Project Weapon X - A Wolverine Themed Case Mod

[regnak]

So, I've finally found time to begin my case mod. I went to Arizona to visit family, hung out with my brother for the time he was home from college, registered for my last year of high-school, finished my summer homework... wait, no I haven't; oh well, guess I'll do what I do every year and cram those books in the day before school starts it's time for me to have some fun.

What I have planned for this setup:
-Modding the front two 80mm fan slots to hold 120mm fans
-Modding the blowhole which currently can hold an 80mm fan to hold a 120mm and make a new grill for it
-Add in a nice window shaped as if it was torn out with claws
-Change all the molex heads on my power supply from white to Blue
-Re-sleeve my PSU with Blue cable sleeving
-Create a whole new front bezel that contains a stealthed CD Drive, a custom power button in the shape of the X-Men logo, and make a new grill that can handle the 2x120mm fans I'll have there.
-Replace the case feet with something new and nice looking
-Paint the outside of the chassis Yellow
-I also have something planned for the front but that's going to be a surprise

I'm considering:
-Painting the inside Blue
-Getting the right panel airbrushed with a picture of Wolverine (I'm not sure if I can afford it :x)

Today there was not much interesting work but prep work to get everything off to a good start. Anyways, without further ado let’s get this work log rolling:

Issue #1 - Damaged Goods

I really wanted to use the Coolermaster Praetorian PAC-T01 or the ATC-201, unfortunately Coolermaster had already discontinued both of them by the time I wanted it, so what do I do? I searched the internet until I found a used one being sold. I thought, "What could be so bad about used cases? I mean it's a case might have a few scratches but I'll get it at a really good price." Wow, I was wrong. The case I bought arrived in pretty rough condition: dents, scratches, dust everywhere (I don't think the person I bought it off of had ever cleaned it), and packed pretty poorly; he didn't even screw in the side panels so they fell off when I picked the case up out of the box. Anyways, it’s picture time:

You can see the both side panels have been dented... Out wards.

Mmmmm, some nice case feet; someone get hungry here? I'll be ordering new ones later on.

Oooh, that front grill looks nice dented in. Luckily I was already planning on making some changes to it.

The right panel: Scratches and dents

The left panel: Not too bad just a scratch and some USPS tape residue.

Anyways, enough with the complaining, one of the key elements of Modding is problem solving so I'll get over this.
The tear down:

Bye bye front panel, off you go to never come back

There goes the usb and front audio port too

Hrmmm, a speaker, eh?

Sorry babe, you gotta go

Ahhh, stripped down.

Let's take this front grill off

Uh oh, that little screwdriver couldn’t get the screw to move. It's ok though, this baby did the trick

Why hello you two 80mm fans.

I'm going to be coughing that up for the next week...

These are all of the fans that came with the case. I'll have to find a place for them to go as I plan on upgrading most of the fans to 120mms.

Here is the fan cage for the fan on the top.

I removed it as I plan to modify it so that I can put a 120mm fan up there.

And those case feet are gone

Nice and empty

Let's get this cleaned up:

Ahhhh, Much better

The other panel before

And now, after

Now, I needed to sand it to strip off the Anodizing. Unfortunately I don't have pictures while sanding here is where I stopped though.

Not the greatest results (and it doesn't look THAT bad although I can't deny the fact that it doesn't look good). I'll probably go over it again tomorrow but I had to stop as I was getting tired and bad things happen when you’re tired and working. Sorry for not too much action happening, hopefully my posts will get more interesting as I go along though.

 

[regnak]

Issue 2 - Damaged Goods Pt. 2

Another day of sanding but all of the exterior is finally sanded And I wont be posting about sanding the interior, I think you guys will have been subjected to enough sanding shots after this post.


I really wasn't liking how the panel turned out yesterday so I sanded it some more, looks a lot better:

I sanded the other panel, this one looks quite nice

I didn't have the camera on me at the time but I drilled out the rivets so I could get the case apart:

Top and Bottom before sanding:

After sanding:

I decided I was bored of sanding and I believed I was done with the exterior and didn't want to sand the interior so I was going to do something else.

A Codgen 300Watt PSU that someone found the other day in the garage (I claimed it).

Here is it opened

All I really wanted was that fan

I slid the psu cage back in for a second

That was to see how far back the fan could be pushed

My awesome guides on where to cut, they're just temporary until tomorrow when I concentrate on cooling more.

