Project "Carbon Copy" ***Mini Update (07.02.05)***

Coming along very nice!

Very nice idea too

Keep them pictures coming and get more modding

 

Nice, I love your windows because I'm sort of doing that too and I think it makes them look much better.

Keep modding!

 

Not to be picky or anything, but your switches don't line up, the top one is a few mm off to the left. Like i said not trying to be picky, but i just noticed it while looking at your log, nice work on the case tho, looks cool!!! I love CF.

 

not to be picky or anything, but they are more buttons than switches lol

kidding

very nice so far !

 

its just an illusion becuase of the two angled lines you get with the lighting in that shot, they seem to be perfectly aligned to me...

 

Hehehe...they are actually aligned, it's just an illusion of the camera. Thanks for paying so much attention though!

 

Co-linearity with the centreline aside..... they look fricken awesome.

It's a shame about the LCD surround. It has the potential to be really sweet looking. I agree with you, the fan controller holes need to be higher.

 

I'm now stopping to have lunch, so I thought I would post a log of what I've done so far.
As I was laying in bed last night, I suddenly had a thought that I only had 2 accessable USB ports on my case. I used to have another 2 on the front, but the introduction of the new front had irradicated these. This is when it came to me that it didn't have to be this way, so I devised a solution to my front USB needs, with a plate that fits in with the design.
I used the offcut from the side panel window to cut out the little USB plate.

This picture shows the plate marked out on the aluminium, and covered with masking tape to prevent scratching. Every piece I cut from aluminium is marked twice; once on the actual aluminium with pencil, then the tape is stuck over, and the outline drawn on with a black pen. This makes the line much easier to see. I drew the line on the masking tape freehand, hence the somewhat wobbly lines :



The USB holes were far too small to cut with a dremel, so I adopted the "drill lots of joined up holes" method. The holes aren't exactly accurate, but as long as they didn't go over the edge, it didn't matter:



I then joined the holes together by using an old 1/4" wood chisel. It cut nicely through the 1mm aluminium, and left this:



I then filed out the insides using a small needle file. Unfortunatly I forgot to take a picture of this stage, so you'll just have to imagine it! Once I was happy with the holes, I cut around the plate using a dremel (The cuts on the holes may not look square, but I can assure you they are. I bevelled the edges slightly, and the camera really picks up on it, so the edges look really wonky!):



I then filed and sanded the plate to it's final shape:



This is how the USB plate fits in with the rest of the case. I'm a bit unsure of it, but I will soon be able to tell once I have made the DVD and DVD R/W drive covers this afternoon:

 

looking good man

 

very nice
but the biohazard fangrills are hanging backwards.
you have to switch top to bottom.

 

If you're reffering to the side panels....I already knew that - several people have pointed it out!
Thanks anyway

 

Great work!! Keep updating.

I`ll suscribe

 

Great job, nice clean lines. For what it's worth, I like that black window. But it's an all-round nice job.

 

They look pretty good to me...


Awesome work so far. I really like that whole front panel setup and that switch plate is definately well done. I know your pain about being too lazy too mod sometimes (note custom title <----) and had watercooling literally hanging from my bed and curtain rod as a result.

 

Really quick update today.
I cut out the covers for the DVD and DVD R/W drives today. I also tested my soldering skills on an old CD R/W drive to make sure that I was up to the job of relocating the LED and eject buttons - which I was

This is what the case currently looks like :

 

Very very cool *Subscribed* I havent seen the other guys case but yours is real nice

[Edit] Seen his now, v. nice also [/Edit]

 

Wery nice work on that alu Best I've seen in a long time.

 

Thought I'd post this to make all you Lian Li lovers cringe
Its the remains of one of my side panels that has been violently attacked with a dremel

 

looking damn good, I like it

 

It's been a while since I last posted, but I am here at last!
Today was quite a productive day (well...for me anyway!) I managed to get the lower half of the acrylic all cut and ready for the carbon fibre to be laid over.

First of all I started by marking out where the holes had to be:



Then I made a point for the drill bit to bite onto with a bradel:



2mm holes were then drilled at every mark. This gives the next drill bit a wider hole to start biting on, and makes the hole more accurate.
4.5mm holes were drilled for the fan mounts, an 81mm hole for the fan, and 19mm holes for the bulgin switches.



Next up was the holes for the LED's. After practising on a scrap piece of acrylic, I found that it was too thick to allow the mounting mechanism of the clip too work. There was an easy solution to this; I used a 12mm spade bit to cut a recess at the back of the sheet to a depth that allowed the clip to act as though it were in a thinner piece of acrylic:



Then disaster stuck. Well, not really a disaster, more of a pain in the arse. It was easily fixed though. When I was transferring dimensions from screen to acrylic, I misread one, which led to all six LED holes being 10mm out. Luckily I could just re-drill the holes, because the carbon fibre sheet will cover up the holes:



I then cut the holes for the USB adapter using a drill and a needle file (this picture also shows the re-drilled LED holes:



I then had to modify the USB adapter to fit. I had to cut 5mm off both sides, to allow the USB ports to be flush with the surface of the acrylic. This is the adapter originally...



...and this is what it looked like after I attacked it with a hacksaw:



This allowed the ports to sit inside the acrylic, and still allows the adapter to be mounted to the acrylic:



Holes were then drilled at either side of the unit to allow a strong mount. The holes were drilled at 3.5mm for the thread, and 7mm to allow the screw head to be sunk under the surface:



The reverse of the unit shows the fixings. I couldn't find any suitable nuts, so I used two spare motherboard standoffs! It doesn't matter though, they will never been seen:



This shot shows the holes with the cover mounted. It hides the edges up nicely:



Overall I think it was quite a productive weekend. I also made the buttons for the DVD and DVD R/W drives, but forgot to take pictures

Any thoughts?