Wish I'd have got photos for this, but I'll try and get one of the final result. It'll make you chuckle if nothing else. tl;dr version is "A couple of lessons learned about case modding".
Ok, so, I work in the IT department of a private school, and over the summer holiday I thought it'd be a bit of fun to make use of the DT workshop. Plan was to use the laser cutter to slice a nice even hole in the side panel of my el cheapo case (Can't list the brand as it's a competitor, but it rhymes with roverfleck). It's not a bad case for the price, the interior is all black with some coloured tool-less drive locking units and a bit of cable management.
I get down to the lab, and can't for the bloody life of me work out how to use the laser cutter. The panel I'm slicing up has a pair of fan grilles already, so I eye it up and start casting my eye over the lab's shelves for the dremel...
Fast forward an hour and a half, and I've got the bloody grille off with a nice big hole left in the side of my case. Instead of doing the logical thing and filing the rough edges down with a flat file, I swap the head on the dremel and try to file it down with that. Ooops. In addition to all this mess, I've managed to scratch the side panel. Repeatedly. With nice big, deep, lines.
I give up on trying to sort the sides of the hole out, and cut a piece of transparent blue perspex to size. Out comes the hot glue gun and in it goes. After it's "complete" I attach the blue cold cathodes and away I go
Fast forward a couple of days and I'm unhappy with the panel. Out comes the wet'n'dry and black spray paint, after having the foresight to stick masking tape over the perspex panel first. All goes swimmingly, the panel looks a bit more reasonable... and then I try to use silicon sealant to tidy up the edges of the hole. Dear, oh dear, oh dear, that was a mistake.
Ok, so, I work in the IT department of a private school, and over the summer holiday I thought it'd be a bit of fun to make use of the DT workshop. Plan was to use the laser cutter to slice a nice even hole in the side panel of my el cheapo case (Can't list the brand as it's a competitor, but it rhymes with roverfleck). It's not a bad case for the price, the interior is all black with some coloured tool-less drive locking units and a bit of cable management.
I get down to the lab, and can't for the bloody life of me work out how to use the laser cutter. The panel I'm slicing up has a pair of fan grilles already, so I eye it up and start casting my eye over the lab's shelves for the dremel...
Fast forward an hour and a half, and I've got the bloody grille off with a nice big hole left in the side of my case. Instead of doing the logical thing and filing the rough edges down with a flat file, I swap the head on the dremel and try to file it down with that. Ooops. In addition to all this mess, I've managed to scratch the side panel. Repeatedly. With nice big, deep, lines.
I give up on trying to sort the sides of the hole out, and cut a piece of transparent blue perspex to size. Out comes the hot glue gun and in it goes. After it's "complete" I attach the blue cold cathodes and away I go
Fast forward a couple of days and I'm unhappy with the panel. Out comes the wet'n'dry and black spray paint, after having the foresight to stick masking tape over the perspex panel first. All goes swimmingly, the panel looks a bit more reasonable... and then I try to use silicon sealant to tidy up the edges of the hole. Dear, oh dear, oh dear, that was a mistake.
. Its unlikely (although not impossible) a school has a metalcutting laser (100K price tag or around that price). Its much more likely a universal, HPC or epilog laser.
