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Scratch Build – In Progress Homemade Alu case /w copper highlights. FINISHED.

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by legoman666, 9 Jan 2008.

  1. cheezeit

    cheezeit What's a Dremel?

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    Looks great! A little too many screws for my liking though, imagine if you just wanted to add a hard drive to your case. You'd have to screw screw screw screw. At least you know your side panels will never fall off :D

    Some great workmanship there though, keep up the good work!
     
  2. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    love the mesh above the PSU, the rad side looks awesome with the screws, great work
     
  3. Dutchgrass

    Dutchgrass a what ?

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    Looking really good so far,

    I can't wait till your finished, it's still a bit of a surprise package with it all taped up :thumb:
     
  4. legoman666

    legoman666 Beat to fit, paint to match.

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    Taken from [H]:

    Believe me, I know ;) You're pretty observant to pick up on it. I tried not to show it much in the pics.

    The front right corner is bent upwards because the piece aluminum tubing in the corner underneath it is a little too big (tall); nothing a few minutes with a file won't fix. But the screws are an entirely different matter. :(

    The top panel was the first one I did. As such, I hadn't perfected my methodology yet. First, I measured and drilled the holes in the frame itself. Then (completely seperate) I measured and drilled the holes in the actual panel. As you can imagine, they did not line up. With the panel in place on the top of the frame, I redrilled the holes as best I could. As a result, some of the holes in the panel are too big, some of the screws are crooked, and some of the holes in the frame have no threading. I was thinking of redoing the top panel, but wasn't sure how I could drill the holes in the new panel to match the existing holes in the frame. Nor would the holes in the frame be any better (that is to say, some of the screws would still appear crooked).

    I think making a new top panel (I have plenty of scrap sheet left over to do it) would be best and putting "fake screws" in the bad holes would look good. If fact, that's probably next on my list of things to do because on top of everything above, the hole for the radiator cut in the current panel doesn't match the fan grill.

    Lol, that hadn't occured to me until I had taken out and put in all of the screws on several of the panels a few times. I've though long and hard about how to make the right side accessible but still keep the screws there to match the rest of the case. I never really came up with any decent ideas short of not putting any acrylic in the window.

    Another idea I had was to cut out part of the panel and hinge it or use magents to keep it in place, but it would never look good. If I used the table saw, the width of the blade would eat too much material. If I used the jig saw the cut wouldn't be entirely straight. And regardless of what saw I used, the gap created by the material eaten away by the blade would never look proper.

    So I am open to suggestions. :cooldude:
     
    Last edited: 18 Feb 2008
  5. NysoO

    NysoO Handcrafted

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    Hey man, you have got some really nice work going on here. I was actually thinking of building a case using the same type of framebuild.
    A quiestion though, how do you cut out the panels? They seem to be very straight and nice.
     
  6. legoman666

    legoman666 Beat to fit, paint to match.

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    For the long cuts that are highly visible, I use a combination of a table saw and a radial arm saw. For smaller things I've been using a bandsaw. To cut the tubing for the frame, I've been using a mitre saw.
     
  7. DoOb's

    DoOb's Overclocker/Modder

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    This case is SExy, THats the only word that describes this case.

    Everything is so precise and perfect.

    One thing i would do is replace the PSU fan there with a 120mm fan. Otherwise, as ive read Flawless
     
  8. legoman666

    legoman666 Beat to fit, paint to match.

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    Thanks for the kind words.

    Actually, the PSU in the pictures is just my testing PSU. The actual PSU that I will be using has a 120mm fan in it.
     
  9. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Ouch! resoldering the mobo plug! I would have went the lazy way: Cut a seam out on the backside of the pipe, and feed the lines through 1 at a time.
    The whole rig is looking awesome. Kinda bulletproof too.
     
    Last edited: 18 Feb 2008
  10. legoman666

    legoman666 Beat to fit, paint to match.

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    .... you should have made that suggestion a week ago, lol.
     
  11. legoman666

    legoman666 Beat to fit, paint to match.

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    Update 15!

    Worked on the case for about 6 hours today...

    [​IMG]
    Got the feet attached yesterday. They go well with the case, don't they?

