The pieces of the puzzle.
Oooh hooo hoooo hrrrr hrrrrrr. Looking very sweet….
The pieces of the puzzle.
Oooh hooo hoooo hrrrr hrrrrrr. Looking very sweet….
Side panel done!
New pics of finished product!
Outside.
Inside.
Outside.
CPU Duct Prototype B
I was wondering aimlessly through the aisles of Bunnings and noticed this: Polyglaze DIY Window Glazing. It's about 1mm thick and comes by the metre @120mm wide. A little expensive though at $27.50/m (from memory). I bought about 1.5 metres as I'm sure to have plenty of uses for this stuff beyond the CPU duct, for which this stuff is perfect!
This stuff cuts very easily using a 'score and snap' method. For the incomplete cuts, I either successively scored until I was through or used scissors.
Once I had cut a length at the required height for the duct, I started on some acrylic bending. I don't have a strip heater, so I use the flame torch method. You can see here that I've used metal rulers to protect the surrounding surface and focus the heat where I wanted it. A few swipes over with the flame a couple of inches away until it started to bend down under its own weight and then press in hard with a block of wood and hold for a minute or so. It gets hot, so either use gloves or block of wood to protect your hands and fingers from burns. Note the clamps holding the sheet to the edge of the workbench – squared up, of course!
Note, I later fashioned a more permanent bending jog using aluminium angle affixed to the edge of my workbench, see later in worklog.
Not perfect, but I'm quite happy with the first bend.
Second and third bends and a shot of the torch (Primus refillable LPG bottle version). You can just make out the blue flame if you look closely.
Voila! Instead of including excess on one panel, making it about 20mm longer to create an overlapping piece for subsequent gluing, I decided to cut and bend a separate piece, documented later on. Masking tape used for the moment to test fit, measure and mark for the required motherboard obstacle cutouts.
Duct resting in place. Note my very first CCFL lying in the bottom of the case.
Workshop Tidy Up
As I was getting totally frustrated with my cluttered workshop spaces it was time for a little tidying up. Besides, I couldn't lay out the full sheet of Polyglaze for cutting unless I totally cleared my workbench.
Existing wood saw blade in the Triton 2000 Workcentre.
New aluminium saw blade, and installed, for cutting aluminium and acrylic. Lots of teeth and three offset cutting edges.
The results on acrylic with the new blade. Trust me, the photos don't do it justice. Those saw blade scratches are very fine and shallow making sanding significantly easier. There's absolutely no break out either, not that I have trouble with this usually. The important tip here is to ensure your saw blade barely protrudes above the thickness of the material you're cutting. A millimetre or two is good, unless you have bowed material.
Some time later, again… Front panel mods 'B'!
Now for some acrylic on the front panel – purple.
Note the new 'Aluminium' saw blade. Lotsa' teeth, three cutting edges i.e., left, centre, right.
With this material I could use the drop sawing technique, no problem. Notice that I started the cut in the centre of the piece and not penetrated either end – do not try this unless you have experience as it can be very dangerous. Also note the test cut in the very centre before I attempted to cut the final edges.
Too close for comfort on the top and bottom edges, so it was back to the bench-mounted jigsaw.
And then finish off with the new hacksaw (sorry, still can't remember its proper name).
In the vice for filing and sanding.
The results.
Now to drilling and fixing.
Because I intended incorporating LED's into this but had never used LEDs before, I decided to cut a strip of clear acrylic to mount some test LEDs.
I guess it was some time later again, I finally ventured into some lighting for the internal of my PC. Once again, new territory for me. I was never a big fan of all the flashy, gaudy lights, but I've slowly succumbed. Note that the lighting here is 'white' and not overstated.
SATA Power Cable mod
I hate all the surplus cable length on most PSU's and the ThermalTake ToughPower modular was no exception. I also hate the several inches between connectors when I usually only want one. I've written a guide on this processguide on this process if you interested, but I've included some of the pics that are relevant here too for your convenience.
How I managed the excess between connectors before modding the cable.
Original cable and then with the modular connector removed using an ATX de-pinning tool.
Inline SATA power connectors removed.
Heatshrink and sleeving removed.
Heatshrink pieces cut ready to cover the original splices.
Heatshrinking the splices.
Setting the connectors into their new locations.
After carefully pushing down with the tip of a screwdriver.
The result.
CPU Duct Prototype B – Part 2
Back to the CPU duct.
Some 3M double-sided tape affixed to the back of a fan connector. This will be affixed to the inside of the side panel to make it easier to connect and disconnect the fan power cables when removing the side panel. I find this a nuisance by the way and have plans to incorporate a connection into the side panel door itself so that power is connect when the door is closed without any other manual intervention. Note that the backing tape is on in the photo.
