Long awaited update

Laid out Front Panel


Cut out Front Panel


Assembled Outer Panels



Rounded the edges; note, only the outside edges have rounds
Top and Bottom Panels


Front and Back Panels


Left Panel


Right Panel


Tomorrow I'll put it back together and sand all the edges and blend the corners. I hope to get it polished tomorrow as well; But I may work on a wheeled base for it

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Just a small update today; but it give a good perspective of what the finished product will look like

Sanded the edges to blend the corners together


Assembled the panels with switches and FPIO to give an idea of how the case will look


I still have to polish up the edges and install the drive bays; then the case itself will be basically complete.

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Hmm, even though I'm seeing this pretty late in the project as I joined about 2 days or so ago; this is very nice, great work you're doing.

Can't wait to see the finished result, I love acrylic cases.

Thanks; I'm very happy with the results so far.

looks sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!

I've also received support from Petra's Tech Shop

Here's what they sent me: Acrylic LED case feet, 3x 120mm chrome fan grills, and water additives (Biocide & Blue, Green, and Red dyes)


The LED feet and wiring harnesses


Case feet in action


One drawback to the controller for the LEDs is that it defaults to a flashing mode when it's turned on; but I'll be eliminating the controller and connecting them directly to a switched 12V line, so that won't be an issue for me.

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yeah but hiding the wires are going to be a pain in the ass could miter a square slot in the bottom panel and eatch it so that its not see though and run the wires in there

Wire management is really going to be key with this case.

I don't want to cut grooves for the wires as it would reduce the structural strength and IMO look worse than nicely sleeves cabling.

I kinda like the look of neatly twisted cables, as long as they are routed nicely, the hardest part is getting to stay tight to corners.

True, twisted cabling looks good; but since this case is acrylic and will be tricked out with UV, I'd rather put on UV reactive sleeving.

Once I'm through with this case; the wiring will be a dream.

The keys to an acrylic case PC presentation are going to be 1) the colors you choose for your various components, and 2) your wire selection and management

Take a look at the available cabling at this site:
http://www.frozencpu.com/auv-13.html (click on 'Cables' in left column)
They are into it ...

I'm going for all blue UV reactive cabling (mostly sleeved, but also UV reactive SATAs); also installing UV and red CCFLs. I haven't decided on the water color, but Petra's sent me Red, Green, and Blue; so I can try different options.

I'd like to get a modular PSU so I can install just the cables I need. I'll also do custom length cabling for the lighting, fans, and switches.

looking sweet man very sweet.

how far do u think u are from finishing just the case, so its totally ready for ure kit & wireing job?

also radodrill what modular psu hav u been looking at for the rig? my new silverstone strider 850w is a good buy, seems cheep for an 850watt psu in the UK, not to sure on the prices over ure side of the pond.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/power.php?area=usa i like the look of a few there, well the one's with very high v12 amps

I just have to polish the back panel, install the drive bays, make/install the PCI retention bracket, and make the CD slot cover.

Then I have to do all the custom wiring (including a fan controller) and sleeving.

Once all that's done I'll be ready to install the sys and H2O

Great work so far man, the case is looking awesome. I think the only way to get an acrylic case the way you want it is to build it yourself, most of the pre-built cases are crap.

Can't wait to see the whole thing come together

Thanks!

I'll be posting an update tomorrow; I'll have the bulk of the case itself done by then, but there's still quite a bit to do before the project is finished.

I have to agree that almost all acrylic cases on the market aren't well designed and are about the same size as standard tower cases, which are too small for my needs.

I actually didn't set out to build an acrylic case; but rather designing a case that fit my needs, and acrylic seemed to be the easiest material to work with and has the added bonus of looking really snazzy.

Some progress pics are missing since one of my memory cards died

Polished the edges of the outer panels








Also installed the PCI mounting bracket




Cut out/polished the CD slot cover


Placed in the slot on the front panel


Made some side pieces for the 5 1/4" bay


Glued them into place


With a drive in place
[img]http://ocidb.com/albums/userpics/10005/Drive-Bays19.jpg[/img]

This evening I'll mount the drive bays; so stay tuned for another update

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Double Jebus!
Friggin Awesome dude.

Thanks soundx; I'm very happy with the way it's shaping up.

radodrill, you're doing a great job on that case!

It looks better than many acrylic cases I've seen for sale in the past at mod shops and such.

Are you using actual polish on those edges, or are you "flame" polishing them?

Thanks a lot!!

I'm using the Novus plastic polishes. I sanded them with 120Grit; then use Novus #3 followed by #2 and #1. If I have to do work on a large surface I wet-sand with 600Grit before using the Novus.

Another update; The case itself is finished so next I'll have to make the base and do the wiring

Cut acrylic pieces for mounting the drive bays


Polished the mounting pieces


Glued the mounting pieces to the drive bays


Gluing the drive bays together


Finished Drive Bays


Lining up the drive bays on the top panel


Drilled screwholes at the front of the drive bays


Drilled out holes in top panel


Tapped holes in the drive bays


Screwed them together


Drilled holes at the back of the drive bays
[img]http://ocidb.com/albums/userpics/10005/Drive-Bays30.jpg[/img]

Drilled out the holes in the top panel
[img]http://ocidb.com/albums/userpics/10005/Drive-Bays31.jpg[/img]

Several shots of the assembled case
[img]http://ocidb.com/albums/userpics/10005/Case2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://ocidb.com/albums/userpics/10005/Case3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://ocidb.com/albums/userpics/10005/Case4.jpg[/img]

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radodrill, how tall is that case, and how much does it weigh?

I forget - are you going to put casters on it? (Don't remember if anybody asked about this!)

