Modding A real guide on how to cut AND drill plexi/acryl is needed!

if your looking at those long slots that were made, it looks to me that a hole was drilled on each end of the slot (after being carefully marked) and then a dremel or some saw was used to cut the rest out, because it is hard to use a drill like a dremel or router

 

if you're just drilling a hole though, you might want to make a dent where you want the hole first, to prevent the drill sliding around when you press the "GO!!1" button. Not sure how you'd go about it with acrylic, but in wood i just get something pointy and stab it.

 

Most of these questions are answered in my Guide: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=90412

Rotary tools generally suck at cutting plastics due to friction-related melting. One notable exception however would be non-abrasive router bits.

1. Not really, a bandsaw is much more suited for cutting plastics.
2. You have to use a plastic-specific blade

ANYTHING you are drilling will progress more effectively if you use a center-punch (or alternative) to mark where you need to drill.

No. hot-wire cutters are meant to be used with plastics similar in composition to styrene which is much less dense than acrylic or polycarbonate.

The tool most effectively used to make slots like the ones pictured would be a mill, but few people have access to those. A more simplistic combination would be a drillpress and scrollsaw. You would simply need to drill a hole large enough to fit the blade through to cut the rest of the hole.
Some router bits are capable of doing the same thing, but I have limited experience with router tables.

 

to drill plexi you can buy special bits for it or use an older blunt drill bit and that works fine for me, go slow and be careful at the end of the cut when it comes through the other side, thats when it breaks. to make a bit for drilling plexi get a cheap drill bit and just drill it into concrete first and that should blunten it enough

thoes slots were cut on a laser cutter

 

also a router could be used for shaping plexi, i have done it many times and it works very well, i used to make plexi and aluminium flames with the router

 

Use a dremel to cut out a line or drill several hole. Widen the area to your specifications with a filer and some sandpaper.

 

Hmm, that doesn't sound stupid, but neither do I have a drillpress nor a scrollsaw BTW: Thank you, all of you, for taking such interest in my thread.

That picture might be a little bit missguiding, because the HDD-mounterholes look like narrow and square slots, when what I'm after are broader and roundend slots. But I figure that I only need to drill some holes in a row and just join them together using a file or whatever.

 

Hi guys! these drive bay columns are from our (AC Ryan) acrylic casing. Versteeg, a leading modder in The Netherlands, had requested for these columns for his mod. He sawed them off to size and placed them there (as you see in the pic) - we thought it was a very creative idea. Since then we had a lot of positive reaction and also much user request for them. So we have decided to ship these drive bay columns separately for modders starting from Oct. If you have more questions about them, post them here - I will be watching this thread

Big Sturl - sounds like it should work - drill n file, simple and effective. dont forget to drop some pics here or email to our gallery

Ken - AC Ryan Team

 

are those columns attatched by default so as to fit 5.25" devices, or only hd/floppys? also, if you guys could make a pre-cut acrylic back (io shield, power supply holes and pci slots) i think it would make many peoples case work much easier

edit: nm, it seems like the 'columns' are just 2 sides to mount any device between, correct?

 

As they're installed in the case you normally mount the hard drives using spacers. So if you were to seperate them from the case you could attach them directly to optical drives, or hard drives.
http://www.acryan.com/_casing/index.shtml

 

Whoa, my thread got attention! Hihi, before I read what you had written, I thought that you were after me, that I had violated a copyrigth or something by posting a picture that I hadn't got approved. But thank's for only having positive messages.

Of course, I would very much like to make those holders my self, but considering me not being a skilled modder, prefabricated comes in handy. For those of you that are interested, I'm planning a mod where I want to incorporate a Lian Li case and red details , not very unlike Mod Squad's mod, but more cheesy CCFL's!

