lengthwise it may be too long. On the front it may overlap the USB I/O, on and off switch and the back part might extend past the chassis. I could position my screw holes on the very edges of the frame, especially on the back of the chassis since part of it will be outside the chassis. My dilemma is I could put my bolts into the chassis only if I attach them at the very end of the brackets or find a way to cut down the tubes at the exact same lengths. After cutting aluminum with a hacksaw for the last 2 hours, I favor leaving the length of the tube handles the same.




Next up I have a drill bit, two types of bolts and a clamped bracket. I am going to use 5x10mm hex head bolts + pressure washer and nut on the bottom of the brackets to hold it to the chassis. On the top I will use standard wood threaded .5" long screws. Monday I will have a chance to take this to a drill press and go to town!

That's it for now, thanks for tuning in to my first time mod so far .

 

that is really cool love the pipes.

 

7/20 Drill baby Drill

With both brackets marked and ready on Friday, I had to wait all weekend for the chance of getting the double barrel handle brackets drilled. I used a drill press and a metal drilling drill bit, and a drywall drill bit. Here are the final brackets and I will use m5 screws and locking washers to bolt it to the chassis.


Now using 8 cheap case screws it all fits together tightly. I will replace these case screws with screws that are 2mm longer. Only 2-3 threads reach the handle tube screws so I can't put any load on them. Leopard print notebook cooling pad for the win!


The rails are parallel and are spaced about .30" apart. The screws are ugly and don't match but its done :cheers: .


Using 1.5" aluminum angle stock to create my brackets I was worried about vertical clearance. Lucky they came out with enough clearance to fit my hands under them.


It is the perfect length for the top of the chassis so I drilled the holes farther towards the chassis. I can still bolt it firmly through the top of the chassis.



Tomorrow I get to, sand, file, prime and paint the brackets black. The rails will remain brushed aluminum, and the angled brackets will be black with black screws. I have plans for both of the rails.

Stay tuned Thursday for work on the front panel, and I/O. Wait till you see me use spare parts from assault rifles .
That's all for now guys, thanks for reading.

 

looks wicked mate.

really like the barrels.

 

7/23 a Cereal box and half a CM 690

Since it is so difficult to find real mesh, and my main design idea was to incorporate spare parts from many Cooler Master cases, I am going to use a CM 690. I bought the top panel lid for the large amount of real high quality steel mesh. To my delight it also comes with a high quality I/O that includes IEEE 1394, and ESATA. I plan to use these in the build as well as a cereal box.

This is the standard front bezel of the RC-360. Note the pivoting aluminum CM logo, and the louvered vents on the bottom. I will keep the vents and use the original structure. All I need to do is build a mesh fascia in front of the chassis front. I will also keep the logo but use it on a different area.


The cereal box will be part of my build . Note the removed pivoting CM logo.


I made a physical template so I can gauge how much mesh I need to salvage from the CM 690. The template will illustrate the amount of mesh I need to cover the full front panel of the RC-360 Elite.


The CM 690 looks like it has just about enough steel mesh to satisfy my needs even including the bends and folding of the edges.



That is it for tonight. Sorry for the infrequent updates. I am waiting for some parts to arrive in the mail I can't start on harder work again. The next update will be a goodie, so stay tuned! :blackeye:

 

7/24 Fun with Shotgun Accessories

I am continually inspired by the shotgun for this mod.


the work begins. Two beautiful stamped steel 12-gauge heat shields arrived today from Ohio. They cost about $17 per piece, and since they are designed for a real gun with the function of cooling off the barrel, I considered this a totally necessary part for decorating the plain brushed aluminum barrels. They are about 13.5" long, and universal for most shotguns with an 18" barrel, in my case my barrels are around 15" long.


Now these heat shields do not completely encircle the barrel since they have to make room for the cocking slide below it and the tube magazine of a normal shotgun. They are easy to setup. To install, simply slide the heat shields over the barrels and crimp the edges around it. Since this was hard steel I had to use a spring clamp to provide additional squeezing force to shape the steel. Vista.


The muzzle ends have a tab that must also be crimped to the barrel. Later twin hex screws can be tightened for that firm grip. These pieces will not rotate once tightened on with the allen key. The barrels are starting to look really sick now.


In this shot from the above and rear you can see the shields taper towards the muzzle since they are accommodating a real gun barrel choke/receiver area and tapered barrel.


I am using special 1" case screws that are only half threaded to hold the tubes in. The half threads allow for less friction on a longer length and penetrate deeply into the aluminum barrels. I tightened the back brackets deep into the chassis.


Now I tighten the front brackets and use my M5 hex bolts to bolt both the front and the back brackets firmly to the chassis. The handle isn't going anywhere now.


Tada :


The front panel is stripped of I/O for future use. I planned the handles not to be an overpowering statement yet since they are only 1.5" higher than the chassis.


Enjoy more angles of the mod. I will paint the screw heads black on the top of the mod brackets and I also plan on cleverly concealing the front screws in a special way that you will soon find out.


I am lucky that I got the side window is parallel with the double barrels for a powerful profile.


A top view, and I just noticed a funny observation that a double barreled shotgun doesn't need a heat shield since they fire too slow to overheat!


Macro closeup, you can see that the right barrel is slightly higher by 2mm. This was a drilling error on the brackets that I couldn't correct without remaking the whole top brackets.


Thats it for now! Thanks for the comments. Suggestions and improvement criticism are always welcomed. Stay tuned for the next update, happily brought to you by an assault rifle. :cheers:

 

dude you should definately mod a nerf gun into those barrels lol

looking deadly!

 

7/27 Preparation and Preforation

Today I decided to work on the front panel quickly since my imagination is running out and the CM 2009 modding contest is winding down. The plan for the front panel is to have it back-lit with matching oval vents similar to the double barreled handle.

I start with two patterns of openings that I created on illustrator and printed on copy paper. One is widely spaced, the other is closely spaced. I pick the less dense pattern because I will cut them by hand. I don't have the precision to do a more mechanical pattern.


Now I am taping the paper to the front and measuring it. My mistake is to not draw the holes directly on the plastic. Later this template gets shredded when I drilled it and distorts the original positions of the holes.


I drilled it pretty rough using a hand drill and no vice. Now I will use my pocket knife to file down the edges! I had a feeling my childhood toy would be useful for something someday! The plastic files very easily so I have to be careful not to remove all the materials.


It's done and straightened. Unfortunately it isn't precise like a machine. I am sad. I will cover this with a mesh fascia so it will preserve most of the effect.


Next I work on the back lighting in the system with an LED kit. The glow will be there. That's it for now guys, thanks for the comments!