[Professional] shinji2k's whiteOut

Here's a little taste of things to come.


Edited by shinji2k - 7/1/10 at 7:15pm

I could bore you with an intro, but let's dive right in. I got a good deal on some 3/8" and 3/16" white acrylic.



I attacked a sheet of 3/16" with the ol' circular saw. High TPI carbide tipped blades are a must for acrylic.



Using a guide rail I cut out the piece for the outer shell.



This piece will be bent into a U shape and will slide over the frame making the sides and top of the case. I made a bending jig and went at it.







With a heatgun, clamps and some patience I ended up with that. It's a bit oversized, but I wanted to make sure the main body of the case went according to plan before I cut the final size of the shell. I didn't really care what the radius of the bend was, so instead of trying to force it to a size I liked I played with a test piece and noticed to naturally wanted to bend with a radius of ~3/8". Some of you know of my past experience with bending acrylic to a specific curve and it's near impossible. Going with a radius the acrylic was comfortable with made this attempt a breeze.

Now for some hot table saw action.







The main body is 3/8" and will be glued together. I originally intended to screw everything together with 6-32 SS socket head screws, but even the 3/8" acrylic had a tendency to crack when trying to drill and tap a hole from the edge. Because of that I actually scrapped my first idea and came up with a simpler design.

Here's a quick mock up to give ya a feel for the look.









The shell should slide over the main body and with the help of a couple tabs for alignment it should just sit on top of the body without any fasteners. This is a very rough layout, much tweaking and trimming is needed.

I wanted this to be as compact as possible but still providing enough room for two large video cards and optimum airflow, all while having a minimal exterior. It will be housing my sig rig, so providing good airflow to the video cards was the first priority for me. That said, the internals of the case will have an unconventional layout but I don't want to spoil anything. The outside dimensions are approximately 15" tall x 18" deep x 9.5" wide. It's not tiny but it's a little smaller than your standard mid-tower, except for width.

I am waiting on a package with fans, mobo tray, etc do any big steps, but I will start working on the PSU mount next.
Edited by shinji2k - 6/12/10 at 9:50pm

Time for the PSU mount. Did the inside cut out.



Drilled the holes with my nifty counter bore I picked up from McMaster.







Finished up the edges with a 1/8" round-over.





Here's an idea of where the PSU will go. The mount will be glued on to the walls towards the front of the case. I'll use an extension with a outlet much like the Lian-li PC-A05.





Time to do the fan panel/mount thingy. Two of these puppies will hopefully keep this case cool.



Needing to cut a 7" diameter hole in 3/8" acrylic I needed to make a template using the dremel and the circle cutter. I would have just used the dremel to cut the circles in the acrylic, but 3/8" thick acrylic was too much for the little thing.



Big hole.



Router, trim bit, etc...





A quick test fit after trimming the exposed edges with the 1/8" roundover.





The plan is to have a large exhaust vent at the top of the case. The PSU will draw in air from the inside of the case and exhaust out the top. I know the right angle will cause some turbulence for air flow, but the sheer CFM of those fans should negate any issues. Plus I will have the help of convection and the video cards will get plenty of fresh air.

Next I fabbed up some mounts for the panel. The holes were tapped to 6-32.





These will glue to the walls of the case and the fan panel will screw into them.







Now I need to find where I put that darn slim DVD drive.
Edited by shinji2k - 6/12/10 at 9:49pm

I made up a template for the I/O cutout.



To mount the I/O panel I tapped 6-32 holes about 1/4" into the back from the inside and secured it with 5/16" long socket cap screws.





Using the holes I tapped for the bracket, I secured the template to the back piece and did some trimming.





After the 1/4" round-over I'm left with...







Now it's time to work on the front. Cut out 3/4" holes for the vandal switches.





Found my slim DVD drive and mocked the placement up for it and the fan controller.







The fan controller is a Scythe Kaze Q, the PCB is all I need.



I tapped two more holes and mounted the fan controller to the back side of the mobo tray.



Template for the dvd drive opening.





And cut out the drive cover.





Tapped out the holes for the mobo standoffs.



I tore down my gaming rig for a couple essential components to map out my cable management holes. Did a little mock up and marked down where I need to cut some holes.







Then I borrowed this from a friend.



Busted out my 1/2" rod for the fan controller knobs.





I chucked those pieces into the drill press and started sanding and shaping.









I was going to polish them, but after sanding down to 1000 grit they look pretty good so I'll probably skip that. I drill a small hole and used some permanent marker to make an indicator.











