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LANBox How-To


Date
: 09/6/02 – 12:28:45 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cases

Page 1 : Index

AUTHOR :

Edited By

Introduction

All over the world the popularity for case modding continues to build. When it was first becoming popular I noticed it and was intrigued by the possibilities. Creating things has always been a hobby of mine so as soon as I could I started modding my case until there was essentially nothing left of it.

I needed a new case but buying one would be boring and expensive after modding it to suite my preferences, so I decided to build one! I had no tools to work with metal, and wood didn't seem like a good choice at the time, however for my next case (they're so fun to build!) I think some nicely stained wood would make the project look much better. I decided to go with Lucite (plexiglass). I also wanted more room to work with so I decided to make a big case 50cm Tall, 55cm Deep, and 22cm wide. However, after building the case, I found the huge size to be rather clumsy when moving and because I had not properly designed the HDD/FDD/CDROM mounting system I was forced to do a poor job of it.

I was determined to build a new case (the one in this how to ;) ) that would be smaller, more attention to the details, portable, and water cooled while at the same time allowing for it to be easy to work in. Even before my original ClearCase was finished I was already dreaming up my smaller 'LanBox', however the key issue remained. I needed the case to be as small as possible for portability, and yet as large as possible for room to work.

How can something be small and large at the same time?

Page 2 : Design – Requirements

Design – Requirements

1. Portable – It needed to be very small and stable
2. Workable – Somehow it also had to be easy to work in
3. Cost Effective – I wanted to make sure there were no surprises
4. Enjoyable – Proved hard at times, but overall was great!

From the beginning when I started imagining how the case would be those four requirements have stuck, and they've all been accomplished to a good degree.

The solution to the workable requirement were hinges. I realized my case didn't have to remain static but instead if I hinged the sides then the whole case could unfold allowing it to be nice and small when in use but when I needed to work in it I could unfold it, or part of it, and have tons of room to work with ;)

One of the key issues however was that I didn't want to have to unplug everything upon unfolding the case which meant I would need to run all cables along the case. This required really long cables and so some cables had to be extended. I wasn't worried though because I had already voided the warranty on my PSU last time when I attached my water cooling pump directly to my PSU switch.

Page 3 : Design – Case Dimensions/Lucite Use & CAD

Design – Case Dimensions/Lucite Use & CAD

Before proper design could begin the way the Lucite was going to be divided needed to be decided. This was because I can't get Lucite sheets tailored to my needs so I needed to plan my case to suit the sheets. I whipped out QCad and made some rectangles representing the Lucite sheet and the panels that would be cut out. To my horror I was not going to be able to fit everything on one sheet of Lucite by about 1 or 2 centimeters. I decided to revise my dimensions and so the case would now be only 44.5cm instead of 45cm. Barely any difference in height but it would have doubled the required Lucite otherwise.

When you consider all the holes, screws, and other things that need to be precisely placed in a case you realize that if you're going to build one you definitely want some blueprints to aid you. When I built my original ClearCase I used AutoSketch however it uses a format that nobody else supports and since my first case I moved to Linux so I needed to find a new CAD program. Because the entire case was going to be designed, which meant a lot of time was to be spent in a CAD program, finding one that was good was crucial. After trying out numerous ones I must say I'm very happy with, and would definitely recommend QCad to both Linux and Windows users. It's very easy to use once you get used to it, and also quite powerful. Visit the QCad website for screenshots

Page 4 : Materials

Materials

Case Materials

1. 6-32×0.5" Screws – Pack of 100 – $1.69
2. 6-32 Nuts – 5 x Packs of 20 – $6.90
3. 6-32×1.5" Nylon Screws – 10 – $1.00
4. 6-32 MB Hole Threading – 4 x Packs of 5 – $7.20
5. Hinges – 10 – $14.45
6. 6-32 Wing nuts – 10 – $1.10
7. Lucite 24x48x0.25" – $34.97

Subtotal: $67.31 Tax: $10.10 Total: $77.41 Canadian
Subtotal (US): $ 43.34 according to xe.com, of course that various with the exchange rate. But about $50 US.

Not bad for a custom case exactly how you want it, and no need to add a window ;)

However that price is only for the case and not the Watercooling accessories. The Lucite used for the CDROM/FDD mounting system, and the L Brackets were left over from my original ClearCase and so were not worked into the parts list, but neither would dramatically raise the overall cost.

Page 5 : Construction – Drilling and Testing

Construction – Drilling and Testing

The first temporary test of the sizing was done before the holes were drilled and it was just to make sure that the pieces fit nicely and that the case was going to be the desired size when assembled. They obviously fit together quite well considering I managed to get them all the balance together long enough to take two photos… it fell down immediately after ;) . You can make out the template drawings to a degree however for accuracy I used thin lines which were hard to see from a distance.

