Project - Air Cube v2

Thanks Mark :)

I thought about making my own mesh now I'm using a drill press, this is a rough example on some scrap I did with a few different size drill bits, if I do try this I will mark the piece for a good guide and can get pretty close to where the pci slots are.

This is how close I can get to the pci slot area.

I had to come up with an idea for using the reinforced cutting discs as the hole was too big for my mandrel so the discs were cutting ok but shortly after went flying off, here is my beta :).

The dremel fix works great and was able to do the whole psu hole and there is still plenty left on the cutting disc :), only bad thing about the dremel in the summer is it heats up fast, when I did my last case in winter it could go all day and not get a bit warm, so I will have to come up with something to cool it down faster.

My dad said he wanted to use the garage so I packed and cleaned up for the day, so More tomorrow.

:D Well my dad did not use the garage so I thought why not get back at it :):banana:.

Here is roughly how the psu is going to be mounted.

Well I went for it with trying my own mesh lol, the drill press was getting hot so had to have regular breaks from it so I would not damage it, these pics are spread out over quite a few hours, I used a 6.5mm dewalt drill bit, I think it turned out pretty good :).

1st marked the hole which the drill press could reach to and then made marks every 6mm down and across.

On with the drilling :).

I'll replace the final pic with a better one tomorrow when I have good day light, was getting dark when I finnished.

like your improvised "mesh" :P good work. looks very clean! :) +rep

I agree, the mesh is very well done, looks very even. :)

mesh is gunna look wicked once you take the lines off..

Thanks for the feedback m8s :) it was a gamble doing the mesh I know, but I have to say it looks damn good, so relieved :).

Tried using a hole saw I bought a while ago, I was had as it is for wood not metal, price for a good near 120mm metal cutting hole saw is close to £30 I paid £10 so my fault really.

So had to go back to my dremel for doing the fan hole, got about a 3rd of the way round and it was too hot to hold, so thought ok I will make a cooler for it right away with a couple of noisy high cfm fans and a bit of scrap aluminium, it works very nice :D, it takes a minute or less to get it nice and cool again, where if I just let it cool off by itself it takes up to an hour.

And here are a couple of shots with the plastic pulled back a bit :).

Only the edges need sanding so it is nice and smooth then the back panel is done and ready for painting or pollishing, Woohoo :).

looks great man! good work

That looks like a real big case, what's the final measurement? (Sorry but in a hurry since its near end of office hour :D )

Hech yeah that "mesh" came out great. I tried that once and failed miserably. +rep fo sho

Thanks for comments everyone :).
On the google sketchup the frame alone was 360mm wide, 360mm deep, 423mm high but I decided I will be mounting 3 120mm fans on the front so had to make a simple change of width to 390mm which will give better space for hdd's also.
I just measured the form of it now and it is 387mm wide, 365mm deep, 442mm high. That is with panels on.
But I will be putting an extension on the front also like my last case only better I hope :).
After I made the frame, it is mostly all freestyle pretty much althou I am also thinking what will be best before I actually go for it.


Here is my method for marking a mountable piece, I used this method for the front of my last case. Mark around the piece and cut Cotton buds to size and push them into the holes on the piece I want to mount and put a blob of paint on the ends, then carefully press it against the panel and we should have perfect marks for working on :).

Here is my psu stand wip, since this pic I have siliconed the bars together and I'm leaving them clamped until tomorrow and then sand them down and mount.

And here is a few shots of the 3 fans mounted (not these fans, akasa apache's are going in the final build), I'm yet to cut the holes for the fans, I found out about the Dremel 545 Diamond Wheel and is supposed to be awesome, long lasting and is nice and thin for detailed work so have ordered 1 and just after I ordered it I seen 1 on ebay for £6 so ordered that too :).

Just about perfect fit for 3 120mm fans, ultra close.

And finally I have decided not to paint it and try to polish the whole case to a mirror finnish, should be quite a mission :).