BTW - U a brave guy workin' on a project like this barefoot!

Ssshhh, don't take him out of the zone, he needs to be at one with the case!

Damn, that thing looks clean shiny. Great job on the polishing. Maybe I missed you mention it before, but did you think of a name for the project yet? I was thinking something along the lines of Crystal would be fitting.

BTW, you know I was gonna say something about that foot too, haha.

The case itself is 55cm tall; I'll be adding some LED illuminated acrylic case feet (~3cm tall). I'll also be building a wheeled base for it; black lacquered MDF with casters on the bottom.

I haven't weighed it yet so I couldn't say.

Around the house I'm always barefoot :tooth:

On the Bit-tech forums I've started calling it "RAD GT". RAD is one of my handles (also the username on my PCs); and the GT is a throwback to cars indicating high performance (i.e. Carrera GT).

I didn't intend to get my foot in the shot; I didn't really notice it until after I'd posted the pics.

HAR! I knew it!

radodrill, I've seen that happen sooo many times, where people have taken pictures of their feet by mistake when shooting pics of parts, usually for sales/trading threads or for worklogs!

At least it's just one pic; I've seen a lot of worklogs where most of the pics show off the shoes.

Didn't know you had a worklog going. Nice work. Wish I could actually come up with the time to start a project. Until I get my Dad in for knee surgery I am doing 12 - 14 hour days at the shop and then back to take care of him at night. It took me 3 weeks just to find time to install my Q6600.

If I attempt anything at the shop I lose too much time because everyone that comes in wants to know what it is I am building.

See I wasn't keeping you hanging in the other thread :tooth: this is even linked in my sig :cool:

Hope you get some time to work on projects soon; I'm now busier due to the new semester having started. BTW What kind of shop do you have?

General Auto Repair/ Machine shop is my bread and butter. I also do custom race engines and metal fab such as headers, turbo setups and rollcages but the flow on those jobs isn't enough to move into it exclusively. It does support my hobbies and allows me to play with my cars.

Cool; the custom work sound fun.

The custom work is great, gives me a chance to showcase my skills and have a little pride in the work I turn out. The drawback is, just like everything else, most people do not think in terms of quality vs. price but only the price. Even at that I make enough money off of the people that want quality to build myself some rather fast rides.

This is next years project. 30lbs of boost that should end up right around 1300HP packaged in a 1600lb car. Should be exciting..

sweet turbos :nod:

I usually look for quality before price. But I do price shop; if I can find the same (or same quality) product for less, then I'll go for the less expensive.

That's why I've got Bosch tools and not Skill or Black&Decker.

I finished making my PWM fan and lighting controller. It has 8 fan channels and 4 lighting channels (1 dedicated to the fan lighting). The fan LEDs are connected to separate headers from the fan itself.

First: the circuit I used

Edit: After testing the PWM fan controller with the Blackfire fans I realized that at low speeds the fans were "growling." By means of trial & error I discovered that if I replace the 0.1uF timing capacitor with a 100pF capacitor (raising the PWM frequency from 30Hz to 30KHz) the symptoms are resolved.

Installed 1 fan control channel to work out the layout


Here in the US I wasn't able to find anyplace that had the MIC502 fan control IC available in a DIP package; so I had to make due with the SMD version


Soldering on leads


1 DIPicized IC


All eight channels integrated on the PCB


Added power supply as well as headers for the fan LEDs and fan LED switch


Also installed headers for the case lighting control


And a pass-through MOLEX connector


The underside of the controller


The wiring for the power connectors will also be sleeved later on in the project.

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Nice controller. Must be nice to still have steady hands. Guess that's why you do what you do and I work with larger pieces of metal.

I need a mani for my turbo turd project (saturn) lol

Sleeved the wiring on the fan contoller


I also wired up and sleeved the switches for the case lighting as well as the power cables for the CCFL inverters


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Damn man, you make it look easy. My sleeving came out like crap.

Looking sharp

Thanks; but TBH the sleeving was easy (also the first time I've done it)

Sleeved the cabling for the front panel IO


Changing gears for a while; I cut out the MDF baseboard and rounded the edges


First coat of Lacquer paint


Back to the cabling; Wired up and sleeved the HDD LED, Reset Switch, and Power Switch w/ Power LED


Back to the baseboard again; Second coat of paint


Sanded smooth


I'm hoping to be able to get a piano-quality high-gloss finish; thus the use of the lacquer.

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With the quality of work I've seen and the progress so far, I'd have to say >>> You've got some talent! Excellent work!

Thanks a lot; I'm trying to get all the details as best I can.

This is my first time working with acrylic and my first project of this kind; but I'm by no means a stranger to working with tools or soldering.

I actually just started working with Pro/E this summer and this is my first real-world modeling/design project.

this looks too awesome, cant wait for the grand finale

Probably in about 2 weeks

Hopefully I can line up some hardware sponsors as well.

Current planned hardware list:
DFI Lanparty UT 680i SLI LT T2R/G
Intel Q6600 G0
2x1Gb DDR2-1066/1200
2x8800GTX/ULTRA
Creative X-FI XtremeGamer
CoolerMaster Real Power M1000
Lite-On LH-20A1L-06

Been watching. I'm really excited for this case.

BTW: Pro/E? do you have a link. Looks powerful.

http://www.ptc.com/appserver/mkt/products/...&dd=ProENGINEER

One of the best modeling programs I've used. I don't really like Autodesk Inventor; and haven't tried Solidworks. I once messed with Sketchup and it just wasn't intuitive for me.

i saw the first page with the models, i thought it was 3ds max or something like that

I've never used 3DS. Those pics are from the assembly view BTW.