Project - Air Cube v2

[blueonblack]

Maybe I'm missing something in the construction but that panel looks perfectly bisymmetrical, any reason you couldn't flip it over?

[Waynio]

Only some of the holes line up correctly if I flip it over unfortunately and they are countersunk pretty deep into the panel so the holes would have become bigger, so I will have a go at slimming the pattern holes a bit which will let more air pass through also, maybe it is salvagable.
I still have 4 x 750mmx500mm x 1mm sheets, so should have quite a bit spare after making the front optical extension & hdd cages, I guess 2 or even 3 sheets left over, so if worse comes to much worse I could re do the front panel but with 1mm thick.

[blueonblack]

Before you go to all that work, have you actually put fans up to the grill and turned them on? You'd be surprised how much noise air flow can make through certain shapes and sizes of holes. Hate to see you go to all that work and get it looking great only to have it too loud to use. I made that mistake with my last build. Good GOD was it loud, but when I took the fan grills off, poof. Instant quiet. Just a thought.

[Waynio]

Thanks for the info on the extra noise blue, thats picked me up a little after todays modding, you'll see why.

They were slight overcuts in some areas, the edge joints were weak in the left and right grills, the middle grill was very good.

here is the back side, the mounting holes for the front panel did not align 100% and would have required drilling the case making it in to a mess.

Simply too scuffed up for looking good after polishing.

When I started trimming the rough areas down, I thought I'm gonna pull this off and was looking good, But when I nearly completed filing 1 of them, 1 of the spokes broke off so I cut every other spoke off and shortly after figured they would not be strong enough to be polished so as gutted as I was I cut all of the grills out, filed and sanded the holes down to a smooth finish and that is that, just wish I chose the simple grill of lines.
I have enough spare mesh to cover all 3 holes so it is back to being basic now.

I don't drink but I think I'll have a few tonight to refresh .

So next up will be to make the front optical extension.

[DonT-FeaR]

oh man that sucks it broke!

[blueonblack]

Damn damn damn!! Sorry to see it, especially after you put all that work into it. Don't despair, there are endless varieties of fan grills out there, and they're not hard to make on your own, either. Now you'll be able to change them out as your mood changes.

Those were too damned Christmasy anyway. (j/k, they looked very good)

[The boy 4rm oz]

Sucks it broke mate but I think I like your new template better anyway.

[Waynio]

Yes it does suck a bit, but oh well on to the next part, the front optical extension.

Those were too damned Christmasy anyway. (j/k, they looked very good)

lol .

I'm over it already, the booze helped get my mood better, baileys in coffee doesn't get me drunk but mellows me out , the lined template is the one I should have chose over the complex one, just put it in the pic as example of what I could have done.

[Waynio]

After the nightmare with the grills I'm keeping everything else simple as possible except for the front extension, seems everything I have been doing since then has been a bit shabby, maybe I need a bit of a break from it, dunno.

The front extension
1st I made a paper version of what I wanted & cellotaped it together and lay it flat and taped it down and marked around it on some sheet alu so I could do it in 2 pieces rather than 4 for a nice clean look, but because I really should have designed it 1st in google sketchup so I could get accurate dimensions, it turned out wrong.

So for this case I will be doing the front extension in 4 pieces like my last case, I designed it on google sketchup this time to get accurate dimensions.

I have all the parts cut to size and bent properly, I'm currently working on the angle bar connetors for holding the 4 pieces together, its not going to be easy getting this part spot on, I have countersunk rivets so they won't stick out like my last case.

Pictured is the 2 piece version I badly made with the 4 piece version I'm working on, doing all the parts are pretty easy except for the mounting brackets, rather hard to mark correctly, the normal angle pieces are pretty easy it is the different angle pieces which are hard to get right.

The metal bender I have came with 1 full length steel slab for putting on top of the piece to be bent and only allows for simple bends, I tried using 1 of the flat bars cut to a perfect size to allow me to do tighter bends right next to each other but the only flat bar I have is 20mm deep so it leaves a print of a 20mm bar but bends my piece really well so when I get a 70mm deep bar and cut to size I will be able to do this spot on.

I would even be able to make my own pci/io back panel so I won't have to recycle or source another motherboard tray and back pci/io part again except for 1 to flatten out so I can use it as a template.

The countersunk rivets are very hit and miss if they connect good, the countersunk bit on the rivets are not as deep as the screws I have been using so some of them are not staying firm, this is my 3rd attempt and looks like I will have to re do the upper part and the sides on the extension again, either I got lucky when I did this first time round on my prototype or I'm just having a bad few days, the bottom piece is perfect so I can use that at least.

[Waynio]

New progress, seems a long time since I've been able to say this .

My dad told me about this stuff he had after my 3rd failed attempt on the front extension, so I gave it a try and left it over night, when I went back to it today I tried pulling it off by hand, it stayed completely secure so then I tried ripping it off with pliers and it is rock solid so I went and bought a fresh 1 today.

These are the angle bar pieces bent to correct angle in vice and filed flat.

Here are all 4 pieces dry fitted after I positioned and sticking the angle bar joints together with drives in.

Here it is after I stuck the pieces together, I just used whatever I could find to keep a bit of pressure on it while it sets, I'm leaving it until tomorrow and hopefully it will be strong and ready for mounting, if this fails for a 4th time I will try 1 more time before designing a different front extension.

Also, I have ordered the polish .