Project Stealthlow
- Thread starter waynio
- Start date
Here is how I aligned the mounting holes for the psu, cotton bud sticks cut off ends, pressed into the mounting holes, put a blob of paint on & press against the back panel & pull away, spot drill, drill then countersink.
There was 2 unwanted holes back from when I tried a clamping system for the pci cards so I used a custom circle hex graph to try & align it correct but failed on that & then failed on not using a small drill bit at first & instead used 1 that was a tad too big so silly me went & drilled big holes to remove the botched area then took a break cursing like a gooden & generally feeling down thinking I'd have to order a new sheet or an iffy repair lol, even considered cutting out the entire bad area & trying to fit another cut to precise size & fitting inside the bad area & filling the edge.
Took a few hours to spot drill all these.
Anyway similar thing happened when I was doing the back panel mesh on the air cube so thought screw it I'll give it a shot & the following was 100% freestyle
but is to be continued tomorrow as it was getting a bit late.
If after tomorrow I can't make it good I'll give in & get a new sheet.
There was 2 unwanted holes back from when I tried a clamping system for the pci cards so I used a custom circle hex graph to try & align it correct but failed on that & then failed on not using a small drill bit at first & instead used 1 that was a tad too big so silly me went & drilled big holes to remove the botched area then took a break cursing like a gooden & generally feeling down thinking I'd have to order a new sheet or an iffy repair lol, even considered cutting out the entire bad area & trying to fit another cut to precise size & fitting inside the bad area & filling the edge.
Took a few hours to spot drill all these.
Anyway similar thing happened when I was doing the back panel mesh on the air cube so thought screw it I'll give it a shot & the following was 100% freestyle
but is to be continued tomorrow as it was getting a bit late.
If after tomorrow I can't make it good I'll give in & get a new sheet.
Cheers Baplad
ahh the shield probably wasn't needed but thought on just to be safe, I think it would rip straight through me if it came off 
.Ordered a new panel to remake the botched one
& for the pci/io mounts I'll use button heads instead of countersunk as they are too close to the edge making it look a bit bad, I'm going to complete some other bits on the botched panel though so it can be used as a template to get back up to speed nice & fast, the longest or most concentration demanding part in scratch building for me is usually marking up & prepping the rest is quite straight forward so having a template really speeds things up.For the new mesh I'll use a 10mm bit for a really good vent mesh & I'll experiment a little before attempting it this time
& for the bottom exhaust I think I'll do a straight circle for perfect flow, the front bottom piece will either have diy mesh or a pattern cut out, but filing into sharp corners with 3mm alu is very difficult so a mesh would make the most sense.
Associate
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- 1 Apr 2010
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This is looking great
Cant wait to see the final product
Keep up the work!
Cant wait to see the final product
Keep up the work!
This is looking great
Cant wait to see the final product
Keep up the work!
Thanks DefiantAsh
currently waiting for the new sheet so no new updates until I'm back up to speed & with more progress but if it comes early enough it could be today .Wowzers just got the fresh sheet of alu a couple of hours ago & didn't waste any time it is now back in the shape it was before I added the 2 holes for the expansion card mounting system, all the mounting holes line up correct too thank goodness .
So all thats needed to be done now for the back panel is:
Cut the psu hole out, cut a hole out for the bottom hdd fan, shorten the length of the curve bar blocks so they don't interfere with the top exhaust, cut a hole out for the top exhaust, drill out a mesh then the back panel is near complete
. I'll do all this if I can be bothered as that was a concentrated workload I just completed to get back to where I was the other day .
it is now back in the shape it was before I added the 2 holes for the expansion card mounting system, all the mounting holes line up correct too thank goodness .So all thats needed to be done now for the back panel is:
Cut the psu hole out, cut a hole out for the bottom hdd fan, shorten the length of the curve bar blocks so they don't interfere with the top exhaust, cut a hole out for the top exhaust, drill out a mesh then the back panel is near complete
. I'll do all this if I can be bothered as that was a concentrated workload I just completed to get back to where I was the other day .
