Build Log: BIL-Blue

[jfenwick]

Ok so my last mod: http://www.techist.com/forums/f10/worklog-orange55-212832/ has stalled out while I wait to see the cousin again and get a final say on the paint job, she seems to have lost enthusiasm on the project so it will probably go to someone else soon. Anyways, I have a brother in law who has given me some $$$ for a cool case. The plan is to do it at cost. Here goes...

THE PLAN:
Have this case I picked up for $20 off a guy who cleans out offices and dumps their technology. It's a Lian-li knock off, all aluminum and relatively simple, my favorite for modding.
To do list:
- Intake on the front
- Exhaust on top
- New switches
- Stealth the DVD drive
- Side window
- Chop it up for better wire management

Ultimately this means a lot of short strand fiberglass work, I want to make the front fans a turbine like mod, 1x120mm and 1x80mm as perfected by Bill at mnpctech.com, then add some blue lighting.

For a paint job I want a blue metallic exterior and white interior…let the fun begin!

Here are some pre-photos:
Front:

Back:

Inside:

Broken down:

You can see the damage on the case, the corners have been banged up and the top has a number of gouges and other scratches that need to be repaired, not to mention the old sticker gunk removed:

I'll get back with more photos once I start planning out and executing the cutting!

 

[Trotter]

Been a looooong time since I have seen an actual speaker in a case.

 

[jfenwick]

Yeah, needless to say that won't be going back in. I started cutting today, I should have some photos soon.

 

[kmote]

I like the look of that case.

 

[jfenwick]

I like the look of that case.

Agreed, simple and clean. I have 3 or 4 of these or similar Lian-lis in my garage. I pick them up on kijiji for $10-20 whenever they show up. Great for mods being all aluminum and so simply built.

Ok, so some photos. Here is what I'm shooting for as far as fans go for the front intake:

I put some holes in for better cable management behind the mobo:

And some holes on the HDD brackets to route cables, I cut them with the hole saw but as you can see in the second photo it leaves burrs that need to be filed off:

Take out the manufarcturer's grill pattern on the rear fan:

Cut a hole in the plate between the 3.5 and 2.5 bays to route cables from the psu to the hdds and dvds without it being seen in the case:

And finally I'll put a 120 in the top to vent out the hot air:

I'm going to need to do some fancy cutting on the front, the way it is now it wont support the fans properly and will impeed air flow. I'm going to have to cut out a chunk and make a second mounting plate I think.

Footnote: Thanks to mnpctech.com for the fan templates to use. Saves me time and I always appreciate that!

 

[jfenwick]

Ok, so I'm trying to sort out the front fan situation. The way I want my two turbine type fans to look is above, unfortunately that doesn't line up well with the current front wall, a number of the mounting holes line up with empty space. I also want to relocate the power/reset and dvd eject switches and add 4 fan toggle switches as well. All to the front panel.

You can see above that I've rough cut a piece of plexy to cover the front panel since some of the fan mountings screws terminate into empty space. I'll cut out some of the front to match the plexy cutout: About this size and shape:

Here is a pic of that plexy mounting place. The marker circles show the mounting screw hole and the other dots depict a countersinked pot hole I had to make where the plexy mounts up against a rivet.

 

[jfenwick]

Allright, a bit of a respit from the front as I debate on how to do the fan intakes. In the past I've used fan ducts as sold here by mnpctech.com:

Computer Case Mod Cooling Fan Duct

and although they work great the one thing I don't like about them is that their diameter is a bit smaller than the full span of the fan. You don't really notice once the fan is up and running but I'd prefer to have a full 120mm blow hole if I'm installing a 120mm fan.

So, onto the feet while I sort that out. I'm going use acrylic blue and white to match the paint job of the case. First step is to hole saw the feet out:

Once cut out you can see they are pretty rough:

I use a little acrylic adhesive to glue them together in sets of three: Blue-White-Blue. They are still pretty rough, you can see the tooth marks of the hole saw teeth.

Next I use the belt sander to get rid of the worst of the markings but the belt sander doesn't do well on round surfaces so I pass a bolt through them to attach them to the drill press:

This way I can sand them all at one time and make sure all the feet are exactly the same size. You can see here the progression as I more from 80 grit to finer and finer sandpapers:

Once all sanded I enlarge the original hole on one end to compensate for the bolt head that needs to be buried into the foot.

Here you have the almost finished feet, you can see the bolt through the one and the bolt head on the other that you would see inside the case on the floor.

The final step is to put them back on the drill press and blow torch them for a final polish. Here you see the difference between the 1500 grit and the blow torch finish.

It's hard to see in RL but you can see a few minor imperfections on the polished foot, I'll give it another round of sanding and re-buffing to get rid of those. But that's enough for today.

 

[jfenwick]

Ok, back to work on the front panel.

I finished up the new front pane for the internal case that the fans are mounted to, here is a pic with them mounted in the front. Eventually I'll have them mounted on the back of this place but I need to pop the rivets and cut out a chunk of the HDD cage to make them fit.

You can see how that lines up with the stock front panel on:

Obviously more cutting and bonding is needed. Since I'm only planning on leaveing two DVD bays available I'll tack two cut drive bay covers in place with hot glue:

I also need to cover up the floppy drive bays, a simple piece of acrylic works well for that.

Once they were tacked in place I used some E6000 adhesive to hold them in place and I drilled the fan holes with a hole saw:

It should be starting to make some sense now. Next I have to make the side panel window and add the bezel to those fan holes.

 

[Slaymate]

The case feet look sharp, excellent job

 

[jfenwick]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. Yeah, they look sharp when on the case, I can't wait to get the spraying down and see how it works with the paint job.