Smooth-n-Fold Cube Case Mod
by Jolly Swagman





I Produced this Mod a little while ago and is posted up at OCForums.Com and thought you all would also like to see it here too.

Project Started 20/06/2008

This mod will take into account the Old and the New and the idea came to me after a Well known Senior Member Adak- from OCForums, Graciously Donated to me a
Gigabyte Motherboard (GA-965G-DS3) and Intel C2D E6700 Proc, also 2gig Corsair XMS2 6400-800Mhz 4-4-4-12 Ram, to be added to my T32 Folding Power

So the need for somewhere to house this wonderful Hardware package, has led to a two fold mission,
1/ A case for the above hardware (see pic-1) and 2/ a New Home for my SmoothWall Firewall.

So after looking through my Old Parts Cupboard and the two Old PC cases (see pic-2) that had from Previous builds and old Server,
the idea came to me to combine the two to make one Stacked Cube and House both, But with a twist it will be a hinged folding Cube for easy access to both sections.


The Motherboard



The Old Cases


Tools Used
Drill & Drill bits
Pop Rivet Tool & Pop Rivets
Tin Snips
Jig Saw
Various Metal Files
Emory Clothe & Sandpapers

Materials Used
12mm Custom Wood
4mm Ply Wood
6mm Plexi
Metal Thread Screws 4mm x 15mm
Zip ties
Cable mounting blocks


Other Hardware to be Incorporated
LiteOn DVD/RW Sata
Pushbutton Switch with LED for PC power
Pushbutton Switches for Power/reset
4mm & 3mm Red/Green LED's Power/HDD activity
500W PSU for C2D (New)
350W PSU ( for Firewall)
4 Gig USB Flash Drive (Notfreds Folding)
2 x 92mm Case Fans
2 x 80mm Case Fans
1 x 120mm Smart Temp Case fan
20 Gig IDE HDD (for FireWall)

After Removing the old hardware from the cases now we begin to strip down the cases too, gut out the innards.

Cases Stripped & Gutted



To make the Cube the cases will be laid on there sides and stacked






Things to be Done are to remove 80mm Fan Grills and enlarge to 92mm, Install HDD cage and 5.25 DriveBay cage, Also for Total access to both Upper and Lower compartments see post #2 for the Twist

The Twist

As i said there is a very good Twist to this Case Mod that allows me Full Access to All Area's of the two compartments.

It will be Hinged in the Middle with a Piano type hinge so as to Open Out thus giving Full access to all area's (see pic-6/7)

Piano Hinge Installed



Opened flat out for easy access



Things to do - Make Front panels for upper and lower cases and Plexi for the Upper and Side panel,

See Next post #3


now I have installed the HHD Cage and 5.25 Drive Bays ( old CD Rom just for measurement purposes)

Have made the Plexi front Top Panel with 120mm Fan Intakeand Plywood surround also the Customwood Lower Front panel cut the Drive Bay Slot 92mm Fan Intake hole and power switch /led mounting holes.

Surround Plate for Plexi Front Panel



Pexi Panel Front Top



Customwood lower Panel



And now for a Mock up run to see the Panels in place




Things to do- Cut the panels out on the left side (EX Bottoms Case) for the Pexi Side windows,
Sand and Prime/ Paint case make Top Window

Made Top lid Panel and cut out for Plexi Window, also cut side panel cutouts for Side Plexi Window.
(will have pics for those up soon charging Camera Battery,lol)






Now just need to sand back everything in preparation for painting

Today finished off the sanding and some fine filing in preparation for painting ( Dam hands sore form all that,lol)

Just finished the painting of the case frame, and also the front panels and Top lid panel. (Now,,,waiting,,,,,,waiting,,,,,paint to dry for second coat, lucky I used Quick Dry, lol)

Will post up some more pics later when paint has dried.

All Dry Now Second coat where needed ,so here are the Painted Pics

Painted Front View


Painted Angle Side View



Painted Side Widowed View & Front Panels



Painted Foldout View



Painted Lid with Window Top view



All Case and panels Painted with Flat Black Enamel and then 2 coats with Clearcoat Satin Enamel

Thats all for today,
Things to do, Wire up power/Reset Switches and LED's for both panels and fit panels to front.

Then its on to the hardware fit out of the two systems Folding Rig in Top section / SmoothWall 3.0 SP/2 FireWall Below section !

More Updates to Follow

Well it is been a Few agonising days as we had a Bad storm and Internet went Down, then the HDD SmoothWall was on crapped out,:bang head and the other one I had as a spare did the same, :bang head so took the one out of the USB Case and hopefully 3rd time lucky,

Now just have to figure out this notfreds folding and we'll be all done.

Here are some Final Shots of the completed Project so far.

I am also thinking of putting aluminium angle on the front edges and top edge

And the F n S Emlbem on the 92mm intake Fan was hand cut out by me,
The Emblem name is actually the right one for the project as Fold n Smooth, seeing the Folding rig is at the top and SmoothWall below.


SmoothWall section



Rear Angled Shot
There is actually another Nic card in there too making it 4 in all.



Side Windowed Vie



Front View



Front/Side Angeled View and top Window



FnS Emblem



And yes I ran out of paint so Bottom didnt get done, but then who sees the Base and there are soft square feet on the base too.

And Yes thats an Intel Copper Alu HSF ,for Now.
Will be replacing with ACFreezer7Pro when a lil more financial soon.

there is a 4Gig Flash Drive to be used for folding, and thats a Sata DVD/RW drive

Thats all the Updates So Far, will let you all know how it all goes,

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