CyberDruid

I am a professional--do not try this at home--no wait--DO try this at home!

A lot of case mods involve acrylic--so does a lot of Water Cooling when it comes to reservoirs. Everyone has a different idea about what looks good so this FAQ will focus on the technical details of milling and assembling acrylic with a little about laser etching and indirect lighting.

One of the coolest things about acrylic is that it is transparent to light--it makes good windows--and water-tight--so all sorts of aqua-modding is feasible--and it is assembled by fusing with solvent--making any good joints very strong and clear and watertight also--no screws required!

In order to work with acrylic the first thing to do is look in the phone book and find a local plastics shop--sign shops also are a good choice. The reason you want to find a sign shop or plastics shop is that they have CNC and laser cutting machinery the home-modder is unlikely to own. Not that you cannot cut the acrylic yourself--but certain items like fan grills or respective parts are much cheaper to have made than make if your time is worth money doing something else (like working for a living).

Planning the part or window on paper and coming up with exact measurements is key whether you are ordering precut acrylic or planning to cut it out of sheet stock yourself. If the object will be 3D like a reservoir it becomes critical that all edges align in order to make a slick, leak-free piece.

You can cut acrylic yourself on a table saw (with a special blade that has 0 or negative hook to the teeth-a triple chip carbide saw blade will produce the smoothest cuts)--with a jigsaw (Bosch is the best and they make special Swedish Steel blades for plastic)--or with a router (using a carbide top or bottom bearing router bit). Whenever using power tools wear a face shield or glasses and even a mask. Plastics melt and burn when cut with dull carbide or steel and the edges will require some dressing if they are to be joined.

Once you have cut the acrylic you will find that the edge is not perfect (unless laser cut) and is dull, rough, or even hairy. Sanding will only make the edge duller and hairier--the tool to use is an extremely sharp and flat blade or scraper (a utility knife held perpendicular to the surface and dragged along with light pressure is one way) which will level the edge and pull off the hair and roughness--it is not a good idea to polish edges you plan to join with solvent--a simple scraping with care not to bevel or scoop out the edge will yield the correct finish for glue-up.

In order to have a good assembly a dry fit is in order--use masking tape and put the box or whatever together and see if all the vertices line up flush without large gaps--small gaps will be filled in the process of fusing the plastic with solvent.

If you are only working with something flat you can turn your attention to lighting or other enhancements--this FAQ is not about how to mount a window to your side panel--but how to make that window make a statement about your modding skills. Laser etching is not very expensive considering you have the opportunity to take some artwork or logo you like and turn it into a glowing one-of-a-kind mod to your rig.

Most good plastics shops can take any grayscale jpeg image and produce it on acrylic. That means even fairly complex images are captured pixel by pixel in plastic. Unlit these etchings are impressive, but edge-lit they take on a life of their own--you can dial that up one more notch with UV reactive plastic.

By edge-lit I mean load photons into the sheet of plastic from one or more edges--not only will this make all the edges glow but the edges (microscopic though they may be) of the laser (or dremel) etching also glow. What is surprising is that when Cold Cathode lighting is used the acrylic "loads" with photons and actually starts fluorescing--even regular acrylic does this. The longer the light is on the brighter the acrylic object becomes!

One good way to edge light acrylic is by routing a groove the size of the Cold Cathode tube in the edge (if the plastic is thick enough) or laying the CC tube longwise with the edge. To enhance the effect conceal the CC tube in an opaque tube or pipe or box with a slit just wide enough to slot the acrylic into--that way only the acrylic is emitting light--the light source hidden.

Another way is to drill LED-sized impressions in the edge and insert the lensed part of the LED into the acrylic--this creates hotspots--which are great if that is the effect you want.

Acrylic Rod (available in all sorts of colors) also can be used to "pipe" light or "beam" light to other acrylic parts. Rods lit on end with LEDs or CC tubes do glow a little--but "frosting" the outside of rods or sheets will increase the effect but diffuse the source--more glow--less intensity.