MB Tray Once the holes in were drilled the next assembly testing to be done were the ever so crucial hinges. Thankfully I was smart enough to test the hinges on the right panel before drilling any of the others because to my horror the holes didn't align properly with those in the Hinge! Ah! The adjustment was easy to do for future panels but I ended up having to enlarging the holes on the right side panel which weakened the crucial connections, however it's caused no major issues as of yet. Yeah! They work!

Thankfully after making the adjustment to the hinge hole placements all the rest of the panels' hinge holes aligned properly. Overall I'm definitely enjoying the hinges, they seem to pivot nicely and I doubt they'll ever need any kind of lubricant. The fabrication of them also appears to be done well so I'm sure they'll last longer than the Lucite ;) .

Page 6 : Construction – Cutting – Tools and Preparation

Construction – Cutting Tools and Preparation

To score and cut the Lucite I used scoring tools which were nicely right next to the Lucite in Home Depot ;) . I used normal screw clamps and QuickClamps to hold down the Lucite and other things. An aluminum T bar was used for marking and as a guide for scoring the Lucite. Dremel Zip Saw However scoring was only used to cut the sheet of Lucite into smaller panels. The more intricate cuts that were needed were done with the Zip Saw on a Dremel Cutting Tool. The Dremel was also used to sand, shape, and make lots of high pitch noises which caused my eardrums to hurt at one point :( . A cordless drill not shown in either picture was used to well… drill. Thankfully there's two battery packs so as I used one the other charged. And of course, where would I be without my trusty orangish red imperial and metric measuring tape (it just recently broke after completing the project *sniff*).

When preparing to score the Lucite to be cut into the generic panels I simple measure and clamped down the T bar to the Lucite. However for the more intricate cutting with Panels with Templates the Dremel I wanted a visual guide. To accomplish this I did the same thing I did for my original ClearCase. I printed off my CAD drawings at scale of 1 to 1, used a razor blade to trim off extra paper around the drawings and then used a glue stick to adhere the templates to the Lucite panels. The beauty of glue stick glue is that it all washes off with water, it's easiest to just let the panels soak for a little while then remove the paper. This makes cutting much easier and there's no harm done to the Lucite by harsh glues.

Page 7 : Construction – Cutting – Cutting

Construction – Cutting – Cutting

After the original sheet of Lucite had been scored and the templates glued to each one it was almost time to pull out the Dremel and start cutting the details. However the Zip Saw was made for cutting horizontally so all the start and end points of each cut needed to be pre-drilled, along with all the holes that simply needed drilling not cutting. In the picture the MB Tray only needed drilling and so by the time I'd taken the photo you can see I'd already removed the template. The other advantages of pre drilling the start and end points include a nicer join between cuts, and when cutting you can feel when you're done because you hit the hole.

Once the drilling was done it was finally time to break out the Dremel. Zip saw setup I decided to use the Zip saw attachment instead of the standard cutting discs because when I made my original ClearCase I found the cutting discs broke easily if the Lucite started to melt, and if the Lucite did melt it would often get burnt. Overall by switching to the Zip saw it gave a nicer, quicker, and cheaper job which thankfully meant less sanding ;)

However the one thing the cutting discs did do well was cut straight lines and I found the Zip saw had a tendency to 'kick back' after cutting for a while as if it hit a hard part in the Lucite. The issue was probably that it would start melting the Lucite causing a jam and the 'kick'. The result was that straight lines were easier said than done. To solve this I simply used a straight piece of scrap Lucite as a guide to keep the Zip saw on track. As well if it did 'kick', because the guide was on the outside the damage would only be done to the Lucite that was being removed, and so didn't really matter. The only problem with using a guide was that every time I changed angle I had to move the guide, but by the end I got used to it and it was well worth it.

Page 8 : Construction – Case Assembly

Construction – Case Assembly

Well, after cutting of the Lucite was complete all that was left was to assemble it. I think I'll leave the CDROM like that However before I removed the templates from the now cut panels I assembled it briefly just to test everything lined up and no extra cutting needed to be done. This included making sure the CDROM/FDD assembly lined up with the hole in the front panel properly. Thankfully it aligned quite nicely without adjustment. The reason there is no blow hole cut out in the pictures of the top is because it was a last minute addition and I was considering if I should do it by hand with the Zip saw or get a hole saw. I decided to do it by hand and it turned out nicely ;). The rest of the assembly stage was rather uneventful. All it really entailed was screwing brackets and hinges together. Once assembly was completed though, the case portion of the project was pretty well done. I was surprised at how light the case was, and I was quite happy how it turned out. The water cooling was an entirely different story though ;)

Page 9 : Cooling

Cooling

When I first went to water cooling it was to get lower temps and overclock higher, also just to see if I could do it myself. While I do overclock to a point, it's not longer nearly as furious as it was before, and so I now water cool because I want some piece and quiet. When I decided I would build a new case I also decided to water cool my GPU as well as my CPU because honestly the GPU fan of my GeForce 2 GTS was the loudest fan in my case. Mainly because whenever I'm using my PC, unless my music is really loud I have all my fans either on 7v or even some entirely off.