Opsies, I wasn't really done striping down the exterior I forgot the back:

Nice and sanded, it's a little hard to tell but if you compare the areas near the rivets it's a different color

So yeah, just another boring day of sanding. Tomorrow should be a bit more interesting, I was planning on working on modifying the intakes to house 120s but I wasn't able to run out to Frys today so I'll be starting on that window.

 

[regnak]

As short but interesting post today:

Today I ran off to Lowes to pick up some Acrylic and Wood (you'll see what that's for later ) and then started working on creating the window.

I've got everything ready to start work for the day: Left Panel, Craftsman rotary tool, extra cutting disks and stuff, and you can see the rest of the case in the background along with all my sandpaper in the red basket tucked in the corner. BTW: Can anyone guess the significance of the color of those two pens?

In the next couple of parts I didn't make a very smart decision, can anyone guess what it is before I point it out?

I had started drawing out how I wanted the window to look and I decided that I didn't like it. So I decided to mark the center of the panel and have a 1'x1' box to act as a little guide

The middle claw mark finally decided on as you can see even after making the guide I still had to make some changes to get it to look nice

The right claw mark has been drawn in too also note another set of lines this showed where was the last place the acrylic could go down to

I wasn't too picky about the last one

The first mark cut out, I think it looks pretty good

The second mark is cut out.

Unfortunately that's all I have to post up today but the last one WILL be cut out tomorrow and if I can find the files (I know we have them somewhere I just don't know where) I'll make it look a bit nicer.

Anyways, back to my mistake: I had known that a rotary tool sometimes kicks back if you aren't careful and sometimes even then and you accidentally mark up the piece you're working on it; to counter-act that I was planning on working on the inside part so if I accidentally scratch up parts that I want to leave no one could see them. Now, don't ask me why but I decided that I'd be fine cutting on the exterior side of the panel and did so. Not the brightest idea as you can see in the last picture on the right side. It's gouged and I'll be sanding for the next 5 years to get the whole panel even and at that point it'll probably be paper thin :X Should I just use some Bondo to cover it up, extend the cut so that it'll just be part of the window, or sand just that little area so it's at least flat?

Later today I'm going over to Frys to pick up some Fans and some Dynamat (well maybe on the Dynamat I'm considering it right now though) so I'll have more stuff to work with. Comments, Suggestions, CC is all highly encouraged and I'll be grateful for it.

 

[Ockie]

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out That is one helluva nice case you are choppin up

 

[OofC_S7v7N]

I like your attention to detail, hope you dont run into any snags. Happy Modding! Oh yea it looks really good so far.

 

[axan]

looks pretty good so far, keep it up

 

[regnak]

Today was more of a "Hey, let me sit here stare at the pieces of my case and figure out how I'm going to do this" day than a work day.

I finally got around to going to Frys Electronics (It's a major warehouse for PC and other electronic stuff which has the only actual decent prices I've seen in stores - they're not amazing prices like you see online but if you can't wait for it to be shipped it's definitely the place to go around here). My Goodies: 3x120mm Antec TriCools, 1 80mm Antec TriCool, A bunch of Zipties, 99.953% pure alcohol

I cut out the last claw mark and cleaned the cuts up a little bit. I don't have to make it perfectly smooth as if it was really clawed out it wouldn't be either I need to sand the panel to get some scratches out but I'm saving that until right before I paint as I have a feeling it's going to get scratched more when I move stuff.

Checking again how far back the fan can go

Roughly marked and centered (but a bit better this time) I gave up on this for now though as I wasn't able to mark the screw holes. Does anyone have a template that I can print out for a 120mm fan?

I moved on to looking at the front of the case because I wasn't getting anywhere on the blow hole. To hold the cage together at the proper distance I just screwed the 80mm fans back in.

The result I want (2x120mm intake fans)

These dumb tabs are preventing me from marking where the fan holes need to be.

So I cut them off

I ran into another problem: the fan screws need to be right where there is the little gap between the brackets for the 80mm fans and the rest of the cage. So, I figured, "Silent PC Review suggests that you suspend your drives with wire to prevent vibrations inside the case, why can't I do it with a fan"

Testing to see if the fan would rattle against the case or shake around (yes, the molex connector is coming out of the top bay of my current PC)

Now for the other one to be tied on as only one seemed to be working find

Testing both to make sure they still don't shake or make any undesired noise

Now I know that this way probably isn't the brightest idea but it it is a possibility for how I can mount the fans if push comes to shove and I can't get anything else to work. Later on they'll actually be on the inside of the cage where the current fans are (I have to cut out the sides of the cage so they can fit) and I might construct some brackets out of plexiglass so that they can actually be screwed in instead of me praying every day that the wires hold tight.