Soldato
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Wowzers just got the fresh sheet of alu a couple of hours ago & didn't waste any time
If only I could be that productive with my university essay's!
Good job though getting so much done!
kd
I wish I could apply myself to whatever else like this too
thanks kd .Here, I couldn't be bothered doing more than getting back to where I mucked up but I could just about be bothered to get a pic
lol.
Thanks Technics
, I've always liked Lian-Li cases but it was the cost of the x2000 that got me into scratch building lol, they are so nice they are rather difficult to mod as the mod has to be as nice as the great fabrication they do else it doesn't look so good.I've had some kind of virus the past few days & now on top of that I've got cold in my lower back so when standing it aches so I'm gonna relax for another day & see how I am tomorrow, this is probably a good thing to be honest as it gives me a chance to try out some designs on paper for the mesh & other exhaust holes so it fits in well with the rest & already having some nice visions of what I could do instead of a mesh falling back to the sprawling grill idea so maybe tomorrow I'll have a plan to follow for completing the back panel
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Not checked this thread for a while but looks like you've come on a long way, and it'll be a pretty sick case when it's finished.
Thanks SouthEastBlue got a good update hereNot checked this thread for a while but looks like you've come on a long way, and it'll be a pretty sick case when it's finished.
.Thanks exotic444 & I'm not an engineer, just a custom pc case enthusiast
, make britain great rather than run away from it hehe .Started 6 am Friday, finished 8 pm had a few quick coffee breaks.
Days like today make me remember why I make my own cases, the past few days I've been questioning why am I bothering doing this lol & the answer is in the pictures, the first botch up panel was one of those where I don't know what to make of it & wondered if I could grow to like it but todays effort I knew immediately I'm glad to say wooooooo
.OK so I missed out on taking pictures with the custom circle hex pattern I downloaded, printed from http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/ but I cut to size & stuck down with cello tape & marked the centre of each circle which tested my patience over a few sessions through the night lol but whenever it got too much I just watched a show to break the monotony & when it was done I covered it in cello tape so it all stays down & left until 6 am.
Not sure how long the spot drilling took but it was quite a while, then drilled a 3.2mm bit & then used a 7mm bit, then got my bigger countersink bit & accidentally went too deep on the first one so did all the rest at the same depth & pretty fast I noticed it was a good accident for 2 reasons: 1 it adds a nice & easier way for the air to get through, 2 I think it looks pretty damn good.
The circle at the bottom I wasn't sure if I should go with a plain hole or do the mesh so I went with the mesh & had to just use a few 3.2mm holes for the ones closest to the edge of the wanted circle, not a bad result I think
.Flipped the piece over & done slight countersinks on the exterior side, then used wd40 to get the tacky cello tape completely off & then used the satinising mop to minimise scratches & then went over it with a fine satinising mop, dusted down & installed back to the case & wow I love it when I impress myself & feels a fair while since I done that, so then enough blah blah & enjoy the pics
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Awesome day
.
Soldato
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I thought the same when I was looking through Lian-Li's old cases to find out what case my mum has lol (it isn't one of these lol)
Awesome progress there waynio! You're getting so close to the final stages now, must be so frustrating to just wanna get it finished!
I botched the first countersink by going too deep but it gave it a good look so it was a good botchup lol, thanks ch3333z .That Lian-Li case is based on a hotel in Dubai
I thought the same when I was looking through Lian-Li's old cases to find out what case my mum has lol (it isn't one of these lol)
Awesome progress there waynio! You're getting so close to the final stages now, must be so frustrating to just wanna get it finished!
, my case is based on a Lian-Li x2000 but evolved quite a bit & mostly to learn some new building tricks .To be honest I could just add some cable pass holes & set it up already
but I'll resist & complete it properly .I must confess to being very impressed every time I visit this build log.
Glad I'm not disapointing then thanks Gepetto .The choice of things to be done is getting a bit thin now
but think I should start on cable pass holes so I need to put the spare pc in this to work out where the holes will be needed .