Project:Liquid Case

dracos

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jan 8, 2005
Messages
4,354
Well I am working on liquid cooling, and I got a new case for it.

It's an Atrix Brand case, with 3 temp sensors,lcd display on the front.

I decided it need some modding work done to it...

Re-paint the chassis, had to re-work the hdd bays to fit my rad in, and cut out the Fan holes...

So here it is...

The Case was black with red accents to it...

Here are Before Primer shots and Filiport work....
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Here is the work on the HDD Bays I had to cut out..
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Here is the Fans Before I cut them out...
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Here are the Fans after I cut them out..

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Here is the Chassis with Primer on it... Duplicolor Metalcast Anodixed System..

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And here is the First coat of Duplicor Metalcast Red Anodized Paint

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There are more pictures and bigger pictures on my site....

www.dragonsteelmods.com
 
AND Now.. Here are the Before Shots... I should have put this in earlier but I lost them...to much junk on my Computer!!
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OK.. Now I Anodized the Worm clamps I am using for my liquid cooling also, I did them in the Blue Anozied paint...

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And here is the front Bezel, I didn't like that funky shade of red they used, SO, let's anodize it!! I also did the little emblem in the red anodized..

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But I thought the red was going to be a little to plain, so I decided to add some textured plexi... the whit you see behind in the glue (Weldbond) it will dry crystal clear, so you will only see the red through it...

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And for the chassis, I couldn't really get the paint in on the hdd bays so i dismantled them, you can see the shiny screws where I replaced the rivets. going to hit them with a red sharpie, blend right in!! I wet-sanded with 600grit before the last coat of paint, I haven't decided whether or not to clear coat the chassis yet, I'm am going to see how it hardens up first, takes approx 5 days...
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AND now.... I decided to clearcoat the chassis, and the clamps (no pics of clamps take later), but I like a little texture in my paint, everyone does the "mirror automotive finish" thing, I really don't care for it, so I didn't go hog wild on sanding, just up to 600grit wet sand... this is 3 coats of Clear Plasti-Kote Classic Laquer, I thin it came out pretty good, even a little to good for the INSIDE of the case.... Nice and reflective, and the Base Coat makes the little 'sparkles' in the paint...

Here are a bunch of pics, from different angles with my little Dremel to show reflections... pics are of back,top,chassis inside bottom, mobo tray, and cd rack..

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OK... decided to do a window for the right side of the case... just a small window 5 inches by 5 inches square... With etching, took me approx 8 hours to finish this, the coloring is Weldbond Glue with color added to it, it gives it a glass/ice look.... Here are pics right after I did the first etching

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And here are pics after I hit it with Torch to get rid of 'White' etch marks... Yes it warped a little, but that was easy to fix...

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And here it is all done, completed!!

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Remember you can just go to my site and see the Larger images, I did not want to post the big pics here!!
 
Duplicolor Metalcast Anodized Paint...

Cool system, Silver/grey base coat, with a almost opaque color for the top coat....
 
OK.. ALMOST DONE... Working on the Front Bezel, the paint is drying, So I figured I would Update NOW...

OK.. Cut out Windows for my Athlon Xp logo on Back...
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OK... Now I used the Red Anodized Paint over top of the Black.. It came out a BLOOD RED, VERY DARK RED, I couldn't even capture the color in teh picture, but in the sunlight you can see it.... Hard to describe.... But I put 3 coats of clear on top, with wet sanding with 600 grit in between, and I baked them in the oven to harden also... Something I wanted to try out, and It work very well, expect for all the SMOKE in my kitchen!! The clear coat started smoking, but it looks fine... maybe in too long...



Oh and the White specs you see is lint from the rag I used to wipe them down before pics, I didn't see it till I looked at the pics...



Here are the pics of the Right side with Small window in it: Used one of my FAV DVD's to show the reflection, the cover has LOTS of colors in it...
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And here is the top:
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And here is the Left sife with window in it, I sanded the edges of the window to bare metal so the red would kind of give a border to it....

and the Window looks much better in 'real life' When it's all done we'll see!!

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That's it for now... It's getting there.... Should be done by Monday...

Don't forget, just go to my site and you can see BIG pictures of this!
 
Looks very good. could you explain how you colored in teh etch a little more (where did you get teh materials for it)?
 
The Dvd is Urotkosidji:Legend of the Overfiend

and the etching coloring is Colored Weldbond Glue.... Weldbong glue dries clear, so if I add color to it, it will be basically clear also!! You can get Weldbond from alot of places, and to color it I used regular food coloring...

I attached it with Clear silicone caulk...

You liked that etching... I am doing one now for My Project Dragonsteel... It is a Tarot card from the Aleister Crowley Deck, it will be one of my top windows in the case... I got the basics of it done today, took about 5 hours, I need to do more work on it to finish it, I haven't quite decided if I am going to color it yet... But I can say so far it looks SWEET!!

I will be updating my Dragonsteel project tomorrow or monday, so look for it..


I actually finished installing the fans,Rad and most of the wiring today on this Liquid case, going to xfer the system and fill it tomorrow.. will post finished pics tomorrow night..
 
OK.. Finally ALL done...... Well I may mod the PSU later, but that is something else entirely...



Here is the Bezel after painting it..
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And here we go for finished pictures........ Various different angles, self explanatory...and yes the GLue still isn't dry, I sealed it up pretty good so not much air is reaching it.... shoul dbe dry in a few more days.... but you get the picture...

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AND now for the night shots... With UV Light off and with them on....

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I'll update later when the Glue dries.... but for now this is it!

YEP... ALL this for a temporary case........................



But it was fun....

Here are some Big Pictures... I didn't want to fill the post with big pics.. you can go to my site and see all the other big pics..

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Eeee.. the wire around your PSU wires, are kind of ugly dude. I really don't mean to be rude becuase you put out a lot of effort into this case, but the wiring makes it look a tad ugly. I suggest getting UV sleeving instead, IMO it would look a lot nicer.
 
It's not WIRE....

It's Lizard Cable Sleeving... and it is UV reactive, if you can't tell from the pic
 
I am not stupid, I know its UV reactive, I can see that. But I RECOMMENDED UV reactive sleeving to make it look better. Sheesh.
 
I didn't say you were stupid......

You said it was wire and it wasn't.... I was just clarifying things, that's all
 
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