My first Dremel work.

[B[x]]

I've recently been getting interested in case modding and have been thinking up possible mods. I definitely want to design my own window so I'm looking into using the Lian Li PC-61 since it's a solid mid-tower case without any holes or ridges to get in the way of whatever design I wind up with.

A little background on my current design - I go by my last name amongst my friends which begins with an 'S'. For that reason I wanted to incorporate an S into the design. I came up with the following design using AutoCAD 2006 (the blue is what will be cut out):

Initially I was thinking of using the water jet cutter at my school to accurately cut out a window. However, my impatience led me to buy a Dremel tool (the XPR 400) and a couple files to test out a design on an old case to see how it looked off paper. After spending a few man hours on cutting it out and filing it down I'm pretty happy with the result. I had to scale down the design to fit inside of the ridges of this panel. By the way, since this design has point symmetry, some of the pictures are backwards due to me placing the side panel the wrong way. Oh well. The final pictures are of the correct orientation.

Laying out the printed out design on the case inside of the ridges.

I etched out the design onto the case and peeled off the tape. In hindsight that wasn't the best of ideas - I should have left the tape on to prevent the stray marks. Ignore the red cross hairs, I put them on in haste and they were off the mark. I ended up ignoring them and taping on the design by eye since this was a test piece, after all.

The four circles were cut out. Before resizing the design to fit this panel, these holes were 80mm across; I was playing around with the idea of putting fan grill over these holes. This idea is still be mulled over. I might affix them somehow to the piece of lexan on the inside as not to mar the side panel with unnecessary holes.

The larger rings were cut.

As with all rotary tool work, the edges are rough and sharp.

The edges are filed down a bit and the contour holes are roughly cut.

The contour holes are rounded out and all edges are filed down to be finger-smooth. Ignore the blue marks on the contour holes.

Keep in mind that this is my first experience with using a rotary tool on aluminum so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. My next step would be to take some bondo to fill in the stray marks and such. Afterwards I'd sand it down and prime/paint it. Since this is just a test piece I'm not going to go through all that just yet.

Let me know what you guys think of my design and workmanship. Also, if you have any suggestions as to what can be changed with the design as well as what can be done with the rest of the case, let me know. I'm more into physical alterations than playing with color schemes. I'm definitely going to stealth my drives and will probably play around with lipping some fan holes like Defyant did in this mod/guide.

[Cannibal23]

looks like some really good cutting dude. might i suggest something for you though to save you some hassle next time. if your going to paint your case side. next time concider sanding it down before you cut. that way its more rigid and you wont have to worry about sliceing your self. but that looks like some choice cutting dude. its tricky to get rounded edges

[qoou]

its terrible!!! lol jk. thats freakin awesome.

[.Maleficus.]

That is awesome, great work man.

[Razors Edge]

Wish I could cut like that, Yeah now just sand all the corners down and give it a nice pro paint job, and you have you're self a mod

[B[x]]

Thanks for the praise, guys. Hopefully I'll be able to replicate it when I use the actual case.

might i suggest something for you though to save you some hassle next time. if your going to paint your case side. next time concider sanding it down before you cut. that way its more rigid and you wont have to worry about sliceing your self.

I don't see how sanding the panel prior to cutting would make it more rigid, would you mind explaining?

its tricky to get rounded edges

Agree. It took me the first two circles to get used to it but following the tips in this guide helped quite a bit.

[Rankenphile]

very clean lines. nice job.

[Cannibal23]

when i said more rigid. i ment as in the panel will not be all floppy cause there is a section missing so it wont bend or warp or set your self up because it unexpectedly moved to get sliced when you sand close to your cuts

[B[x]]

Ahh, I see what you're saying. I was planning on doing the sanding by hand on a flat surface so that the S would be reinforced.
Another idea I had was to put wooden slats on both sides of the S and clamping them together in order to prevent it from bending. When it came time to sand where the slats were, I would simply move them.

[simon275]

Wow nice cutting. I can never get power tools to work for me unsteady hands. Need more sleep and less caffine I guess.

What you should do next is:
Sand her up. A slap of piant here and there, mount a sheet of plexi behind it or mesh to keep the dustbunnies out, put some lighting behind it. And most importantly post some pics of you finished work.