One knob ended up a little shorter due to a mistake, not that it matters . Next up is probably figuring out the dvd drive mount. I hope to be lazy and use some velcro, but only if it is strong enough.
Edited by shinji2k - 6/12/10 at 9:48pm

I did most of my cable management holes. I still need to figure out exactly how I am routing the power cord before I can do those.





Did the standard 1/8" round-over on both sides.



Next up is the hard drive mounts. I ordered a X-25M 80GB for the main drive and a 320GB 7200RPM, 2.5" WD Black for storage. I went with the small drives to be able to fit them behind the mobo. Here's the piece of 3/16" acrylic I cut for the mount.



Counter sunk the screw holes on the back.



Tapped two holes into the mobo panel to mount it.





Did a round-over on the edges and a polish to get a preview of how everything will look.





On to the DVD drive mount. Everything should be self-explanatory.







I needed a piece of alu in there as a shim since there is a lip on the drive.

My new drives came in the mail.





I scoured the internet for days looking for some cable clips/clamps for wire management on the backside of the mobo panel, but after finding nothing I liked I ended up with a small piece of 1/8" acrylic.



I tapped some holes and cut out some pieces and was left with this.



To get an idea of how it will all work, here's my shop PSU.





I will probably be buying some spacers to hide the threaded parts of the screws. I'll also have to cut the screws to length to make sure there is a little pressure on the wires to hold them in place.

Newark finally shipped my parts for the PSU power cord.



A hole was needed for the IEC 320 jack.







I also drilled a 1/2" in the mobo panel to thread the cord through. My 1/8" roundover was chucked into the drill press and finished up the edges.





There also needed to be a slot for the cord to go from the PSU to the back of the mobo panel.







I still need to grab a couple standard cable clips to secure the power cord extension to the panel. Luckily I had a white extension cord I could steal a couple feet off of, but it's pretty dirty/scuffed up so I'll have to give it a good cleaning. I might even need to take some sand paper to the jacket to get some of the crap off of it.
Edited by shinji2k - 6/12/10 at 9:47pm

After cutting the front and back panel to their final size, they were finished off with a 1/4" round-over.





It was a nice day out and since polishing is noisy, messy and I need lots of light to see what I am doing, I took everything outside. I'll be breaking out the big tools for this step. Here's what I need to polish.



And my angle grinder converted to a buffer.



Clamped the piece to a saw horse and went at it.



When using overpowered tools like that for acrylic, you need a light touch and you have to keep moving. If you stay too long in one spot it's nothing but bad news. I am also using a white compound I normally use for polished aluminum. It cuts more than compounds like jewelers rouge people normally polish acrylic with so I finished this step in no time. It also helps to be thorough when sanding. I find when I use this method to polish, I only need to sand down to 400 grit which also speeds up the process. After an hour I've polished all the edges I can reach with my 9" angle grinder.



I tried to get some up close shots of the polished edges outside, but it is just too bright out.

Time to go inside and work on the small holes and the smaller pieces that couldn't be done with the big buffer. I find I need two different Dremel accessories to polish acrylic. The first step is to use the hard cone shaped one to buff out the sanding marks and then I follow up with a soft drum buff to shine it up.



First, you sand it down to 400 grit.



After polishing with the hard buff it looks like this.



Then you shine it up with the soft one.



Repeat too many times.



For small pieces like the dvd mount and the cable management pieces I used a less aggressive wheel chucked into my drill.





And everything is polished.



On my way home from work tomorrow I'll pick up some clips to secure the PSU extension cord. After I clean up my work area the next step can be started: gluing everything together. After that is done I can finish up the cover. Once I paint the PSU, I/O panel, fan grills and a couple other small pieces the major work will be done. After that all I have to do is rewire the PSU and assemble. I can see the finish line, it's starting to get exciting!

Picked up some cable thingies and routed the power cord.





I cleaned up the workshop and laid out my pieces.



This acrylic was on clearance at Delvies. It was apparently quite old and the paper is really hard to take off, they claimed it was near impossible. But I have a little trick.



Soak a rag in it and wipe the paper down. Wait a couple minutes and the paper backing comes right off. If you don't soak it in mineral spirits it will rip off in small pieces. I removed the backing and cleaned up a couple piece to get ready for gluing.







Weld-on #3 is my friend. All the strength of #4 but dries to a decent bond within a minute or two. 80% strength still takes a few days. Now to glue the rear panel on.



Here's a shot of the front panel soaking in mineral spirits and more gluing.





Bonded the PSU mount and the fan mounts.







Some glamor shots and installed a few components for a test fit.











Now it's time for a sneak pick into my cabling plans. I wanted all white PSU cabling, but I didn't want to buy white sleeving from MDPC-X. So since I will already needed to adjust cable lengths, I just bought some white wire and will just rewire the whole PSU. That's the reason I purchased the Silverstone Strider Plus. It's a reasonably good performer, but most importantly it has fully modular cables making the rewiring job easier.