Because of the 120mm fan mounted on the side panel, over the GPU, I had to cut out a section of the duct where the fan hits it – bottom edge.
Checking all the locations where I need to cut out sections of the duct to fit around the MB heatsinks.
After much careful marking and cutting, one duct.
I planned on sealing the gaps between the duct and the HSF using some of the foam moulding I picked up from Bunnings. This stuff, which comes in various densities at 20mm thickness. This also servers to secure the duct in place without any other fixing, tying etc. Obviously, it needs to be removable, which it is, and very easily too.
In place with side panel door on. The camera flash shows up the duct more than the eye could see
Having trimmed all the cut outs to appropriately for a snug fit over the motherboard heatsinks and components, it was time to glue the duct together.
I started by cutting a length of the Polyglaze from the original cut piece which is the correct height. This piece is about 20mm or so wide. I then bent the pieces along the length.
Also note that I have now made and affixed the bending jig using 2mm thick pieces of aluminium angle, one screwed to the edge of the bench to dress the edge and create a good square and smooth edge. Another piece has a 6mm slot along one edge that is aligned with the edge of the bench. This piece is used to clamp down the workpiece down, protect the surrounding surfaces and focus the heat. Sorry about the pictures.
Note a third smaller piece of angle that I used to push against the bending acrylic and form the outside of the bend. This helped to keep the bend straight and square.
Voila!
Unfortunately I getting very impatient at this stage so I didn't bother waiting until I had the appropriate glue for this job and instead used super glue which I know eats and tarnishes the acrylic.
The floating piece of aluminium angle for the acrylic bender was clamped, overhanging, to the end of the bench so that I could slide the duct over it and give support while I applied pressure to the joint during the glue's curing stage.
Nice work!
Back in place for further testing fitting and customisation.
Now for the (adhesive backed) foam moulding. To obtain clean and square internal corners, I used four separate pieces rather than a single length.
Back in place with foam seal.
Note that I did have to drill a hole into the fan shroud for the power cable to go through and exit beneath the fan, out of sight not creating an obstacle for the duct's slide on/off mounting process.
I'm very happy with the end result. So much so that I no longer consider it a prototype!
More finished product pics.
More Front Panel Mods – Revised Front Fans and Shroud
Back to the lower front panel to refit the two new 92mm fans. Appraising the situation…
Unfortunately I needed to make more space and remove the original front panel wiring cable management features and a little from the top too. So, to the jigsaw bench to get things started.
First piece removed as cleanly as possible. Next it was the trusty Dremel's turn to remove the rest of the fiddly bits that cannot be got at with the jigsaw.
Back to the jigsaw bench to remove the material from the top of the intake area. Notice how I've cut diagonally into the centre to one corner and then spun the panel around and cut back to the other corner.
All bits removed.
After filing.
Test fitting with one new and one old fan. I had ordered new Antec clear Tri Cools, but I had one left over for another job. T'was a perfect fit.
Introduce second piece of acrylic to allow fan mounting to the back side without hole through to the front side. Only the acrylic mounting holes go right through.
Notice the new uni-bit. This drill bit is fantastic. No breakout, very clean cuts, no rising workpiece. Every modder using sheet metals and acrylic must have one of these. This beauty is 4mm to 10mm (from memory, definitely starts at 4mm). I tried to get one starting at 3mm but didn't have any luck at the time.
Two new 92mm clear fans, fitting perfectly. Notice the scribe that I used to mark the drill holes. You can't a pencil in there, so this does the job nicely.
You probably can't see the marks, but they're there.
Because they were hard to see, I end up finding this 2mm traditional clutch pencil lead. Perfect to mark through the little extended fan holes.
The two pieces of 4.5mm acrylic bolted together for drilling the two fan holes. This ensure perfect alignment between both pieces.
Test cut on the drill press using a 92mm Suttons hole saw. No problems. The holes are slightly oversized for the 92mm fans, but they suit me fine.
And then on to the real thing. The workpiece is firmly clamped down to prevent the workpiece riding up the pilot drill bit and potentially cracking the acrylic.
One down and then the other. Too easy. Because the holes overlap, there's even more potential for problems if things are firmly held in place.
Voila. Two very clean fan holes. Separated again to trim the centre points on the jigsaw bench.
The dodgy, super quick, tapping method. One hole got stripped when fastening the fans in. This was fixed later with a little Loctite.
Two fans mounted. Sweet.
Shroud tested fitted in front bezel. Perfect fit.
Add MeshX and we're starting to get the picture. I had ordered the correct length bolts but to bide my time using longer version with a coupe of nuts to take up the slack. Remember, these bolts are not to protrude beyond the first layer of acrylic.
Looking good.
Blackened bolts in place.
