Project Sulaco

[tobyak]

BUSY BUSY BUSY, finialy has a chance to get a good run up putting the side pane together and making sure it all fits before final sending and painting

Electrical tape, the modders friend

This was a nightmare to get all the components in place to drill through what was technicialy a sandwich of cast polyester, steel and acrylic


More drilling.. jeez......


Making sure the holes line up for bolting

This could have been a lot easier and faster but with limited resources one hast to think out of the box


Test fitting the bezel

The gaps are intentional, i will be covering them with brushes alu to add a little accent


Tapping the holes for the fan/grill assembly



MNPCtech 120mm overkill grills, Bill Owen over at MNPCtech is making 2 140mm versions of these for me for the top



MORE DRILLING



MORE, MORE DRILLING.......



UUUU thats rough



Most of the forming done, dremel+lap sanding wheel+awesome



Main door fab finished, plenty of adjusting to come but thats the BIG fab done

The fans are perfectly central trust me..... CURSE YOU CAMERA ANGLE
NOTE the 2 triangles outside the bezel are intentional, not sure if there going to remain tiny windows or to cut them through in to blow off vents

And no way in hell am i removing the protective film untill im done

So much still to do, but its gunna be great fun

[Six Foot Ginger]

so very cool

[tobyak]

Finaly got time for an update, here goes....

Time I started work modifying the NZXT Sentry LXE to modify it for the front of my case top

Cutting is going to take a while, love or hate NZXT most will say there products are sturdy and the LXE is no different, the front bezel is 5mm anodized brushed alu


let the cutting begin, for this i will be using the trusty Dremel with MNPCtech.com reinforced cutting discs but even with good discs this will take a while... i will spare you a million shots of cutting


2 hours.... YES 2 HOURS later......


ok now I have got the bottom off time to make it fit the shape of the case top...... time for this to go on a diet





ok now its the correct size

On to the next problem, this is black anodized and brushed so i have 2 problems... i need bare metal..... AND the brushing is in the wrong orientation

SANDING TIME


Flat sanding using 400grit wet and dry paper, very similar principal to lapping a CPU, but with the larger surface area this will take longer

After 30mins


After an hour


After 3 hours and 30 seconds under a mouse sander to rough the surface


Next up... rebrushing to match the direction of the metal i am using on the case, 800grit wet and dry until silky in apperance (you must sand only in one direction or your just sanding not brushing) after a uniform finish is attained its on to 180gritsand paper untill you end p with...

There fixed.... coming up in next post New supply drop

[G4MER]

This is really helping me get the confidence to try my own mod sooner rather than later. Awesome work, and well put work log. Thanks!

[pcjunkie209]

Nice work. Keep it up.

[tobyak]

What's on the menu today???...... Filling... mmmmmm my favourite... *Runs ff to cry in the corner*

I hate filling but these things must me done, the first plan for the side had 2 vents on the side of the window using the old window shape as a guide, but on reflection it just looks like I missed a bit so time to bring out the filler

Spot the missing bits??

Ok here we go, first up, making plates to fill the gad befor I fill. I have cut off a lot of metal to make the window shape and i need metal of exactly the same thickness to bridge the gap in the panels.......


TADAAAAAAAA use offcuts for spare material


OH look a perfect fit.... LLLLIKE A GLOVAAAA!!!!




Time for the filler, i wont be giving a tutorial on this as most brands differ by huge amounts on the part to part ratios, this one is a 1-50 mix with a working time of 5mins, sandable in 20mins and complete cure in 2 hours



FYI... love the smell of the stuff...... from the yelling i am going to assume my wife does not

Worked with it a little to long but made sure i applied thick enough to get away with it....


Now on to the sanding....... there did you like that.. me too

After a full cure it is ready to prime but first.....

NURSE???????? BRING IN THE PATIENT!!!!!!!

It is time to operate on the NZXT HALE 90 PSU

I need to get it apart to mask off for priming


A naked PSU.... shield the children's eyes

Primed. And i found out a matter of note.... spraying in a room with zero ventilation that is only 40cubic feet is not good for you......... but it sure is fun

[Cyrekk]

That is amazing man, keep up the good work!

[tobyak]

Thanks dude, much more to come

[tobyak]

One of my fave activities today..... Chassis cutting

The NZXT Tempest Evo can accomodate a 240 this rad in the roof although you wouldnt know until you take the 140mm fans out.

So i was about to make some templates for some rad holders when as i took the 2 140mm fans out of the roof i found a set of mounting holes, now if these are for a rad im not sure but they match up to the middle set of mounting holes perfectly with 120x15mm spacing and apart from mounting i can see no reason for them to be there. The airflow is very restricted though due to the centre plate so without further ado.... LET THE CUTTING BEGIN

First up, marking out the areas to remove with extreme prejudice and a dremel....... HINT... dynamite is not accurate enough do not use.. although i doubt it would scratch this case, rugged is not the word



All marked up, now for the fun.... erm i mean "now to cut out the areas with supreme precision"





ok thats the top cut out, now for the side.. when making the side wondow i completly forgot to make sure that the fan would fit next to the drive bays..... whoops it didnt.... and so..... MORE DREMEL

By a massive stroke of luck the removed bays make a great area to install my PSU hood and new drive holders..... and now if you will excuise me i have work to do and i plan to pretend i intended to remove the bays all along......

coming up..... Cereal boxes and there many uses

[ERIC H]

Cool build keep up the good work I can't what to see what the final product looks like.