Scratch Build – In Progress Project Air Cube v2

Oh i saw aluminium warehouse aswell maybe i'll just buy from them its very expensive here for angle!

Thanks for the info did'nt mean to jack your idea just i love it!

 

Aaaaargh, that was a close one, was in the middle of writing my message for AnG3L & my pc just shut down from overheating, forgot to plug the cpu fans in , all is ok though luckily .

Been working on making all the grills on the front of my case clean by heaps of sanding thanks to some new motivation so there will be an update in a few days with a much cleaner panel.

When I said I'll leave it as is I just lost my motivation to properly finish it, well it's back on .

I'll also be making a light box for taking better pictures .

 

Epic!

 

My modding journey so far, a recap & finale - Part 1 of 3.

My modding journey so far, a recap & finale - Part 1 of 3.

The reason I jumped in at the deep end doing scratch builds is because every single case I ever bought I found it could do with some cooling mods doing to them so I thought why not just make my own, tried cad programs & couldn't take to them, then I found google sketchup & were soon making models that I knew were possible to do in reality with my tool set, hail google sketchup, without it unprofessional people like me might not have gotten into designing & building our own cases/stuff.

I started off just doing it for functionality but after hanging around tbcs & bit-tech for a bit & seeing everyone elses mods I started coming around to appreciate the fine attention to detail people were putting in & started seeing it all as high quality modern art that I could highly appreciate because it's functional as well as great looking, more & more modders are raising the bar of excellence so I thought I should put more effort into the looks also, but still I put form & function 1st, looks 2nd, looks take longer to achieve .

So, it all started from just doing blow holes in pre-made cases & wire management holes with a dremel, I remember it being tricky to handle but with more practice it makes near perfect & then with files & sanding can make perfect, not laser perfect but human imperfect perfect lol .

I like to make a premium case for the price of a mid range case which is another part of why I don't go the machined route & powder coat/custom paint route, I have to say though it would be a total buzz to use a bigger budget so I could rule out tool restrictions in designs.

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My tool set - for anyone wanting to know

I'm quite lucky as I only had to buy the bits that say "woo hoo" next to them.

A work space of about 5 foot by 8 foot, gets like a game of twister in the thick of modding lol.

Manual tools
Small but useful work bench
4 Quick clamps woo hoo
5 C clamps
6 squares woo hoo
Rulers woo hoo
Good range of files
60, 240, 600, 1200, 2000 grit sand paper woo hoo
Vice
Cheap sheet metal folder woo hoo
Hammers/mallets
Wrench tapper woo hoo
Manual mitre saw woo hoo
Hack saw blades
Pop rivet gun
Rivet nut gun that I haven't found a use for "yet" woo hoo
Various drill bits, countersink bit woo hoo
Razers

Power tools
Chomped my way through 5 dremels woo hoo, no more, they die too easy & cost too much to keep replacing.
Bench grinder adapted to use polishing mops & modified to keep cool
Drill press
Cordless power drill & 2 batteries
Cordless sheet metal shears woo hoo
Hot air gun woo hoo
Air compressor that needs a new gasket which is hard to find so I'm going to use gasket high temp silicone or make one.
Air dremel, an absolute breath of fresh air compaired to dremel.
Air gun - perfect for cleaning solid dust from a pc to make like new.
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Picture time with brief discriptions.

Badly planned & executed 1st case, was trying to mimmick the Lian-Li X2000 when it hit the news, mine had some flaws & looked pretty awful in comparison lol , but I like the fact that my 1st case was this horrible as I really feel I have progressed nicely + I think I did the 1st 1 over a couple of weeks.




When I got a cheap sheet metal folder, my 2nd case made entirely with sheet aluminium & a bit of body filler & pop rivets, it cools all the components really well but lacked strength & was made pretty fast.





Latest which I am very happy with I started using a drill press & combined some of what I learned from my 1st & 2nd case & added some new tricks, spent a couple of months last year making it, then got back to it from feb to the completed project now, I intend to make a low power media pc before I make a completely new gaming case to fill the spot on top of the stack.

Went from this pile of raw goodies.



To this







Mobo tray by me, pci/io piece from a lian li case which is the only bit not made by me in this build.


Did this but at the time I was planning on polishing the whole case & the cuts were not clean enough so scrapped the grills.


Shiny , polishing bars is pretty easy, it's polishing large sheets that is more difficult.






To this



To this



And finally got around to painting the akasa apache fans to fit the colours .



Decided to have another go at doing the front panel with built in grills.



CONTINUED:

 

My modding journey so far, a recap & finale - Part 2 of 3

My modding journey so far, a recap & finale - Part 2 of 3

& finally to this







Then I wanted my pc & consoles all in 1 place so I made this .



To this


Then 4 of these.

& this bottom level.




To this



To this



Also made a cooling mod for the xbox 360.