Front Panel Lighting Experiments
I played with some lighting idea by manually holding a 100mm CCFL behind the panel in various locations; above fan; centre between fans, centre of top fan.
I really liked the CCFL in the centre of the fan, ideally both, but apart from mounting issues, it wouldn't fit against the front panel of the case itself. May be when I get around to removing the section behind properly I'll be able to make it fit.
More Front Panel, 5.25" Bay Door
So it was back to the acrylic on the front panel. Here I've clamped two pieces of 4.5mm clear purple acrylic with the original MeshX panel ready for drilling through the mounting holes.
Masking tape marker to remind of what's top and font.
Nice clean hole. Although I originally thought I didn't have the uni-bit yet, I can't find other pics and are now starting to believe this was done using the uni-bit.
Counter sinking with inappropriate counter sinking bit. This bit is for wood as it only has one cutting edges. The other counter sinking bit I have does not have the correct angle for the chosen bolts.
Could do with a little 'sinking', but this sufficed for the time being.
Sanding those clean edges, cleaner…
To the polishing wheel. As you can see, this polishing wheel is mounted on the bench grinder. Applying the cutting/polishing compound. Although you can't tell from the photograph, the wheel is spinning.
Note inappropriate, somewhat dangerous work space. All that clutter around the polishing wheel definitely should not be there. I live dangerously sometimes.
After a bit more polishing.
This acrylic is very old scrap from a local supplier and as such the protective backing was well stuck! My technique, highly recommended, for removing this stuff is to start an edge by scraping your finger nail or whatever and then using the pad of your finger, flat to the surface, and rub backwards. There is enough adhesion/friction between your finger and the backing that it tends to roll back nicely without tearing too much. Obviously it does tear, but not as much as when you use a finger nail or grip the ends with your finger tips and pull. Either way, always pull back flat to the surface and not up and away from the surface.
When it start tearing, using the same technique on the edge that has separated until it becomes one again.
Getting there.
Ooooh, looking nice.
I've just realised that I'm missing pics of the fan shroud on the lower section. I know I have them, they've probably just been files elsewhere
Sorry, bad 'in-the-dark' shots. These pics really don't do the job justice.
Front Panel Fans
Mounted and sleeved twin 92mm Antec Tri-Cool clear fans (non-LED) and the sleeved fan power coupling cable.
Front Panel Wires
Note that this machine was running (folding away 24/7 amongst other things) during most of these mods, but now I had to remove the front panel entirely to modify it, which meant I had to disconnect and separate all the front panel cables. I was loath to power it off and disconnect the cables from the motherboard, particularly as they were so neatly cable managed (not something you want to undo/redo regularly). Well, I could disconnect from the front panel every cable, connector, button and LED except the power switch! Well, actually the power switch did come out easily, it just came out from the wrong side, i.e., the front! This is for good reason, this being that the power button is pressed in to activate and therefore needs some support behind so that you don't go pushing the button through the panel, especially at those times when you're not particularly happy with your machine or operating systemAnyway, this didn't help me when I want to leave the cables attached to the motherboard…
So, I tried to see if I could dissemble the switch for removal and ended up ruining the switch. Bugger. I obtained a replacement from some front panel hardware scavenged from old boxes. It wasn't quite the same size and needed a little sanding and sanding to the opening in the front panel.
Note the duct tape in place to catch the filings. It was still attached to the case and I want to drop filings over the innards.
One replaced switch.
The replacement switch had a 2-pin female connector in place already, so I soldered on a corresponding 2-pin make connector to the existing power cable from the motherboard. You can see the white connector and the excess cable bundled in some 'unshrunk' heatshink.
Some more 'interior' pics. Ignoring some of the experimental lighting mess lying on the bottom panel, the rest doesn't look that neat, but in its defence, there are a lot of cables there and they all sit relatively neat to the neighbouring surfaces.
Bottom/front with original front fan removed and then, from the same direction, the space on the left between the motherboard tray and the bottom 3.5" drive cage. You can see the SATA data cables routed through the slots cut earlier.
The right side interior with cable-tied and managed cabling and the exposed Big Typhoon back plate.
A couple of updated front shots.
More left side interior shots.
Left side exterior, side panel window and experimental lighting via one 300mm CCFL running front to back along the bottom and tucked neatly into the side panel edge and a 100mm CCFL tucked into the case/PSU support bracket, just above the CPU duct. (With and without flash)
Front panel with 100mm CCFL temporarily mounted above the top front-panel fan inside the bezel (with and without flash).
Lights out. It was still the middle of the day, so even with the blinds closed, there was plenty of light.
Bad shots 'through the looking glass'. I really needed to set up the tripod for these shots, but I couldn't be bothered at the time.
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