Okay. so. I'm quite new at this 'serious' modding stuff. So I'm not sure the best methods for some of these things and I'm not terriblely well versed in the best tools needed for each job so I'd appreciate if one of you mod-guru's here can give me some advice here. first thing to note: I'm planning on starting very small and simple, as I see that as the best way to do this and not get overwhelmed.. second: the only parts I've bought sofar for the new rig are the powersupply and case ...both were quite cheap after rebate so I feel they will be fine to experiment modding on since I'm new at this. Here's the case that I bought. As you can see there is no side window. I think I'd like to cut out a side window in some form or another. Here's the side panel that I'd like to work on... as you can see there are two vent holes in it ..this poses a question for me... do I cut a rectangular window to the right of the vent holes? or if I do what I originally wanted to do, and cut a much larger window that intersects the vent holes? ...I'm not sure what I'd do about cleaning up the cut-into vent holes if i did that... front of the case.. comes with a silly plastic hinged door to hide the 5.25 bays... it comes off easy so i dont plan on leaving it on there pulling the front off you can see the motherboard cords as well as a nice long white cable that feeds down to a little I/O block on the right side of the casefront ... neat idea, but I'd like to move this I/O block to a better location more towards the top of the case like some of the Antec cases I've seen before ...however I dont see any obvious place to put it a little hard to see, but looks like the I/O panel is just held in by screws here so it shouldnt be hard at all to take this off and place it elsewhere on the case. there's this top 'lip' on the casefront right above the top 5.25 external slot.. which I'd like to place the I/O panel ..however there's really not a lot of room there unless I block that 5.25 slot off :-/ casefront panel see from inside... not much room :-/ so bascially im curious how else you folks think I could set up the I/O block?
hmm I suppose that's possible.. although the mesh for the circular vent hole protrudes outward from the side of the panel about 1/4" ..i suppose i could cut into it and then hammer it flat before i apply bondo.... hmm I'll have to ponder that some more ..that means I'd also have to do some more painting over the bondo I suppose ...i assume bondo takes paint well?
ok good ...will the bondo take the paint well if it's not sanded or do you just want it sanded so it doesnt end up all jagged and bumpy? as you can tell i've never worked with it before
I have never personally worked with it either but yes you sand it so it is smooth On cars you bondo the whole car then sand it all, most of it will be sanded off, it is just to fill in low spots Don't know if it is the same for PCs
Last but first. Bondo usally have some dull brownish colour so I would think you would like to paint over it after you're finished with the sidepanal/window. But first apply it to your vent holes, wait for it to cure, and then sand most of it of again, almost only leaving the bondo that sit in the holes and you should have a nice smooth surface to work with. And then you can use the whole of the sidepanel to cut just the shape of window you would like. But try to read some of the worklogs on this site. You can find many good exampls of what I try to explain.
I still do stuff! Rise From the Grave, Thread! ha... no, really, I actually have something to add to this... before tackling the above casemod, I figured i'd do a test-run of sorts with a case from my old Pentium III/450 machine. As you can see.. I did a circular cut to the side panel here with my dremel and after I saw all the mistakes I made cutting it, I decided to paint the thing. I also bought a few feet of rubber window molding at Home Depot and used some sort of epoxy glue we had around the house to line the edge of the cut I made. Sadly, the molding is not sticking all that well due to the curve I've tried to glue it down with.... I've already re-glued the thing once, so I'm not sure if it will really last.. Thoughts? Also, as you can see I still need to touch up the paint job (damn black cases always show all the dust too) ... also, I used my dremel yet again to cut out a pattern for vent-holes near the bottom (the existing holes are stupidly small). The pattern I cut looks *okay* from afar.. but examine it close up and UGH what a mess... I attribute this to the lack of a good 1/16" cutting bit.. I went to Lowe's and looked and looked, and i could come up with was a 1/16" titanium drill bit which I ended up using on Max speed. This pretty much ended up melting the plastic as I tried to cut it.. so it worked.... sort of ....Anyone have a good idea about how to clean the lines up for the pattern cut?
if i was you i would just cut the window very large( cut the vents and hand grove out altogether) and avoid using bondo as it will be more effort than its worth for this mod if you really want to put the usb ect at the top of the case i would get some male to female usb (and other things you want to use ) cables and then mod those into the top of the case ,as the space available is very limited edit: mambo case are a bit flimsy and the door is known to fall off
I agree with Butcher 9 9- Cut the grills out. THEN you can cut them up for fan grills, or something to put your switches in.
Hmm..quite possible, though half the point of this mod I'm attempting is just to learn different tools and techniques... though as you say - it may just be a waste of my time. male to female usb cable lines, hmm? I suppose that could work, yea.. though then i need to figure a good a way to secure them to the case front..whereas the I/O block already has some nice holes drilled in it for screws... hmmm ..must ponder more... And I agree about the case door.. it's real cheapo looking. what a great idea! I hadn't even thought of doing that.