 

wajt / Captain Slug > yup, they are just columns to mount any device in between. The horizontal spacing of the slots has been redone to match both 3.5" and 5.25" devices. Fix them 3.5" apart and uve got them for 3.5" devices. Fix them 5.25" apart and uve got them for 5.25" devices (and 3.5" using standoffs / spacers). Fix them 2 feet apart... er... I wouldnt be surprised when we eventually see something coming out of that. We're just making stuff - u guys twist them and make them cool

wajt > the same acrylic back in our acrylic casing is gonna be available separately too.

guys, what's happening is that we've been on a re-invent road. Nothing big, just taking good ol products everyone is familiar with (like roundcables, acrylic casing) and giving them a simple "re-invent" twist.

So the acrylic casing is gonna get a new "re-invent" life as prefab parts. Some new prefab parts will be also introduced. Hopefully you guys will find some use for them in your mods / customs. Or someone might glue those prefab parts into a "lego world of art" lol.

Big SturL > keep on modding!!
u might wanna check out our highly unpublicised "modded with" page:
http://www.acryan.com/moddedwith/index.shtml

grtz, Ken - AC Ryan Team

 

Hmm, well thank's YET again for the interest and enthusiasm. I have previously viewed that page Ken, and it was TomVersteeg's casemods that inspired me to do something of the same fashion. What I want to know, is how he managed to fit the green acrylic between the bezel and the case. THAT is something I want to do on my mod, but with red acrylic.

Heres what I'm talking about:


By the way, Ken, you from AC Ryan, how is the color on your red acrylic panels? Is the color light or dark?

 

hopefully with an option for power supply holes on the top or bottom

 

If people still are interested in helping me: can someone tell me how the green acrylic was fitted between the bezel and the case, still being able to mount the bezel back on? (View the picture 2 posts above). Thank you

 

My guess would be that the front cover was trimmed down by the thickness of the plexi, then the relevent holes cut out for the bays etc, and the mounting holes. Then you should be done, but a lot of accuracy is needed for that amount of cutting.

And can I point out, it is a lot easier to cut through acrylic with a SHARP drill bit and with the drill on full speed. This way the drill rarely slips and will just cut straight through the plastic for a neat cut. Just make sure that the plexi you are drilling through is on a bit of wood, with no old drill holes under the part you are drilling on, this ensures that the plexi will not crack!

 

Big SturL > I've seen the mod IRL and kinda know the theory of doing it - but have not done it myself. Let me try to get in touch with someone who has done it and I'll pop back with some notes. Meanwhile, keep up the ideas and suggestions.

The UVred AcrylPanels are like those used here : http://www.acryan.com/gallery/modheadz2fAcE/index.shtml

Wajt > not quite sure what you mean by "an option for power supply holes on the top or bottom". one end is motherboard, the other end is power supply. If you flip it around, the psu becomes bottom (as in the 2fAcE mod in the link above). Is this what u mean?

Grtz, Ken - AC Ryan Team

 

edit: nm, yeah thats what i meant

get those parts out to the us soon

 

Hmm, it seems very pink. But that's probaly due to the CCFL's. Got a "red" one myself, and i can asure you, it doesn't glow red...

 

red ccfl > that's a result of the "overboost" to give the ccfls extra brightness - works great with blue, green etc. but red is a "dark color" so when its boosted with brightness you get er... "light red". I can say its not pink because we've got pink (when we experimented with "sisters" productline of spicy pink stuff lol) and its not the same as this light red. anyway, I do agree with you that its not the dark red you have in mind - it seems to be a general "industry problem" affecting red ccfls.

uvred acryl > uv red is a $%^& because there are shifts in color under daylight and uv glow. if it's red in daylight, the uvglow shifts towards orange. if the uvglow is red, then the daylight color is shifts towards light red. so we tuned a balance in between those two. I have to say the uvred glow in uv is good, imo.

acryl between front bezel & case > contacted ppl who have done the mod, waiting for a reply. in the meantime, readers... please continue to post when you have ideas / suggestions about how to do it