Which leads to the finally new in use shots. Whilst doing this recap post I remembered saying I'll leave the front grills rough, but that wasn't the only imperfection, there were bits I had to touch up with paint & they didn't match perfectly, so I thought with this definately being my last post I would go ahead & get this front panel finished off properly to a good standard & present these final pics.







CONTINUED:

 

My modding journey so far, a recap & finale - Part 3 of 3

My modding journey so far, a recap & finale - Part 3 of 3

And the latest pictures of the Air Cube with properly finished front panel, a days worth of sanding & a new coat of paint.

Before




After




















With stack left view + flash


With stack left view no flash


With stack right view + flash


With stack right view no flash


Thank you Antony for the extra nudge of motivation to complete this .

There might be more pictures coming soon "if" I'm successful in making a big light box that aids in better pictures , got all the materials, just need to make it.

And that wraps it up , thanks to all for viewing, feedback & motivation to make it look nice, mod on all .

 

Awesome stuff there!

I actually like the first one its just that front panel that did'nt go so well

Im looking forward to what your next mod could be!

Great work

 

The final assembly came out great, and you made the X-box huge again!
As for 1st cases, I've seen far worse. Chances are you will find a way to use it still.
I like your final fangrill design. It's much simpler than the fist one.

 

Sorry about the late reply DeadP1xels & Cheaps , thanks guys, the bit about made the xbox huge again made me giggle .
I gave the air cube prototype to my bro so it's still in use & well.
Maybe another attempt at a lian-li 2000 type some time now my skills have come along since then.

I thought I posted this update over here, glad I checked, nearly missed it .

I was carrying on calling it finished prematurely, newb project logger mistake, sorry, possibly 5 times now, I should change my name to Waynidoh .

I think I'm catching the perfectionist virus (bad for me, good for viewers ), not all out perfectionist but not too far off, I was fixing up a few things I didn't like much on the internals for the bottom level which I admittedly half arsely done originally, upper level is great, just the lower deck is a mess of wires & things that could've been done a bit better.

Made a new internal side fan mount, cut some solid square bar to the depth of the inside, smoothed the edges, used 2 flat bars to mount the fan & added another square bar with 45 degree cuts, used araldite adhesive to stick it to the bar, much nicer than the last one & doesn't resonate any vibrations & has a good weight to it so it doesn't fall over.

I was going to drill vent holes into the hdd cage but scrapped the idea (was unable to use the drill press without a lot of messing making a custom platform which I done a few times throughout this mod) & instead just sanded & painted it lol .

Made & installed mounting brakets for the optical drive at last.

Replaced the misfit yellow sata cables for black akasa round sata 3 cables, much neater.

The power wires are far too long for this case, I'd have to make custom power cables for everything to be really tidy, but for this time I'll just go mad with cable ties , at least the flat bars for the middle level will come in useful for cable ties, a flukey cable management feature there .

Ordered a 360mm x 120mm x 10mm & 120mm x 120mm sheet of polycarbonate to replace the feeble fiddly standoffs for the front fans, they were causing annoying faint vibrations, so I traced the mounting holes from the front panel & cut circles to make a perfect one piece standoff that will not cause vibrations & it works really nice.

One main outstanding thing I have learnt from doing an effort inducing mod is it would definately be best to have a running pc so I don't end up putting the system in too early & calling it finished, so when I get around to upgrading my complete system I won't be selling my current parts, I'll instead build a temp pc, then I could do a mod & keep working on it without long breaks, but it will be quite some time before I can afford a new system & new materials, possibly a year off, but theres nothing stopping me from designing new cases.

Only thing that could wrap this log up now is when or if I get my light box made to get some good quality pictures of the Air cube & stack.

Spent a good chunk of the day cable tidying, used over 40 cable ties & sleeved an ide cable lol .

Ok more than enough blah blah, it's picture time woo hoo .







































Project comlpete, 6th times the charm lol .

 

How weird i looked at this like 1 hour ago to see if there was anything new i might have missed

Im glad your adding these little touches really like the case alot

You should attempt a v2000 case again you got it sorta right last time just the front went a little "off"

Great work man +rep

 

Thanks DeadP1xels.

I just keep on getting little ideas to improve this case, this 1 was worth doing.

With the summer rising ambient temps quite a bit, the low cfm of the akasa apache's were struggling to maintain nice motherboard temps, I like to keep it at 30c so I've been using a house cooling fan right next to the open case, it lowered temps by 10c & even while gaming it kept the motherboard temps just as it were at idle.
So today I grabbed 1 of my spare fans, plugged it in & tested to find the sweet spot to keep temps low during the summer, didn't take long to find, so I made fan mounting holes on the top left support flat bar & screwed it in, it's only supported on half of the fans mount holes, but it's good & not vibrating, this mod now holds 10 case fans.

Heres the mod I done today.





This capture was made on a cool night with cool ambient temps recently without the extra mod.



This capture was done just now on a warm day after a gaming session.



Anyone think I should make it permanent or just for seasonal, if I make it permanent I will make a simple grill for the top panel & a cover & switch for turning it on when needed & get another apache & paint it, the top panel could use a re-coat of paint anyway, the front edge is a little scuffed.

