Apple Heart Surgery - Page 2

Thanks for the kind words guys. I've been relocating the PSU inlet today and will finish it off Monday/Tuesday so there will be pictures of that. If I get the time towards the end of the week, I'll machine the case side panel window too

Just a small update this week. I haven’t had a chance to jump on a machine to do my side panel window, although I was looking at my rendering over the weekend just gone and I think I may have to relocate the HDD cages due to the radiators position.



So this week I’ve made the stand-offs for the motherboard tray. These are just simple 12mm stainless bar with M3 holes drilled and tapped through the centre. I also bought some brass/nylon stand offs for the motherboard as you can see here:



For the most part of this week, I’ve been relocated the PSU inlet socket. I began by cutting out and removing the original from my donor case, then tracing around the location on my project case and cutting the section out with a dremel and slitting disc.



Here you can see the PSU inlet and bracing layer of round hole mesh. Both items are rough cut at this point.



They were then trimmed to size to integrate into the existing case. The gap at the bottom of the bracing layer is to accommodate for the spot welded mesh on the PCI insert below.



The top of the bracing layer was keyed using 80gritt paper along with the inside of the project case. This helps the epoxy to grip – in this case, I was using araldite.
I used 2x 3mm drills to orientate the bracing layer to the existing bodywork to ensure the round hole mesh lined up (the same way as I orientated the 120mm diamond mesh fan grills). I then clamped it in place using mini toolmakers clamps and waited for the adhesive to cure.

Tip: If you’re using adhesive and need to clamp your work piece, place a piece of paper on the foot and top section of the clamp to avoid gluing the items together.



Once the adhesive had set, the drills and toolmakers clamps were removed and the bracing layer keyed again to remove any excess cured adhesive. I did this using a dremel with a steel wire brush rotary tool.



The top section is then keyed and glued into place. Again, it is orientated using 2x 3mm drills and clamped in place using C-clamps.



Once the adhesive has cured, the drills and C-clamps are removed and the join is covered with bodyfiller. It works better if you “chop” the filler into the joint. This ensures it sits right at the bottom of the gap and you have little/no porosity. It took 2 passes with the body filler to ensure an even coverage (filler, sand, filler, sand)

Tip: If you’re doing something similar with sheet mesh, it’s always better to mix up more filler than you would normally need, as a lot of it disappears down through the mesh holes.



The join once the filler has been flatted down. I used 80gritt paper on my DA sander to flat it off. You can achieve the same result using a medium-course grade of paper and a flat rubbing block. The mesh holes were then re-drilled using the same 3mm drill bit to remove any remaining adhesive and bodyfiller.



A quick squirt of primer to ensure the join is invisible and the finish is uniform and flat. That’s the PSU inlet socket relocated and installed.