I need to force myself to let the case sit for a day or two for the bonds to strengthen up. I might try to paint the aluminum pieces in the meantime.
Edited by shinji2k - 6/12/10 at 9:46pm

I was wondering why the acrylic was looking kind of dingy in those last shots. I was taking some pics outside previously and I forgot to set my exposure back to +2/3 for inside shots. After fixing that I installed the shop PSU for a test fit.





Much better. I then took it back out to give the glue more time to cure. In the mean time I tried painting my IEC 320 jack.



I used some shrink wrap to protect the pins while painting. That paint is still quite wet.

Now it's time to work on the shell. Got it all lined up to mark where I need to trim off.



After some jigsaw/belt sander action...







I love white acrylic. After this is done I might make some bookshelf speakers out of my scraps. I wish I could make everything out of white acrylic . After I cut the hole in the top for the exhaust and the one on the side for the fan intake, major construction should be done.

Using the fan panel as a template I did the cutouts on the side.







Made a template for the top.









After sanding and polishing we have...







I cut out my mesh and taped them onto the cover for a test fit.







After I paint the mesh I will probably just glue it on. For now I will be experimenting with different paints. The gloss white looks a tad too white when put next to the acrylic, so I'm trying some various shades of white to hopefully find a better match. I fear even the lightest off-white will be too dark.
Edited by shinji2k - 6/12/10 at 9:45pm

I settled on gloss white for the paint, it's as close as I am going to get. I hate painting so don't expect much documentation on that step, I just wanted to get it done. I did take one pic, I think it's after one of the primer layers.



Here's how well the paint matches.



After the paint cured, the mesh panels were glued to the outer shell. I didn't really want to glue them, but that was the simplest method. Since my shop is dirty, I moved the case to my computer room for assembly and to do the wiring.

Here's the hardware installed.



And with the fans mounted, you can see how cooling is supposed to target the video cards.





Those fans should feed the video cards, CPU and PSU with fresh air with everything exhausting out the PCI slots or from the top vent.

And here's some money shots with the shell on. Lighting isn't the best in this room, but I'll be sure to get lighting ideal for the final shots.







Now it's time to work on the cabling. I purchased a fully modular PSU specifically for this case. That is because instead of individually sleeving each PSU wire white, I will make my own custom length cables using white wire and it being fully modular made this easier.

My wire, molex pins and molex crimper.



And that's a pile of 16" wires for the 24-pin connector.



I'm glad I bought that crimper, it does a fantastic job.


Edited by shinji2k - 6/12/10 at 9:44pm

I've tried a couple different ATX pin removers over the years, and nothing seems to beat a couple sewing needles.



Finished wiring up the ATX cable.







I was hoping to be more pleased with how the white wiring looks, but as I expected it just doesn't look right without some sleeving. MDPC-X is the only place I know that sells multifilament white, but the good thing about using white wire is that I can buy the cheap PET sleeving and it will look just fine. White PET is notorious for not fully covering wires, but I've outsmarted it. Some sleeving is on the way.

Moved on to the 8-pin.





I purchased some white 22AWG speaker wire to rewire the fans.







I also used it to power my fan controller.





Since the selection of white SATA cables is incredibly slim, I purchased some clear/silver ones and I will be sleeving them as well. I have a feeling you can seem them through the PET so I have ordered enough heatshrink to cover the sata cable before sleeving it. I'll also be doing that with the power cord since finding a white left hand angled IEC power cable was impossible.





I ordered the wrong size sata cable for the dvd burner so the new one is on it's way. I also started sleeving the fans. Sorry about the washed out white balance. The lighting in my two rooms is very different and I keep forgetting change the settings.





Time to start on the PSU cord.





I wrapped the whole thing in heatshrink before sleeving. You'll also see some spade type connectors to attach to the jack, but I cut those off and just soldered them on.







Time to sleeve the 8-pin and 24-pin.











Here are the wires for the 6-pin PCIe connectors in varying stages.









I've also wired up the switches and the SATA connectors.



These aren't the final shots since it still needs some tweaking, but it's almost done. The outer shell doesn't quite fit perfectly, I'll try to adjust the bends a tad. I also lost my slim line sata power connector for the DVD that I either need to find or order another.







The last shot is of the power and reset buttons. The top LED is the power and the bottom is HDD.

I found my slim SATA power cable, which means this is the last thing I have to do.







It's done!
Edited by shinji2k - 6/16/10 at 7:07pm

Final shots. I did the best I could with my crappy point and shoot.