The water cooling was not as well designed as I hoped because my initial attempt (above) which failed horribly used silicon sealant, which despite it's name I found didn't seal well. I no longer had the Lucite or the patience to build another reservoir from scratch so I decided to use a Electrical Junction Box similar to my first water setup long, long ago. They're cheap, you can open and close them without sealant, they're strong, easy to mount, but very ugly in a clear case. Sacrifices had to be made and the case was constructed to be water cooled but the two are independent and so in future I plan to change water cooling setup.

When I first got into water cooling I'd heard horror stories of people forgetting to plug in their pumps, or getting the pump cord stuck in a card door and nearly ripping the water cooling setup from the case. To prevent such things from happening to me I decided to wire the pump directly into the PSU switch such that if there was power to the PSU then the pump would also turn on preventing any accidents. This caused the new problem however that wherever the PSU or reservoir had to move to the other was sure to follow. After making the first res I got ticked and instead of simply having the wire dangling like in the picture, I took an old plug, and and old outlet from a dead PSU and put it in the power supply thus allowing me to unplug the pump from the PSU if it needed to be moved. There's another reason I took that picture though, there's something strange in it, can you figure it out? Yep, I was tired and I put the mounting brackets on the bottom of the PSU! ; – D I ended up removing them and having to drill new holes at 02:00.

Despite the new reservoir I kept on getting leaks. My friend was over to chill and to add a blow hole to his case. After we finished his blow hole he was looking at my leaks and he suggested I try epoxy instead of the silicon sealant. I'd never thought of epoxy as a sealant even though I'd used it to glue countless things in the past. Well immediately I removed the fill point on my reservoir which was giving me problems and replaced it but using some epoxy I was able to find. Sure enough he was right! The epoxy stood strong and without a leak unlike the flimsy silicon sealant. I later used epoxy to fix all the leaks as a result from the silicon sealant I had originally used on them. From now on I'm only going to use Epoxy, it truly saved the water cooling from disaster. I'm so glad I decided to use it! :)

The last part of importance of the cooling setup were the fans. I used three sunons pulled from bank computers along with one no name fan pulled from a PSU of a dead school computer. The fan grills were from allelectronics.com and it was all held together by a healthy amount of small zip ties.

Epoxy and zip ties are what hold my system together ;)

Page 10 : The ‘Final’ Product

The 'Final' Product

Rarely is something I build completely done, I always enjoy tinkering ;) . After plenty of planning, constructing, and fixing my dream has finally taken form in some shape. Construction began with a 24x48x0.5" sheet of Lucite and over about a week it all came together. Overall I'm quite pleased on how it turned out, although the cabling could use a little tidying it won't happen until I get some longer IDE and floppy cables so they can be routed better out of site. As far as size goes it's a bit smaller than I imagined but thats a nice surprised, and the hinges are working out quite nicely. However I might consider putting some brackets on the back panel because it doesn't need to move that often and it's rather hollow so the extra support could be nice.

Compared to my old case this one is nearly half the size! Although about the same weight it's far less clumsy and very portable. The pump plug on the PSU has proved to be very handy. You can get a fairly good idea of how it looks from the picture above. The UV dye along with the UV lamp have proved incredibly useful when looking for leaks. I used some black electrical tape to block off the part of the UV Lamp that didn't illuminate the case because I find it gives me a headache after a while and also the tubes glow nicer without the UV light blinding you.

Another last minute add on with has proved incredibly useful were some Lucite feet. Very useful I cut a scrap piece of Lucite in half and then used a blowtorch to heat them until they were malleable enough to be bent into the desired shape. I then used some little rubber feat to keep the case from sliding on them. They do the job nicely and I think they don't look half bad either. They're not bending under the weight of the case but instead are simply shaped that way. They took about half of an hour to make and can support a surprising amount of weight while also allowing the case to slide nicely along the floor when I have to move it to get in it. She's so cute!

Of course I can't forget to mention Freyja. Throughout the process she would rarely venture far into the basement where I was construction the case. For one reason or another the whole thing scared her a lot and would not touch any of it so I decided I'd take a quick pic the odd time she did manage to get the guts to come down ;)

Page 11 : Conclusion

Conclusion

When it all boils down I found both of my cases to be great fun to build. However the second case was much more pleasant to build due to extensive CAD drawings. I've also certainly learned my lesson with water cooling, from now on it's going to be 100% epoxy for all seals, it was such a relief when I got the water cooling finally working.

If you enjoy building things, or even just case modding at the moment and you have the time and desire to build I case I would strongly suggest you give it a try. It's certainly not a walk in the park when you do it from scratch but it's very rewarding and a lot cheaper than you might think.

I hope you've found this article interesting and ideally inspiring also. I hope this site encourages others who enjoy building things themselves. Please feel free to any comments, questions, or ideas.

For more information and pictures please visit the site I created for my case at clearcase.tk!

- Written by -
(O² Forum nick : Annex)