Project: Blue-Hellfire

[Fuganater]

Looks good with those feet on it. But do you want to have a intake from the floor? Wouldn't you get a lot of dust from that?

[Cobra]

will be some dust but it will have a fan filter on the lower one so nothing but air gets in the system itself. i will prolly have to clean the filter once a month but i dont mind that part.. might make the filter a clip on unit to make it easier when i get to that part.

[Cobra]

btw happy bday fugs

[Fuganater]

:ddd

[Cobra]

found some more time for another update.

where i left off before we had new case feet and a chassis broke down into pieces.
i planned to add extra ventilation to the case with a bottom intake and an upper blow hole.
these of course need holes for the fans to draw air through.
here is where i get to come back to my £5 hole saw set and and let you know how much of a quality piece of equipment it really is.
the poor thing didn't have a chance in hell of cutting a hole through either steel panel.5 minutes at low speed effectively damn near flattened the teeth of the cheap blade right out barely scribing the circle shape into the case floor.
it did good on the plexy for the front but appears to be useless for anything pertaining to metal.
finally giving up on the hole saw idea i grabbed my jig saw and proceded to add the additional ventilation holes.

its not the cleanest cut in the world but after some attention with a file at a later date it wont look too bad.

the hole placement is set back far enough so the rear of the front turbine intake ends where the side of the floor panel intake begins.
should create plenty of air flow coming in.
now to take care of one of the exhaust mods to help remove some of that hot air.
i covered the top panel with tape and measured out where the power supply will end up. then layed out the placement where i want the upper blowhole.
grabbed my trusty jigsaw again(didn't bother even tryin the wanna be hole saw this time =o))
and this is what i end up with

now i don't think in the final product that this will be the only hole in the top panel.
i can almost bet that by the end of the build i also add a windows either over the optical's or the power supply.
just have to decide on that once i get to that stage i guess.

alright, lets take a look at the ugly stock rear panel

first off can someone explain to me why case manufacturers add extra holes to case bits for no apparent reason.

how is someone actually supposed to be able to control and direct air flow is there are extra holes and louvers all over the place to dissipate the slip stream.
eh first to close up the louvers..grabbed the small hammer and the 2.5lb mini sledge to use as a backer.
holding the mini sledge against the back of the panel i lightly tapped down each louver with the small hammer until all the gaps were closed.

the back panel itself had mesh covering the area where 2 80mm fans could reside. i wont be needing this much ventilated real estate so i will have to fill some of the stock mesh.
grabbing some masking tape i first masked the rear panel from the inside. then came to the outside and only applied masking tape to the area where the 120mm fan will sit.

then i grabbed my body filler and *POOF* i got thrown outside again.......
eh at least its a nice day out hehe
ok so i mixed up some body filler and carefully covered the area where the louvers were and also the vent area. this also took care of a few other random holes the manufacturer put in the case for no apparent reason.

let dry for about an hour and peel off the tape.
then i was left with this

grabbed my trusty sander to start knocking things down to level

and ended up with this

still needs more work to get it totally flat but it looks much better than the stock crap already in my opinion.
i will be removing that stock mesh area once i get things leveled out and replacing it with something different. havent decided with what yet but you will be the second to know.(wife being first)
ok since the rear panel needs a bit more filling and sanding and you guys know how all that looks already i will move on to a different bit and just bring back the rear panel later in the build when i am ready to cut the stock grills and get it ready for paint.
important bit:
i need a show of hands here......who thinks the stock panel on this case looks like crap?

(/me raises hand, annoys wife long enough to make her raise her hand and threatens to take away his 2 girls pocket money away for 2 weeks if they don't raise their hands as well)
ok majority rules.
now we have to do something about it.
since the beginning i have planned a window in the case but i didnt want a basic rectangle or circle.
i also want to stay with the hellfire theme i have picked so i covered the whole side panel with masking tape and started testing ideas with my wife as a control panel
(she doesn't really get into modding and just kinda puts up with me cause she loves me) after a few different sessions of hearin her eh, ugh, ewwww, i got to a " that one looks ok"

once i had the design layed out i ran out to the back garden.
eh i would have gotten kicked out here anyhow once i start cutting so i might as well save a step and just start here for a change.
grabbed my drill with a fair sized bit and drilled a hole at the center or each flame curve.

starting points for the jigsaw.

after about 30 mins i ended up with a rough version of what i want it to end up like

this week i will see if i can spend a few hours cleaning up the edges a bit on the flames . the jigsaw does an adequate job but does leave rough edges that will need to be filed down and sanded.
i think thats it for todays update..
weather is supposed to be nice so i will spend some time out in the garden

( prolly sanding or dremeling something)
and maybe get the BBQ fired up later today =o)

note that its modded too..got the biggest charcoal one (gas is cheating for real BBQ) available, then brought it home and sunk it into the top of a stainless steel hospital table. 17 jigsaw blades later i have a great BBQ with a work surface built in =o)
cya soon

[calumc]

nice work, +rep

[Eclecticos]

Great Job on those flames, looks really cool!

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Great work, and kudos on an awesome BBQ space too. +rep

[Cobra]

i was gonna grab one of Bills Blowhole covers from Mnpctech for the top but i figured i would try my hand at a custom version first and see if it fit the mod a bit better.
i grabbed a piece of plexi and cut it to the rough dimensions of the cover i want.
then i traced on the outline of an image i planned to use.
out came the dremel.
after 30 mins of

and

i had the image cleaned up sufficiently to hit with some primer.
that left me with

covers the hole fine in the top of the case

and will look good once i add some mesh behind it.

i dont think it looks bad and it will fit in with the theme fairly well once painted and installed.
also with the mesh.i look around locally for "expanded metal" mesh as i am a cheap sob lol
heres a bit of a tip if your looking for cheap (free) mesh
hit up the local quick change oil service places in your area.
ask them if they have any of the old air filters in thier trash ( if they say no they are lyin.)
the mesh backing on them is great as a use for grills and the likes

recycling at its finest =o)

[Eclecticos]

Wow that really turned out great! The Scull is awesome +Rep
Another good place to look for free mesh is the dumpster near a residential construction site. I found approx 60lbs of aluminum expanded metal scraps there.