Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Aluminum Water Cooling Case

Another requirement for this case is a hidden door latching mechanism.

Look Ma! No latches!




A length of .125x.75-inch flat bar was bolted to the bottom of the door to act as a lip that will hook into the u-channel along the bottom of the case, for example:




Along the top of the door, there is a piece of angle with three "hooks", which were routed out using a cobbled together router template.






A thick piece of flat bar was filed down to where it'll slide easily inside the u-channel along the top of the case. To that three "posts" were bolted to it. When slid forward, the posts will engage the hooks.

 

nice work mate

 

Beautifully done panel mounting methods. rep

Very Lian-Li style but done in a dudes shed instead of a nice factory, awesome work Rich.

 

Awesome build! Great craftsmanship!

 

wow spots... great work!

your build thread has been quite informative as well!

btw, how did you install the self clinching nuts? (PEM nuts)

 

Thanks.

I simply drilled the appropriate size hole and squeezed it home using my bench vise.


A large area of the right side panel was cutout for a 16x15-inch acrylic window.

 

I made a mistake, placing the false back too far into the case, which required having to re-fabricate the back sheet. But I figured I could take advantage of the situation by improving the mounting of the motherboard tray, by fastening the tray to the false back with a 7/8-inch long spacer.



I don't remember if I already offered this tip before, but I try to reduce the wear and tear on my 1/2-inch flush cutting router bit by first rough cutting with a 3/16-inch spiral downward cutting bit.

 

A PSU mounting plate was routed out of a piece .10-inch thick aluminum sheet with the help of a custom template.

In order to accurately transfer the locations of the PSU mounting holes, threaded hole transfer punches (mcmaster.com part # 3385A31) were threaded into a PSU.






And then the PSU was carefully centered and pressed into the sheeting, with the end result being a perfect squarely mounted PSU.

 

great, nice punches !

 

Awesome work man, good details on that case.

 

Nice to see this still rolling on Rich, looking excellent.

 

Holy molly man thats SICK!!!! Excellent job !!!

 

Great work. Love the rounded corners

 

jejej nice actual build of the mick64 design (thats how i calll this 3 thermal area design)

i got some questions

1. how much does it weights

2. how much it cost to make and how much u are willing to sell ?

 

#1: It weighs around 50 pounds.
#2: Unless you think the SilverStone TJ11 is inexpensive, you can't afford this case.

 

wait wat?

the TJ11 inexpensive , your case cant be afforded ? what? dont get it lol


#2: Unless you think the Silverstone TJ11 is expensive, you cant afford this case.


there , i think i've fixed it

 

spotswood has it worded correctly.

the tj11 is a $500-600 case. unless you think $600 is cheap (inexpensive), you cannot afford his case.

BTW nice work spot!

 

Que? lol

ok i got it now lol

 

There's this saying in the jewelry world: If you have to ask how much that ring is; you can't afford it.

Same applies for stuff like this case.
One of + entirely custom fabricated +made to the client's own specifications = expensive.

 

IFixedThatForYou.

Loving the heavy-duty-fied OEM features. Those punches are a sweet find too.