Night of the Living Dead 40th Tribute

That was a very fast pounce. You were lying in wait, or something.


Thanks for subscribing!

I is cunning like a duck.

i like it keep it up

Today we pick up where I left off the other day. Here is the back panel filed down to fit and look nice:

Notice that I also cut notches out of the top to accommodate the tabs of the top panel.

Moving on, I set to work on cutting the fan hole on the front panel:

Lining up where this hole is going to go is critical – I screw this up, it's not like I have a spare. Thankfully, all went well.

Next step is to cut the corresponding hole in the chassis.

Here is everything put back together:

Note: I purposefully cut the hole over-sized to accommodate the “bricks” and fence that I will be putting in later as a grill.

This next picture is a mock up with an optical drive and USB bay installed, along with some scraps of wood sticky-tacked up. This gives more of an idea as to what the finished front will look like.

Thanks for stopping by again!

looking good cant wait for this one

ding dong your header's done...

Oh, bra-vo. Very nice indeed. Just for this, I will have an update posted in the morning.


Thanks!

ok thats a really nice header

Yeah....I am totally a fan.

Today’s entry: Fun with side panels (I had to get there eventually…)

One of the major difficulties with this case that the side panels are connected to the bottom panels, making it rather difficult to make it work with the stand I made for it:

(Blurry. Ew. Sorry.)

You can see the lip at the bottom of this picture. This is the smaller one – the other panel has almost the whole bottom tray connected to it.

The other problem is that, to connect, the panels need to have tabs inserted and then the whole thing slide up. Even without the bottom lip. This was going to be awkward, as the stand is not going to make it easy to slide it. Thankfully, the bottom accent pieces come off:

What this will allow me to do is to cut the bottom off, as well as shave a little over a quarter of an inch of the side. This way, I can set it in place and slide it up – then replace the accent, and it’s all covered up. The added bonus is that the accent piece doesn’t move up and down, so when it is snapped in, it locks the whole panel in place.


I hope.


Before

After

…And in place.

Hey, it worked! I almost appear to know what I’m doing! Sure enough, the accent piece locks everything in place. I love it when plan comes together.

Again, the other side – which is the main access side – has almost the entire bottom of the case attached to it (Packard – what were you thinking?) But not for long.

Note: I used a jig saw for most of the cut, and the snips just for the last ½”. I just happened to notice at that point that I had never taken a picture of the bottom section.

Just like the other side, it fit perfectly:

Now, with these modified, the bottom of the case is open in to the stand where the power supplies and one of the optical drives are going to live.

Next step – the window.

First, I opened it back up so that I could mark the top of the case where the drive cage ends. I figured that it would end up making the window too small, but I wanted to at least see if I could cut the window without exposing it. No major reason, just that drive cages aren’t the prettiest things in the world.

I’m a very visual person. There are neater, cleaner ways of planning things out, but I like to just draw things out with Sharpie and get a look at it – especially when it’s something that’s going to be sanded, primed and painted black anyway.

When all was said and done, I had this:

The left box would be the window. A.) It just looks too small and B.) it was going to be in the way of some internal stuff…so, back to the drawing board. Here is the inside of the side panel:

This way, I get a good look at everything and what I have to work with. Since it’s obvious that the window is going to be big enough to show the drive bays, I can work from the inside out. The only hang-up is going to be those two tabs right in the center that lock the plastic part of the panel in place. It’s not a show-stopper by any means – since I can secure the plastic by other means – but it’s something to be aware of.

Here is what I will be going with:

Okay, so obviously, my next update is going to be cutting that window out. After that, the only structural thing left is the blow-hole.