Case Mod - In Progress The Rose - PDXLAN Pics

That is precisely the plan! That's why I did more of a side shot of a rose for this cutout rather than the straight facing roses like all the others.

 

Got the PSU power plug hole roughed out last night.


A closer up shot.. I had to widen the bottom of the rose a bit more, so it matches the width of the power plug opening. Still gotta clean up the edges a bit.


Here's a shot with the green power cord. This is just a photoshop mockup, to see how it will look with the stem.



I'll be mounting the PSU so it will sit flush with the panel. But I'll be securing it to the floor so there won't be any visible screws on the back side.

 

Got a bunch of little things knocked out last week and over the weekend. First up was to mount the SSD's.

I originally thought a nice geometric shape would be cool, so I broke out the circle template and worked something up..


But then I realized that it didn't quite fit the theme, so I scrapped that idea (but will keep it for future use) in favor of a more organic design..


Satisfied with the new shape, I went back to the scroll saw to cut it out.


Cutting complete! After a quick de-burring with the files, it's looking better.


SSD placed in the center for marking the bend lines.


..and bent!


SSD's in for fitting..


.. and taped in place on the back of the angled panel.. plenty of clearance between it and the PSU.


Next up was to trim the main panel so the side panel will fit around the back edge and close fully. I cut about 1/2" off to make room for the side panel's rear lip, but left the area in the center where the grab handle is.


Side panel on and closed..


Close up shots of the tight fit.. the corners were just a tad tapered.


Here's the handle inset..


I also made the PSU cover to clean up the back area. I welded mounting bracket onto the back panel just above the PSU grill to give the cover something to fasten to, and folded a lip at the bottom and screwed it down. I also made some notches along the back edge for the 24pin, 12v 8pin, and SATA cabling..


Lastly, I got the D5 pump mounted at the front of the case. Pretty basic stuff, just using the stock mounting bracket.




Work continues.. thanks for reading!

 

SSD Rack came out pretty neat. My first impression was that it looked like one of the really bad flame-job cuts I've seen around.
Power cord stem: You cheeky b*stard.

 

that SSD rack design is killer, brian...

 

Wow it's been a month since my last update! Gonna have to step it up, or else my daughter won't have a rig to game on come July.. and we just can't have that now can we!

Did some modification to the front bezel, in preparation for a large viewing area for the rose res. Had to cut away some material, and remove all evidence of door hinges.


After the extraneous material was surgically removed, I added a piece back in at the bottom to hide the pump area. It might also be a good location for a back-lit graphic or text of some kind. ;-)


Speaking of lighting, there will be pink leds behind the slots on both sides of the bezel, diffused by these acrylic bars I added.


The bottom piece was glued in, then copious amounts of bondo was applied to smooth out the seams as well as the top grill pattern. For the hinge openings, I cut pieces of ABS to fill them in, then sanded them flush before adding the bondo.


Once the bondo cured, I sanded it down, starting with 80 grit, then going to 120.


It was finally time for the first coat of filler primer...


Test shot on the case. I'll sand and prime once more to make sure the front is nice and flat.


While the bondo is out, I might as well start on filling all the spot welds and corners on the main panel. So that will be next on the list.

 

Working on the front rigid tubing.. I had originally conceptualized a curved manifold of sorts, but couldn't figure out a good clean way to secure it to the gpu block without gluing it. So I opted to do rigid tubing for now.

I first made a paper template of the curve between the top bulkhead fittings and the GPU block. I wanted a smooth constant bend with no straight areas.


Some extra thought had to go into the pieces that feed the CPU block, as I wanted to maintain the overall curve with the two tubes.


Using the smallest bend radius, I managed to achieve the correct angles to fit the block's inlet & outlet.


The other line was pretty basic, just one long bend. I cut a piece of wood from the paper template, and taped the tubing down as I went along with the heat gun.


After a little end trimming I got the piece to fit nicely.






