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Margot Robbed Me

Have you already figured out how you're going to mount it to the wall?

 

What material will you be using? Is it essentially just going to be an open shelf, or are you going to enclose the parts compartment with acrylic or glass?

6 minutes ago, KDA said:

Have you already figured out how you're going to mount it to the wall?

 

What material will you be using? Is it essentially just going to be an open shelf, or are you going to enclose the parts compartment with acrylic or glass?

Was thinking of plywood with simple L shaped brackets for fixing it on the wall. Plexiglass to cover the parts side. Speaker part is just an idea and it could be simple shelves really.

42 minutes ago, KDA said:

Are you going to be doing all of this by hand?

Well, yes. I have all the power tools required and a friend to help me cut the angled ones perfectly (like the French cleat). I just need to figure out if I'm keeping the current config or start something from scratch.

Spoiler

Motherboard: Gigabyte H61M-S1 with two DDR3 RAM slots and a maximum of 16 GB. I currently have 12GB(4+8) at 1330 mhz.
CPU: I5 2500K @3.30Ghz with 4 cores, 4 threads  with Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212 

GPU: 2GB GeForce GTX 760 (still works fine and not a priority for the moment)

HDD: 465GB

I could upgrade it to 16 GB RAM and get an SSD for the operating system. But I think it's kinda late in the day for this :)

 

Considering these parts it's becoming difficult to accept a plexiglass cover😁

 

Edited by IS90
  • 9 months later...

I've got some little bits on the go at the moment, nothing big yet (doing some casemodding of my O11 XL when I get fully set up in the new office) but I've been looking at refinishing some of the fittings that came with my EK distro plate.

 

I had a go at refinishing some of the blanking plugs, trying to see if I could get a satin finish on the nickel plating. Unfortunately the quality of the non-fancy EK fittings is a bit sh*te and the plating can be stripped off the brass very easily. The edges on the raw brass one have softened loads too.

 

PXL-20210911-170815344-PORTRAIT.jpg

 

I actually think the raw brass could look really cool on other builds (like something steampunk or dieselpunk inspired) but it won't match the satin Titanium finish on the rest of my fittings, so my next stop is going to be etching the hell out of the nickel with an acid based primer and spraying then with automotive metallic titanium paint.

 

I'm using 16mm acrylic tubing but wanted to go satin finish. As far as I can tell nobody sells satin 16mm acrylic tubing, so I'm making my own using 500/1000 grit soft sanding pads. 

 

PXL-20210821-153654382-PORTRAIT.jpg

 

The bits of casemodding I'm planning on include some glass etching (honeycomb pattern on the corners of the front and side panels), caustic stripping the front I/O panel and refinishing in a brushed satin aluminium, and making a custom rear blanking plate and light box with some pass through fittings for a drain port. 

  • Like 1
  • 2 weeks later...

Okay so metallic titanium attempt #1 isn't quite right. Tonally it's pretty good but there's faaaaaaaar too much metal flake in it. EK satin Titanium on the lower fitting, metallic titanium on the upper one.

 

PXL-20211010-083722335-PORTRAIT.jpg

 

Next to try is VW metallic titanium matte.

  • 1 month later...

Just finished CADing up a back plate for my PC-O11D (well still need to dro screw placements)

 

Untitled-1.jpg

 

10mm frosted acrylic with 2mm aluminium front and back.

30mm hexagons milled at alternating 5mm, 3mm and 1.5mm depths, 0.3mm inner chamfers and 2.5mm outer walls.

Channels for 100mm LED strips.

  • Like 2

Actually got some amazingly sensible CNC prices for the main acrylic bit- £80 currently the winning quote.

Currently trying to find a laser cutting place whose costs for the tiny top and bottom 2mm aluminium pieces isn't hilarious. 

1 hour ago, sivispacem said:

Currently trying to find a laser cutting place whose costs for the tiny top and bottom 2mm aluminium pieces isn't hilarious. 

 

Give https://cotter.co/ a try - I use them for all my laser cutting. They're based here in Denmark, so it's quite convenient for me, but always found their prices to be quite fair, and cutting to be top notch. They have lots of different materials in stock, and some neat tools and guides to ensure good results.

 

You can also upload your files and get an instant quote, which is nice.

 

They do seem quite pricy with the metal cutting, though.

Thanks both, I'll take a look.