Now back to assembling your reservoir or whatever...you have test fitted the parts and made any last minute adjustments. Now is the time to clean the panels one last time and make a clean flat level area to glue them up. The solvent comes in little cans and evaporates rapidly--the applicator is a small plastic bottle with a screw on capillary-type "needle". Use gravity to your advantage by arranging the pieces so that one rests on the other--no clamps are required--the weight of the material is usually sufficient to close the slight gap in the joint. Fill the applicator less than half full and (this can be tricky the first time) run the needle along the vertices of the pieces you wish to fuse together. No adjustments can be made after the solvent is applied--so do not move the pieces afterwards for at least 10 minutes.

A note here regarding how to apply the solvent. The solvent instantly liquefies the acrylic so any spills cannot be wiped up--let it be and come back to it later when we get into final polishing. Likewise too much will make an ugly glue joint to the surrounding area and too little cannot be remedied later with more solvent as oftentimes the gaps from too little solvent are trapped like bubbles and more solvent will not reach them. Experiment with some scrap pieces first!

After the pieces you can get at are set up move the object around and use gravity to help you assemble the object. A little tape can help--but many times the solvent creeps under the tape and scars the acrylic. The solvent creeps into the joint via capillary action and cannot be forced--a light touch is required.

Once the piece is cut, etched, routed and glued it is time to fix any damage from the solvent or blend any overlapping joints. One good way to do this is with a buffing wheel and white rouge--although sandpaper can be used for correcting egregious errors in alignment it creates a lot of work later. If at all possible try to polish out the defects with rouge followed by 3M Finesse--or any other good Auto body compound--in finer and finer grades ending with a good liquid plastic polish (available wherever you got the plastic). Polishing is going to take the most time--which is why laser cutting is such a time-saver leaving glass-like clarity requiring no polishing at all.

Acrylic is available in sheet rod or tube in thickness form 1/8" to 1" and in many tints and even as mirror or one-way mirror. An entire case of acrylic could be self-designed in CAD and emailed to a local shop the shipped back in pieces for you to assemble--ditto artwork or logos for windows--just shoot them the specs and the files needed and wait for the post...

I have not gone into how to use the tools involved because I feel that unless the individual is already comfortable running such potentially dangerous equipment any internet advice could result in an unfortunate mishap. This is not to say a complete novice cannot pickup a jigsaw and make a window or reservoir.

I will add that the only way to reproduce acrylic parts accurately requires making a router template or precisely setting and operating a saw. The beauty of spending hours making a plywood pattern is that once it is perfected it can produce a vast number of identical parts using a patterning bit and a router. Making a template, fixture or jig requires some understanding of all the nasty things that might happen if either the work piece or the tool gets away from the operator--I have a thumb that looks like a nine-banded armadillo where my router backed up over a straightedge while trimming some sheet stock. So take care to ensure the work piece and the templates are both held down to a solid work surface.

I hope this is of some use to all you modders out there, I have included a shot from some acrylic work I did for a customer--Good Luck!

EDIT: I have added a photo guide that should be self explanatory. The shots are from my entry in one of our Case Mod Competitions. WaterClocker took 5th place that year. Hope this gets you excited about modding!

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--Filip--

Very nice guide! I love that bottle holder...make me one! :D lol

CyberDruid

I want to make a slab-sided case like that using the thick stuff with hidden lights--I never get the time to CAD it all out...

Melraidin

cums => comes, please!

CyberDruid

Thank You--here are some juicy shots of the glow effect that the laser etching exhibits.

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The Duke

You are GOOD!!!

demol1sh3d

omg Glass case Pwnage!

Anton

wow if i had the money ide ask you to make me a window lol they are sooo good !!!!!

mitchc05

awesome work..good helpful guide

CyberDruid

Wow--of all my FAQs this is the one I get the most strokes for! I appreciate all the nice words! If anyone ever wants some custom laser-etching or other acrylic work just PM me--I work for free and provide my own materials... (joking!)

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