# Project: Aluminum Water Cooling Case



## Spotswood (Apr 17, 2011)

This is a project/build log for an aluminum case designed specifically for a large water cooled rig, specifically:

3 x 140x4 radiators
1 140x3 radiator
10-slot motherboard tray

















Stay tuned!


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## t_ski (Apr 18, 2011)

In the for the first sub


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## Spotswood (Apr 22, 2011)

The basic frame of the case is done, which consists of .5x1-inch u-channel with its ends plugged with blocks (pictured in the first post), press-fitted and pinned with a #4 screw along with some 1-inch angle:



















The assembled case frame is too tall to fit in the camera frame.  hehe








The frame looks kind'a "meh" until I bolt on the gorgeous anodized quarter rounds.


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## Funtoss (Apr 22, 2011)

How much did all these cost you!?
it looks so nice!


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## Eric_On_Web (Apr 22, 2011)

Depends where you live Funtoss. You are in New Zealand and hes in USA. For my part I am in Quebec one of the largest aluminum producer in the world so even cheaper here. Seek around in New Zealand if there's a big aluminum importer from China or producer in your country. Just saying..like a world economy class at the same time. hehehe


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## Spotswood (May 15, 2011)

The two shelves were cut from a .10-inch thick 5052 via my trusty router, a straight edge and a downcut spiral bit.







At the back corners of the shelves, two .5x1-inch cutouts were routed out via a temporary router jig.












The rounded inside corner left by the .5-inch flush router bit were filed square.







FWIW, here's the difference in the thickness of the aluminum sheeting I use compared to everyone else.







Finally, a mockup of the shelf inside the frame of the case:


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## lonewolf (May 16, 2011)

that is just awsome. I want one!


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## Cold Storm (May 16, 2011)

sub to watch it all unfold. Thanks for the project.


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## gumpty (May 16, 2011)

Subbed.

That is one huge case.

3 x 140x4 + 1 x 140x3 = 3ft² of radiators.

Huge.


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## DrunkenMafia (May 16, 2011)

That thing will be solid!!  Love it


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## mATrIxLord (May 19, 2011)

subed.... i wanna see how this goes... it will give me a few ideas...


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## Spotswood (Jun 3, 2011)

The 5.25-inch drive bay rails finally came back from a local fabricator.







And a 140x4 rad arrived in the shop.


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## Wile E (Jun 3, 2011)

Hmmm, subbed.


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## >>PhoeniX<< (Jun 3, 2011)

Subbed  Looks great


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## Blue-Tiger (Jun 5, 2011)

Subbed, the model looks soo clean!


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## Spotswood (Jun 6, 2011)

Next up is to cut the front sheet.







In order to cut-out all of the openings for the 5.25-inch drives accurately, a custom router template is required.  I used .5x1-inch u-channel and .25x1.25-inch flat bar to frame the openings on .5-inch particle board.







The aluminum bits guided my flush trimming router bit.







The aluminum bits were removed and the particle board template was used to cut the .10-inch thick aluminum sheet.












Now I just need to square all of the corners and cut to width.  Ugh.


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## PopcornMachine (Jun 6, 2011)

Another huge case.  That is one big radiator you've got there.


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## ERazer (Jun 6, 2011)

subd! this guys projects r EPIC!!!


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## Chicken Patty (Jun 6, 2011)

Subbed, this looks good.


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## DrunkenMafia (Jun 21, 2011)

more??  pleease!!  Loving the fabrication on this project.


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## Spotswood (Jun 26, 2011)

"Life" had gotten in the way of this project for a few weeks, but I've managed to fabricate the inner and outer sheets of the front panel.  It took me 5 hours to square-off all of the inside corners.


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## HammerON (Jun 26, 2011)

Sub'd. Glad to see you building another monster case!


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## fullinfusion (Jun 26, 2011)

Subbed, this is going to be good


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## Wile E (Jun 26, 2011)

Spotswood said:


> "Life" had gotten in the way of this project for a few weeks, but I've managed to fabricate the inner and outer sheets of the front panel.  *It took me 5 hours to square-off all of the inside corners.*
> 
> http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww153/Spotswood_/Aluminum Water Cooling Case/FrontSheetSheets.jpg



Hand file?


