Case Mod - In Progress Project: Reverse² [completed]

Thanks for the info, and keep up the good work. I can't wait to see how this turns out.

 

I love the colors you have selected for the mod. Excellent job mod on!

 

Thanks for the comments guys, keep them comming!

The window, take 2:
Cutting the panel, again:
So, I’ll be fair to you guys.. I was not looking forward to this task..
It was time to enlarge the cut window.

But, the window I had was perfectly cut, filed and sanded! It was just a bit (read: way) too small. In fact. I decided it should be at least 10cm taller.

So, after delaying the task for a few weeks (!) it was finally time to do it.
I got myself together, grabbed all my courage, and went for it.

This was how the panel looked:


I covered the panel with painter’s tape to prevent it from damaging:


I even taped the perfectly filed edges, just so I didn’t have to redo those:


Then came the time to measure (once, twice, heck! I even measured three times) the area to cut.
As said before, the hole should only get taller.


The came the cutting…
I wanted to drill a hole in the to-cut-area, but for some reason my Dremel wasn’t working properly.
It simply couldn’t drill a hole in the panel…

So, after a while I gave up.
And took the jigsaw to make a rough cut.

Of course, I was afraid the jigsaw would damage my panel, so it got the tape treatment as well!


So 4 layers of tape between the tool and the panel, should be enough.. right?

I said I would use the jigsaw to make a rough cut right? And when I mean rough…. I mean rough!


After using the jigsaw I needed to file/sand away 5mm of the metal!
But, I’d rather file for hours than mess up my panel.

I started filing like a lunatic, and after about an hour I was getting close.
I took off the masking-tape to check my progress.
Turned out I was about 1mm off at some places.

So, a piece of masking-tape as a guideline:


And off we go again!


3 complete hours after I started (it was dark at this time) I was finally done cutting, filing and sanding my sidepanel.


Throughout the day a lot of snow had fallen. And together with the snow that had been there for a few days and the dark sky….
You guessed it..

I took the panel outside for a high-contrast picture:

The black panel and the white snow… Aaaaah
Here you can also see the clean cut.

Soundproofing:
The Fractal Design Define R2 comes with excellent soundproofing material. It’s called Bitumen, and it’s very heavy (it also smells a bit).

So, I had taken the Bitumen plate out when I started the first cuts on the sidepanel, but I felt like sticking it back on. To keep it a bit more soundproof (HDD and DVD bays are the noisy parts.)

So I took the panel back inside, when I thought:
Aah damn, all that snow… Gotta wait for it to melt and dry before I can continue…
So my snow picture may be good, It took away a lot of my time..


Then I laid over the old Bitumen plate:


Turned the panel over and marked the window on the Bitumen plate.
Then I took about 3cm of clearance and cut the Bitumen.

This is also when I noticed the Bitumen smells….



Tadaaaaa! I’m done with that as well!
I’ll wait with sticking it back on, at least until I receive my Plexiglas for the window.


Done:
I took a permanent marker (sharpie) to cover up the plain metal on the edges. Looks like it was ment to be like this now!

After that I decided to clean the panel with some Glassex (Windex for you Americans) to make my fingerprints disappear.


Then stuck it back to the case, for the final look:


That shot was made with an angle, you can see the top and back fan guards through the window!

And of course, a shot from a 90 degree angle:


A shoutout to my sponsors, for making this mod happen:

 

Thats a window!

Damn good job.

 

Beautiful. That's a great looking case!

 

I hope it will work out great I just drilled up the rivets to remove the top temporary and now the hdd-bay is removed. Maybe I link some pics of it when i finished my mod.

I really like your window! Normaly I hate windows but yours was just big enough

 

What stonedsurd said.

 

An amazing mod with an amazing log, very well done!

 

doing a really good job man,
whats next?!

 

Thank you all very much!

Thanks man! I try to keep the log as entertaining and detailed as I can =)

Thanks!
Up next, painting.

 

How are you going to light up the front line? Getting a light with even brightness all the way down is going to be hard.

 

He could just put a CCFL-tube there, or a sheet of plexi that spreads the light evenly.

 

Diffuse Plexi...

 

Didn't know the name for that, so thank you!

 

I don't know for sure... I am currently discussing this issue with my sponsor (will announce this sponsor when i receive their stuff)

There is about 2mm of space between the 2 parts of the front panel.
There is no way a CCFL would fit there.

Yes, but is there orange diffuse plexi on the market?

 

Errrmm.... How about frosted Perspex. Stick some orange diffused LEDs behind it and it should look fairly even.

LEDs : http://www.phenoptix.co.uk/10mm_Orange_Diffuse_LEDs_p/10-dif-ora-4500.htm

Perspex : http://www.plasticstockist.com/index.cfm?Page=cHJvZHVjdHM=&sector=MTY=&Group=Mzg=&SubGroup=MzgwMQ==&Code=MDNTMjAwMA==

EDIT: Or polypropylene may be better, 1mm thick and comes naturally frosted.

Polypropylene : http://www.directplasticsonline.co.uk/PolypropyleneSheet/1mm/

 

Bump...

 

I have already ordered some plexi (smoked and orange)... Will try to get the desired effect with the orange first.. If that doesnt work I'll have to be inventive =)

 

Happy for you, mind sending me the link of where you found it ( if on-line). Looking forward to the first pictures of the lighting.

 

The orange has been ordered (at the start of this project) at BouwPlastics.nl, but they have a DB-error atm, so i can't give the exact link.
I just ordered the smoked plexi at WSV Kunstoffen today, after receiving excellent samle's of the stuff.

=)