    [​IMG]
    4 screws on each set of wheels. The rear wheels even have a locking mechanism.

    [​IMG]
    I cut the hole for the pump relay plug.

    [​IMG]
    I cut off the corner of the panel to allow the pump relay power cord and the fan power cable to go below.

    [​IMG]
    Here's the pump relay mounted on the bottom panel with some thick double sided tape. I might put in a switch so I can easily turn the pump on when the computer is off.

    [​IMG]
    The pump in place.

    [​IMG]
    Here you can see the placement of the fan controller. I measured for where to drill all of the holes, marked them on the panel and then drilled them.

    [​IMG]
    Here's the intent.

    [​IMG]
    Only then did I noticed I drilled them on the wrong side. In this pic the correct holes are on the right and the wrong ones on the left. What to do?!:duh:

    [​IMG]
    I took off all of the tape and sanded the panel.

    [​IMG]
    I made 2 small mounting brackets to keep the controller in place and attached them to the frame. The panel will still be removable without mucking around with the fan controller.

    [​IMG]
    Here's what I did with the extra holes. It should look OK even though part of the copper triangle that goes in this corner will overlap part of the hole.

    And thats where I stopped. Comments? Questions?
     
  12. legoman666

    legoman666 Beat to fit, paint to match.

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    I kind of meant for them to be more or less stealthed. They are still turnable. However, if I had done what mpilchfamily suggested, you wouldn't be ale to see the holes around the knobs at all, which would have been a plus. Not a bad idea but then I would have to take the knobs off to take the panel off (not much more effort than the ~40 screws I'll have to remove to do it currently)

    My original plan was to drill the holes in the side panel, cut some circles out of aluminum and glue them onto the knobs on the controller and flush with the panel. However, I decided that I would never get it looking 100% correct, so I opted for my current implementation.

    keep the comments coming!
     
  13. theAlien

    theAlien I know what a Dremel is....

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    I like the way the knobs just barely come through the panel.......looks great :thumb:


    there is also the possibilty to change the copper triangle if it overlaps to much.......


    Alan
     
  14. badders

    badders Neuken in de Keuken

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    If I were you, I'd use the previous idea - Have 4 screws holding the panel on, but epoxy the rest of the screwheads on, so it looks like you've got 40+ screws to undo.

    Looking really nice - all the screws make it look kind of pressure-sealed!
     
  15. legoman666

    legoman666 Beat to fit, paint to match.

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    yea I think I'll do that, but more than 4. If only the corners are screwed down, it rattles quite a bit. 8 screws should probably suffice.
     
  16. jhanlon303

    jhanlon303 The Keeper of History

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    Use only the real ones you NEED and fake the rest. Too many can become crooked. Your case. Coming along nicely.:rock:
    John
     
  17. legoman666

    legoman666 Beat to fit, paint to match.

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    Update 16!

    I finished the back panel. Free cookie to the first person who can point out the mistake I made.


    [​IMG]
    I took off all of the tape and sanded it.

    [​IMG]
    Got a nice ACRyan black aluminum fan filter from www.performance-pcs.com.

    [​IMG]
    Dual video card sweetness. Not crossfire, I have 3 monitors so I just use my old x1800xt to drive 2 and the HD3870 to drive the main screen.

    [​IMG]
    TDX on the Q6600.

    [​IMG]
    I uncovered and sanded the lower-inner panel.

    And that's where I stopped early today, I had to go outside and plow the driveway, big snow storm. Comments? Suggestions?
     
  18. 500mph

    500mph The Right man in the Wrong place

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    PCI slot/hole cut to big.

    Otherwise, it looks great.
     
  19. legoman666

    legoman666 Beat to fit, paint to match.

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    No it isn't, the cards need to be able to fit through that slot to be screwed to the pci bracket thing. I can post a pic explaining what I mean tomorrow, its kind of hard to put into words.
     
  20. Attila

    Attila still thinking....

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    The screws down the back panel don't line-up?
    Looks like they were measured top to bottom one side and the reverse on the other,
    though it's hard to tell.
     
    Last edited: 22 Feb 2008

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