 

I don't need to go alu per se, I could do a plastic and vinyl wrap it.

1 hour ago, sivispacem said:

Thanks both, I'll take a look.

 

I don't need to go alu per se, I could do a plastic and vinyl wrap it.

Okay success. Relatively local place, £30 for both the top and bottom plates laser cut on a 7 working day cycle. 

If this comes out well I reckon you could actually sell these at a pretty decent profit, given people charge £200+ for custom light boxes.

Margot Robbed Me

I think once you start using CAD software, you quickly begin to figure out how to make nearly everything yourself for a better price. It seems cheap at first, until you get addicted and find yourself placing an order every other week.

On 11/18/2021 at 8:45 PM, Misumi said:

I think once you start using CAD software, you quickly begin to figure out how to make nearly everything yourself for a better price. It seems cheap at first, until you get addicted and find yourself placing an order every other week.

I think I'm approaching a point where I might be able to actually design case components in a moderately coherent way now. I've been mocking up some new top and side panels for my O11D XL, don't know if I'll do anything about them (I don't have a brake or anything else to do metal folding with) and I also lack most of the right kit for doing stuff like latches...

This mobo is so frickin' heavy, haha. Was quite fiddly installing the EK block, the way it's all done from the back - but looks quite clean on there I think!

 

AZ_PCBLD2021_01.jpg

 

AZ_PCBLD2021_02.jpg

 

AZ_PCBLD2021_03.jpg

 

AZ_PCBLD2021_04.jpg

  • Like 1
8 minutes ago, Misumi said:

Though the setups can look nice, I could never see myself getting back into watercooling lol.

 

Haha, I know what you mean. I've taken a three year break - for my sanity. I'm ready to get back on it now, though. I think. :lol:

Margot Robbed Me

I'm still on that break lol. Mostly I've just been lazy. I've gone over a year without cleaning the filters on my PC. Given my laziness to do such a simple task, I'd have even less motivation to maintain a WC setup.

 

Shoving it under my desk turned out to be a great idea. Out of sight, out of mind. As long as it does the work I need it to do, I consider it a zero maintenance machine. 😄

Laser cut bits. Not very impressed with the quality of the cut here, a lot of clean up work to do.

 

PXL-20211130-132343820-PORTRAIT.jpg

Margot Robbed Me

What's wrong with it? Edges rough? Laser kerf altered the dimensions? The place I get mine cut will compensate to kerf automatically to get a part within .005", but it will still need finishing around the edge. I've come to accept that with laser cut parts. At least it's far better than back when I was getting parts waterjet cut.

 

This is how the edges of my laser cut parts look like.

 

269xdfP.jpg

1 hour ago, Misumi said:

What's wrong with it? Edges rough? Laser kerf altered the dimensions? The place I get mine cut will compensate to kerf automatically to get a part within .005", but it will still need finishing around the edge. I've come to accept that with laser cut parts. At least it's far better than back when I was getting parts waterjet cut.

 

This is how the edges of my laser cut parts look like.

 

269xdfP.jpg

They're pretty rough- mine look similar to that. Nothing a deburring tool won't fix, but they're also covered in deep scratches on the faces that are going to take ages to flatten out.

Margot Robbed Me

Will you be painting them? Or leaving them raw (or a brushed finish)? Sucks to hear about the deep scratches on the faces. Mine have had that in the past, but I've usually been able to get it out with only a little bit of sanding starting with around 600 to be safe, and dropping to 400 if I need to.

12 hours ago, Misumi said:

Will you be painting them? Or leaving them raw (or a brushed finish)? Sucks to hear about the deep scratches on the faces. Mine have had that in the past, but I've usually been able to get it out with only a little bit of sanding starting with around 600 to be safe, and dropping to 400 if I need to.

I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to finish them yet, I'm currently between a brushed finish or bead blasting.

 

-Edit

 

The acrylic piece had also shipped now. Should be here tomorrow or Friday

Margot Robbed Me

It would be pretty easy to try a brushed look by putting 600 grit on a sanding block and sliding it straight across repeatedly to preview the look. If you don't like it, it wouldn't be a problem to sand it smooth and go with media blasting.

Well my frosted lightbox turned up

 

PXL-20211202-154914919-PORTRAIT.jpg

 

PXL-20211202-155025508-PORTRAIT.jpg

 

I think that's going to loop top notch.

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