B[x]

I've recently been getting interested in case modding and have been thinking up possible mods. I definitely want to design my own window so I'm looking into using the Lian Li PC-61 since it's a solid mid-tower case without any holes or ridges to get in the way of whatever design I wind up with.

A little background on my current design - I go by my last name amongst my friends which begins with an 'S'. For that reason I wanted to incorporate an S into the design. I came up with the following design using AutoCAD 2006 (the blue is what will be cut out):


Initially I was thinking of using the water jet cutter at my school to accurately cut out a window. However, my impatience led me to buy a Dremel tool (the XPR 400) and a couple files to test out a design on an old case to see how it looked off paper. After spending a few man hours on cutting it out and filing it down I'm pretty happy with the result. I had to scale down the design to fit inside of the ridges of this panel. By the way, since this design has point symmetry, some of the pictures are backwards due to me placing the side panel the wrong way. Oh well. The final pictures are of the correct orientation.

Laying out the printed out design on the case inside of the ridges.


I etched out the design onto the case and peeled off the tape. In hindsight that wasn't the best of ideas - I should have left the tape on to prevent the stray marks. Ignore the red cross hairs, I put them on in haste and they were off the mark. I ended up ignoring them and taping on the design by eye since this was a test piece, after all.


The four circles were cut out. Before resizing the design to fit this panel, these holes were 80mm across; I was playing around with the idea of putting fan grill over these holes. This idea is still be mulled over. I might affix them somehow to the piece of lexan on the inside as not to mar the side panel with unnecessary holes.


The larger rings were cut.


As with all rotary tool work, the edges are rough and sharp.


The edges are filed down a bit and the contour holes are roughly cut.


The contour holes are rounded out and all edges are filed down to be finger-smooth. Ignore the blue marks on the contour holes.

Keep in mind that this is my first experience with using a rotary tool on aluminum so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. My next step would be to take some bondo to fill in the stray marks and such. Afterwards I'd sand it down and prime/paint it. Since this is just a test piece I'm not going to go through all that just yet.

Let me know what you guys think of my design and workmanship. Also, if you have any suggestions as to what can be changed with the design as well as what can be done with the rest of the case, let me know. I'm more into physical alterations than playing with color schemes. I'm definitely going to stealth my drives and will probably play around with lipping some fan holes like Defyant did in this mod/guide.

PC eye

EGADS! ! You did some good work there. It takes a good steady hand to work with the dremel on something like this. I'm glad hear you were able to debur it properly without leaving rough marks there. You won't too much trouble hearing favorable comments on this.
(to give you a few ideas on any other cases here some custom models to look over at http://www.xoxide.com/allcases.html )

dave597

Ah, thats pretty cool, however I'm not a big fan of case mods since they compromise the structural integrity of the case, and I rarely look at it.

__________________

Bootup05

Will you be putting acrylic in between the gap where you have cut?

As them 2 strips holding your S in place look a bit thin :\

__________________
Intel E2200 @ 3GHz
Gigabyte iP31-DS3L
3GB PC-6400 C5
Sapphire 4850 @ 700/2240
WD Caviar SE 320GB - 160GB Seagate External
Asus 19" Wide
Acoustic Energy Aego M's
Freezer Pro 7
Tagan 600W
Vista Ultimate 64 SP1

PC eye

I didn't see any trouble with the clear sided case seen at http://www.xoxide.com/aerocool-aeroengine-2-black.html when mounting two 120mm blue led lit fans on the side cover. You still have to remove the cover there with ease due to the two pairs of wires for the fans. You just can't custom style the case other then what is seen as far as using a dremel.

B[x]

Thanks, the burrs were a bit difficult to remove due to the narrow width of the rings - it kept getting caught on the other side.
I always do my homework first so I've seen the cases that Xoxide has to offer (and pretty much all factory made cases) but thanks for the link anyways.

Any weight that the side panels support is negligible, they simply shield the internal components.
The thought of never looking at my case once it's finished had crossed my mind. However, the piece I made was just a test panel and I can't stop looking at it. Not only that but I can see myself having a lot of fun with the build itself, not just the completed product.

Yes, I'll be putting a sheet of polycarbonate on the inside of the panel fastened with double-sided tape though the use of velcro is appealing.
The 2 strips holding the S in place are 0.1 inches wide and were subjected to some accidental bending though nothing more than 15º. The strips separating the S from the contour holes are also 0.1 inches wide yet are surprisingly strong due to the fact that they're anchored at both ends.

computerhakk

That is a great mod. Did I read correctly that that case side right there was your test mod? So it wasn't your real case correct? If you have the chance, I think you should take up the offer of using the jet cutter at your school to cut it out. It'll look smoother and maybe save you some labor if that in fact was your test mod.

Other than that, it looks really good. Exceptional work.

__________________
"Remember, wrong advice may be worse than no advice at all."
::COMPUTERHAKK:::

Impr3ssiv3

well you could change around the design and give it more say "soul" by not making it so circular and expanding to to oval shape so its more of a true S

B[x]

Thanks, hakk, and yes, it is a test piece. I'm still debating using the water jet cutter at school; using the Dremel and doing it by hand gave me a lot of satisfaction and the result was a lot better than I had previously thought I was capable of.

'S's come in all shapes and sizes and I like the point symmetry of the current design so I don't think I'll be changing that though thanks for the idea.

Redbull{wings}

that looks great! i wish i could do things like that with my case but i lack the knowledge and supplies

also i like the idea of the holes being the size for fans incase you would to add them

__________________
AMD Sempron 3400+ OCed 2.5ghz; 1024mb ddr400; Biostar Tforce 6100
WD Caviar 160gb Hard Drive; Lite-On Dvd-R/RW DL Drive
Geforce 7600gt; 19" lcd; Sound Blaster Live! 5.1; Logitech X-530 5.1 Speakers; Logitech G5 Laser Mouse
Windows XP Pro; Windows Vista Ultimate