What is the cost of case modification the front panel to 2 x tempered glass panel?

Happy Hopping

Happy Hopping

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http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Chassis/Mid_Tower_/View/C_00003012/View_31_TG_RGB/design.htm

For those who does case modification, the current front panel is a single panel. If I need someone to:

1) replace the current acrylic panel into top and bottom panel with material being curved tempered glass
2) , to have the bottom half panel snapped in or screw in on the hinges
3) create a hinge so the top half panel can swing open

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then install 2 x 5.25 drive cage at the top (currently that space is empty and has no drive cage)

I don't' do water cooling, so as long as the 5.25 drive can fit, that's good enough for me

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what would the approx. cost for the above?
 
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I think this is going to be a case of "If you have to ask, you can't afford it".

Tempered glass is not a single, homogenous material (Well, it is, but not in the way that you think, follow with me here). It has lots of internal stresses and forces acting on it. That's part of why it's so strong - The internal forces acting against each other make it much, much tougher than it would be otherwise. This is why tempered glass is used on bus stops, car windows, etc. It's tremendously strong.

Those internal forces come about, and are possible, because the glass is heated, formed, and worked, at high temperatures, then allowed to cool in a highly controlled manner.

The problem with "modding" tempered glass objects is twofold.

Firstly, to go back to the car windows idea - Have you ever seen someone try and smash a car side window with a hammer? It just bounces off. That's how strong tempered glass can be, if made with strength in mind.

But if you smash a spark plug with a hammer, and throw one of the sharp pieces of ceramic at that same window? It'll shatter into a million pieces. The reason is the internal stresses. If you cause even the tiniest chip in the glass (by hitting it with a super hard piece of ceramic that focuses a tiny amount of force into a single, tiny point, instead of a hammer that applies a whole lot of force, but across the entire head), then those internal stresses will suddenly become out of balance. The entire material will try to shift to accommodate the new form, and, being brittle glass, it'll shatter in the attempt.

That means if you try to manipulate tempered glass without heating it up hot enough, it'll just break - even if the glass itself becomes soft and pliable, the internal forces you're messing with will be problematic.

Of course, if you DO heat it that hot, you'll undo the tempering process and have to do that "controlled cooling" all over again.

This is further complicated by the fact that the more complex the shape is you're forming the glass into, the harder it will be to temper it without those internal stresses you're trying to create and balance, just getting out of hand and shattering the piece as it cools. Bends on a sharp radius rather than a gradual curve will almost certainly cause this unless you are very skilled, and have a lot of very expensive tooling, including a tempering oven large enough to handle a large sheet of glass. (Protip: Not cheap)




As a result, I doubt you'll be able to get someone to remake a part like that in tempered glass for any sort of reasonable cost.
 
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If you can get "To the mm" measurement of a rectangular piece of tempered glass, even if you need custom holes, you could probably go to a local glass-shop and get a quote. It won't be cheap, but regular shapes they'll do easily.

It's not a home sort of mod.
 
OP said they need a curved piece. Judging by the case in question, it'd be flat on one side with what looks like a ...30mm? radius bend on the right edge until 90 degrees.

I took a quick look, and at least in the UK, most places that will even do toughened curved glass at all, won't do a curve that small. Smallest I could find required a minimum 300mm radius on the bend.
 
Alright, so looking at the photo (see bottom photo where it has the word "Front", for that particular piece just under the word "Front", what can be done? Leave it as a 2 piece acrylic plastic? Because when I said curved, I mean the left/right of that piece is slightly curved.

In short, just like what you see in the front photo of the link, but in tempered glass.

Now whether it is plastic or glass, how can you install 2 hinge at the top half to make it a swing door?
 
Yeah. Even if you could get the front to open, it's going to be way more effort than it's worth to get a 5.25" drive cage in there in any way.

I'd suggest a better approach would be - use a slot loading optical drive instead of a full 5.25" one, figure out a convenient place in the case to mount it, and then fabricate a low-profile mount for it in that location. Remember to take account of whether the drive will be visible from the outside of the case - you may end up deciding to create a colour-appropriate cover for the drive, so that it doesn't look fugly if you can't find a place to mount it in a hidden fashion.

Once you've done that (Doublesided tape will be your friend to find a mounting location you're happy with), you can take stock of how much work it will take with your Trusty Dremel Tool (tm) to make that location accessible from the outside - just remember that the closer to the front of the case you can get, the better - you don't want a mounting location where the CD has to stick 8 feet out of the drive just for you to be able to grab it through your modded front panel.

It's still not easy, but this seems to me that you'll get both a cleaner final look, and also an easier job to do.

I'd also advise looking into whether you can buy some acrylic and make a replacement yourself for that front panel - I am an advocate of being able to return things to stock as much as possible, when possible, and if you're starting your mod by replacing the part you're most likely to break or destroy, then it's good to know you can just bend some replacement acrylic and keep trying, before you commit to doing a mod on the original parts that might be better finished or more finely made than you can do on your own.
 
If you're that concerned about an optical, get a low profile USB drive and plug it in on the rare occasions you need one.
 
I can't. The drive I bought is a rare, made in Japan, Pioneer blu-ray burner, today, all the blu-ray drive are made in China. This made in japan drive can pick up badly scratched blu-ray while a made in china drive can't.

Since I never done modifying cases before, why is the above un-doable? To me, it doesn't look like a difficult job. It's a panel replacement.

If it can't be done in glass, can we simply get a plastic case w/ a swing door?
 
You're asking to replace a panel that was never meant to move, with one that does. At present that panel probably clips into the chassis at multiple points.

That means the panel can be lighter and more flexible because it has as many points of reinforcement as there are holding clips.

You want to replace that with hinges, which will require a significant investment of time and energy to add hinges to the chassis, and depending on the tools available to you, may not be possible at all if you want a clean, non-ghetto look.

You also want to add a large bulky drive to the inside of the case where there are presently no mounting points at all. That's a lot of work and, again, if the case's current construction makes that more difficult than you think, its entirely possible you wont have the tools or skill to do it cleanly.

If money is no object to you I'm sure someone could take this on, but you're not talking about a quick job taking a couple of hours. This will take someone probably at least a few (billable) hours just to plan the work, then more on top to actually do it.
 
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GlacierNine, thank you very much. If it really cost that much, then forget it. I thought it will be a simple modification, because my NZXT phantom 820 is also a snap on front panel, but it comes wtih a front door swing. So I thought because the View 31 already have 6 snap on points at the front panel, it is just a matter of replacing that snap on front panel with another snap on front panel w/ a swing door (assuming the tempered glass option is out)

As to the phanteks, I already look thru that. If I go w/ that, I might as well go w/ the Thermaltake Suppressor 31

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Chass...pressor_F31_Tempered_Glass_Edition/design.htm

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Update:

just contact Thermaltake on upgrading the Suppressor F31 w/ the right side panel as tempered glass, they said SOLD out

https://ttstoreusa.com/product-category/replacement-parts/chassis-parts/panel-chassis-part/

Now I am hoping for ebay
 
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