I love how the two pieces flow out of the back of the panel!


Now to move on to the back to finish the rest of the tubing. Stay tubed!

 

What the hell I was doing when you starde this mod

Nice idea the green power-cord

 

Pun judges give you an overall of 5. -Blame the Russian judge that only gave you 1.5.
Nice curve. This is probably cleaner than a curved manifold would have been.

 

It was merely a typo, but then deemed appropriate so I left it.

 

Nice Work on the front bezel and tubing.

 

Thanks man!

For the top of the case, I wanted to replace the magnetic mesh with something a little more substantial (and paintable), so I rummaged through my pile of left-over parts from my previous Thermaltake builds and found an extra case panel from which I could harvest a slotted section.

Using the old mesh as a template, I centered and marked around it.


Jigsaw cut-o-rama..


File and sand-orific..


Din done diddly!


I also removed the magnetic strip from the old mesh and applied it to the new metal grill so it stays in place.

Next up is the back panel windows, and more tubing.

 

And now for something completely different..

For the back panel, I wanted to showcase only specific features, and hide the uninteresting and boring parts. So Instead of one huge window, I'm doing two smaller openings to focus on just the cool stuff.

After a ton of measuring, I settled on the shapes and locations of the two windows, and masked them out on the backside of the panel.


Cutting out the SSD window first, I started with the rounded corners and finished off the straight cuts with the almighty jigsaw.


For the more complex shape, I opted for the scroll saw.


Windows cut! You can probably guess what the zigzag window will be featuring..


Here are the SSD's mounted within the window..




Now comes the fun part! Matching the rigid tubing bends to the curvy lines of the window. In order to do that, I needed to make a jig that follows the curves..


Using that wood jig, I'm able to make the slight bends, one by one.. Here's the top line that goes to the radiator:




The lower line took a lot longer to do, since it was much longer and with multiple compound bends. Not only does it turn down 90º, it also bends inward following the slant of the main panel.




I think it matches the window's curve quite nicely..


..of course the pump area will be dressed up, and both windows will be lit accordingly.


Will be prepping for paint the rest of the week, and hopefully will be shooting some candy violet on Saturday!

 

Holy moly macaroni!!!


T H I S - I S - I N S A N E !

I love it! Looking forward, rather, can't wait to see more

 

This windows appears to have been designed for LED strip lighting. Keep up the fantastic work.

 

Thanks guys!

One more update before painting begins this weekend.. Had to make one more bracket, the main IO that will cover the ports on the motherboard, and extend down to the video card as well to provide support.

Here is the cardboard template I made, copying the holes from the actual IO panel that came with the motherboard. Then it was just a matter of extending it down to cover the DVI, HDMI, and displayport on the EVGA video card.


Here is the aluminum version along side the template. Unfortunately, I didn't pause to get pics during the drilling, cutting, filing, and sanding. Pretty standard stuff anyways. ;-)


With the 90º bend along the bottom edge of the piece, I'm able to screw it into the motherboard tray so the fasteners are hidden under the mobo.


Couple close up shots of the top and bottom part of the bracket.


I like utilizing the DVI screw heads to secure the card to the bracket. Here I was able to use 3 out of the 4 screws.


I'm thinking I should add another small bracket at the back end of the video card for added support, but I'll have to drill into the water block to do it. It being a smaller GTX970 card tho, I'm not sure I'll need it.

 

First, there were hoses. Then came straight tubes. Then you made woogly tubes.
We've gone full circle.
Awesome result, but you should have made the tubes first and traced them to cut the panel.
I/O is sweet. Expecting a laser cut mobo cover now.

 

great craftmanship.

 

If you don't want to screw into the block you could consider making a clamp on the bracket.

That I/O bracket is brilliant.

Unrelated, I still get a chuckle when I read your signature. How many years ago was Neptune's Trident now?

 

Longer screws and an add-on plate are also an option.