 

Maybe make a acrylic window up top but add vents where the fan is on the window?

I think that would look rather cool sorta like mountain mods cases have

edit: or if not acrylic why not a mesh window top?

after all heat rises so you might get better temps

 

Good suggestion m8, but coudn't do an inside window/grill (not enough clearence).

So I could mount a window/grill above & make a small frame around it, hmmmm.

Or as above but without a frame & instead a bevelled edge like this quick sketchup I just done, with threaded holes for attaching from underneath, the square is just there for measurement purposes if I go ahead & do this, also the blue panel represents what surface I have to work with.

 

I think they both look amazing, and i cant get over how good the quality is!

Really Impressed!

 

if you put the fan there with a cover i think it'll be bad for your airflow, since hot air rises up and the fan atm is blowing in( down), inside of blowing hot air out (up)

so if you're going tp put a cover on it again with that fan. turn it around

 

Thank you very much Ginger_Ace .

Thank you for your concern about the air flow Remmes, but it should be fine bud, there are 3 fans at the front pushing a lot of air towards the back which has a big airy grill, a fan & a few empty pci slots, if I put my arm at the back I can feel lots of air pushing out accross the entire back, so it should be fine, to be honest there was no need for the rear fan in the usual place, should have stretched the grill design accross the entire upper back panel.

All the extra fan I put in helps do is make sure the face of the motherboard gets properly touched by the air, & the new top piece just so it's bringing new air inside, I think what was going wrong is the gpu & cpu fans were hogging the majority of the incoming air or a combination of that & the air going too high above the motherboard, anyway the extra fan fixes whatever was going wrong .

Hope to have this top piece done by wednesday night, so a hectic tuesday awaits , kinda lost without a dremel but I'll find a way to do the window cuts, a drill, a hacksaw blade & files & a bit of sanding .

 

I have an update on the project .

Was going to wait until I got the plastic sheet, but thought why not just get stuck in on the metal work, I really miss not being able to use a dremel , was the hardest window mod ever , took all day to do this, just finished sanding at 8pm.
Masked up & marked up, drilled & countersunk all the mounting holes, then drilled opening holes so I could get the hacksaw blade in & went human jigsaw on it, hours later the pieces fell out, then had a ton of filing & sanding to do, but at least all the edges are nice & smooth now & ready for painting , I'll try to get that done tomorrow, need primer.
Perfectly on schedule to get this done by wednesday still woo hoo .





Next & final update hopefully either tuesday or wednesday night .

 

Wow excellent work with a hacksaw!

 

Thanks .

Got the 6mm plastic, paint, fan & immediately got started masking, measuring & marking.



Messed up badly on the drilling of the plastic piece though, did it all spot on 4mm into the 6mm thick sheet, but should have used 2.5mm drill bit for the m3 thread but used 3mm by accident (I blame it on 1st thing of the day eyes half shut modding), not to worry I ordered some m4 bolts & if I'm lucky I'll have them tomorrow fingers crossed, it can & will be fixed . I'm not rushing it but I am working extra hard to get it done for tomorrow my birthday .

Used the bench grinder to give the edges a curved bevel as good as I could & used a file to clean up edges.





Got 60, 240, 600, 1200, 2000 grit sanding over 5 or 6 hours & a nasty blister on my thumb, damn it was hot .











Got the air cubes cover sanded & primed & both sides of the fan.





Got the metallic matisse blue on & a coat of clear & half of the the fan coloured & clear coated & a late night colouring & clearing of the other side hopefully.






Going to do the grill on the plastic sheet tomorrow, unsure to do lines or holes or even both.

 

Ok, see what you all think of this :neutral:.

Had a rough nights sleep as I fell asleep at the pc & had an auto shut down, 1 minute I was watching a show, next I woke up 9am lol so wasn't in best form for today.

The day of modding started fine, marked a grill to cut & went to work on it.



I'm unsure if it worked out well, when I went to enlarge the middle mount hole it went all the way through which was bad. I gave up on doing the grill, my files were barely doing anything on the 6mm plastic so as a result I had to cut a bigger than normal hole to get past where I was trying to do a grill (the new hole cutter is awesome though ), also some spray managed to get under a bit of the masking , but there was a good layer of clear on it so I should be able to fix that pretty easily.

Good points, it made the cover more rigid & have better temps than before the extra fan mod, theres virtually always a way to fix things up, window on the outside was either not a good idea or I just fluffed up over & over or I'm tired & not thinking straight.

I honestly don't know if this extra mod is good or bad or inbetween, but do know there are some things I could do to fix it up if I'm correct in thinking it's not looking right, but if it's good then I'll just need to fix the extra large vent hole (easy fix).

I really don't know what to make of this top piece which is why I'm including quite a few shots of it to see what you all think, designed it quick & made it quick within 3 days so it's such a drastic change from what it was, could do with as many opinions as possible please.































Again I could do with as many opinions as possible please .