I'm going to continue working on this tomorrow as I need the intakes completed before I can do any work on the front bezel. Since I know what the problem is I'll be able to come up with some solutions so it wont take too long tomorrow.

Thanks for looking

Oh yeah, if anyone does know where I can download a template for a 120mm fan could you please link me/tell me where? It'd be greatly appreciated.

looks pretty good so far, keep it up

Thanks

I like your attention to detail, hope you dont run into any snags. Happy Modding! Oh yea it looks really good so far.

Thanks too bad the snags occured on the next post o_0. Haha oh well, it's not a big deal I should be able to make something tomorrow so that I can have these fans properly mounted

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out That is one helluva nice case you are choppin up

Hehe, it SHOULD look pretty good when I'm done with it (at least I hope so). And yeah it's a really nice case I really like the fact that Cooler Master didn't think they needed to be flashy to make a nice case; unfortunately I'm going to be taking it away from a nice, understated, clean looking case to something that is quite loud but it should still look good.

 

[jmackay]

Awesome idea, looks great so far, really like the claw marks

 

[Darkmp40]

Pretty cool mate, I like the claw tears for the window very original.

 

[pollaxe]

Good work! I have a similar case sitting here doing nothing... Hmmm... ponders...

 

[regnak]

Well, today was a disaster in the end. It started off pretty well but went down hill at the end.

I wanted to create something to hold my fans out of plexi so first I decided I should cut the piece out for the window first

I placed the plexi in there, fit perfectly

I printed out AC Ryan's template for a 2x120mm setup (thanks for the link sethnmalice)

I got the basic shape cut out pretty easily

I broke off some of the corners making the holes for the fan screws, next time I'll remember to drill holes before I cut so that it wont crack as easily luckily they all fit though.

I drilled the bottom two holes so that I can mount the fans.

I started cutting into the drive cage so that the fans could fit (remember, this case was made to hold 80s not 120s)

In the end the last decision to cut the cage was a bad idea. It's really weak as it's only hanging on by that little edge near the bottom. Once I finished the cut I was really unhappy with it and stopped for the day to let my mind cool off and rationally figure out how to complete this without me destroying the case. Once I sat down for a bit I realized that it wasn't that big of a deal. I might cut off the upper section as it wont be too useful or just tie it down with some zipties after I get the fans mounted.

Tomorrow I'll have hopefully finished getting the fans mounted (but then will remove it after I know it works as I'm going to paint everything still) if I have time after that I'll work on expanding the holes for the blow hole, atleast that shouldn't give me so much trouble.

I've also started a search for a Laser Cutting company that can give me a break to do my front panel. E-Machines Shop's setup fee is already way more than I want to spend and I know that's probably one of the cheapest laser cutting services online. I hope I can get some local company to give me a deal as I've realized that if I cut the panel myself it wont look very good at all, we'll see though.


Thanks for the compliments everyone and thanks again sethnmalice for the links.

 

[Istasi]

The way you have the front fans lined up now, it looks like they're blowing air out of the case?

 

[regnak]

Nah, they're set to intake (the part with the Antec sticker blows while the other way - like I have them - sucks in fresh air). I might need to change it up a little bit on how the front fans are mounted though, we'll see.

 

[regnak]

Ahhh, a pretty good work day today. My arm is quite sore but it was worth it.

I picked up some goodies during the weekend: My new Jigsaw

And I got a new file set too (man I'm going to be broke soon buying all this stuff)

I mounted the intake fans to see how it helps out with the stability of the metal out in front. It doesn't do wonders but it helps a bit

I cut up the other half of the drive cage too. I also took off the middle part that was just kinda hanging on and was just taking up space.

I placed the cage on top of the bottom panel just to make sure I hadn't bent them some weird way so they couldn't be mounted, they're fine. You can also see my tools of choice - my Craftsman rotary tool and my new toy the jigsaw .

Since we're talking about fans why don't we address the top blowhole.

Here it is a little messy, the jigsaw makes a lot better cuts and does them much quicker than my dremel but it was still a little messy. No I didn't cut it using those blue guides, I another one of those AC Ryan guides taped on the other side.

I decided to clean it up quite a bit with one of my new files

Ahhh isn't that much better to look at

Here's another close up

I didn't drill the holes as I don't have a drill today (my dad took it to his work to use it and I didn't feel like driving there just to pick it up) but that just takes a couple of seconds for each hole. I'm really happy that I was able to file down the edges so much and make it look really nice; although now my arm is really tired but it's a trade off (and a good one at that).

Tomorrow I should begin on constructing a new front panel. As I now have a jigsaw and a nice set of files I don't think I'm going to need to order one cut from somewhere. Like always questions, comments, suggestions, and tips are highly encouraged.

 

[Viperlover]

This is looking really good.

 

[dragonslayer45895]

I have to agree witht the post above...

Would i beable to get you to cut some designs in the side of one of my cases (but seriusly...i might actually send it to you....the last time i tryed to cut a case i ruined it) and you did an Exelent job on that side cover.

 

[regnak]

No real update today. I drove over to Lowes to pick up a sheet of Aluminum to construct a new front panel but everything was pretty thin and flimsy. I'm ordering a 24"x12" sheet of 3/16" aluminum off of McMaster (Stuff is expensive, that's $40 down the drain). So I'm going to be waiting for that to ship once I place my order.

I then decided "Well, if I can't make the front panel at least I can make the claws that will be over the intake grill" (for those of you who haven't seen my plans floating around the internet I plan on placing 3 claws up on the intake grill - my plans can be found here although I've decided not to get the panel airbrushed).

So I pulled out some wood and realized "Wow, I really did NOT think this through." Nothing I have could give me the cuts I want and I don't have time to spend a month on each claw just continuously sanding it. So I'm either going to be ordering some pre-made claws or just drop it. I'm debating between spending $54 + shipping/taxes on these or spending $80 ($75 + $5 for shipping) on these. I'm leaning towards the more expensive ones as I know they have some thickness (where as I have no clue if the cheaper ones are flat or what) and have even been looked at by the people from the X-Men movie and confirmed that they're really accurate.

Sorry for those of you who were hoping to see an update. This project is coming together (although right now it's in pieces ) It's just going to take some time.[/url]

Thanks for the compliments and dragonslayer, just go slow (and cut on the inside you can see what happens if you don't in some of my pictures and I have a feeling it's going to show once I paint it) but if you must just cover the shipping and it'll be no problem

 

[regnak]

I had some fun in the heat today.

I got the top 120 mounted:

Hrmmm, a nice sheet of Honeycomb Modders Mesh, I wonder what I can do with this.

I cut a piece and mounted it. If you look closely the top is bent, that's because I had attempted to make it flush with the top but gave up on that idea.

Since it was bent and looking pretty bad I cut a new piece. I saved the old piece 'cause I'm going to play around with it more later and see if I can get it molded properly (I just need to find a pair of tin snips and I'm running low on money so I don't want to purchase a pair).

This nice big piece of 3/16" aluminum came in.

How big you ask. 12"x24" look at it in comparison to the old faceplate.

Marked off and ready for cutting.

Well that was fun; it's just a little bigger than the old bezel.

I had a good time filing that, it was really enjoyable... or not. 3 of the sides are cleaned up but the left side is still pretty wavy, I'll be working on that tomorrow. I also rounded the 2 right corners as those sides have straight lines. Once I make the left edge straight I'll round out the last two corners.

In the background of the last picture you can see a post-it that says 150 on it. That's the next grit of sandpaper I need to take to that piece of the case, luckily once you're over the 80 grit you're mostly just cleaning up and you can go through the whole 150-220-400 (I know it's a big leap for the last one but it's what I have) progression in about a tenth of the time it takes just to finish using the 80 grit. Everything is at 150 or higher - most of the pieces just need a little touching up before I start painting but I have to finish this front panel first. The only thing that hasn't been sanded are those untouched pieces of metal that compose the PSU cage, they were hiding from me when I was sanding last so I haven't gotten to them yet.

I think I'm looking at maybe another weeks worth of work on the front panel at the pace I'm going, then probably a day or two for some final sanding then I can start painting. During the painting process I might disappear for a day or two to pull out my PSU. I'm planning on resleeving it and replacing the Molex Heads with UV Blue heads.

I hope I'm not the only one that things this is starting to look pretty good . Also, if anyone has tips on what I should do next time or how I can be more efficient/have better results for what I have planned I'd love to hear from you.

 

[Shmuckety]

Wolverine = cool

Can't wait to see how this is gonna look. Keep up the good work.

 

[renovoCS]

im a huge fan of wolvie, have his first mini series every, each issuse is roughly about 60 bucks a pop, this case is looking very nice im very much looking forward to your finish