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## Spotswood (Jun 26, 2011)

Wile E said:


> Hand file?



Yep.


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## Wile E (Jun 26, 2011)

Ugh. I know that pain. lol.


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## fullinfusion (Jun 27, 2011)

Time for a steady hand and a Dremel


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## Spotswood (Jul 3, 2011)

Back sheet cut to width, height and the hole for the 10-slot motherboard tray routed out.


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## Spotswood (Jul 11, 2011)

The inner and outer front sheets, cut to final length.


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## Wile E (Jul 11, 2011)

My god, that thing is a monster. I want one for my server.


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## PopcornMachine (Jul 11, 2011)

So, I assume you are going to paint this?

The bare metal kind of looks nice.


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## Spotswood (Jul 11, 2011)

PopcornMachine said:


> So, I assume you are going to paint this?
> 
> The bare metal kind of looks nice.



Yes.  Gloss black powder coating.


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## PopcornMachine (Jul 11, 2011)

Spotswood said:


> Yes.  Gloss black powder coating.



Well, that will look nice too, I guess.


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## theJesus (Jul 11, 2011)

Gloss black powder coating will look great.


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## Wile E (Jul 15, 2011)

You should powder coat it Swingline Stapler Red.


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## Sinzia (Jul 15, 2011)

Where did you source that 10 slot motherboard tray?

And, its an epic build... I cant wait to see more!


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## t_ski (Jul 15, 2011)

Probably a Mountain Mods tray


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## de.das.dude (Jul 15, 2011)

sub'd


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## Spotswood (Jul 15, 2011)

Sinzia said:


> Where did you source that 10 slot motherboard tray?
> 
> And, its an epic build... I cant wait to see more!



Mountainmods.com


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## Spotswood (Jul 16, 2011)

Shelves!


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## de.das.dude (Jul 16, 2011)

thats one huge son of a case


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## Wile E (Jul 17, 2011)

Holy balls, Batman. That thing is crazy huge. I'm loving this so far.


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## Spotswood (Jul 18, 2011)

The 5.25-inch drive bay rails:


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## Sir B. Fannybottom (Jul 18, 2011)

Nice, /sub


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## de.das.dude (Jul 29, 2011)

dude, long time no update.!!!


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## Dice (Jul 29, 2011)

Sub!


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## Spotswood (Aug 6, 2011)

I bolted the 5.25-inch drive rail assemblies to the front inner sheet.












Note how the extra deep rails will completely hide the drives and cables.












Another design benefit of the front air duct is hiding all of the mounting hardware.


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## de.das.dude (Aug 6, 2011)

hey, do you sand/ brush the aluminium?


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## Spotswood (Aug 6, 2011)

de.das.dude said:


> hey, do you sand/ brush the aluminium?



Yes.  I think I used 150 grit on the drive rails.


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## POGE (Aug 6, 2011)

Wow looks good but this case is hilariously big!  Could fit a small cluster of computers in there if you wanted


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## theJesus (Aug 6, 2011)

POGE said:


> Wow looks good but this case is hilariously big!  Could fit a small cluster of computers in there if you wanted


Yes, an all-in-one server farm 

You have to go big though if you want to fit a bunch of monster-sized rads.


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## Spotswood (Aug 8, 2011)

Two cutouts were routed out of the back sheet for the bottom mounted PSU (left hand side of the pic) and intake fan, and two intake fans up top.







Eventually, some "adapter plates" will be mounted over the two cutouts.


To attach the MB tray to the back sheet, four PEM cinch nuts were pressed into the interior side of the .10-inch thick aluminum sheet.  I love these nuts because they make quick work out of adding some threads to sheet metal.


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## Wile E (Aug 8, 2011)

You're gonna love my nuts.


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## Spotswood (Aug 16, 2011)

Another awesome feature of this case is the "false" back, which is simply a sheet of aluminum between the removable back panel and the motherboard tray.  The "false" back prevents the case from racking and is the primary cable management feature.  In this case, the "false" back consists of three pieces of .10-inch thick aluminum.  

The sheets that make-up the "false" back are threaded along the top via PEM nuts.  Fastening them to the top support beam is simplified via the addition of slots routed out of the support beam.  These  allow the hex wrench to be raised into position as the socket cap screws are driven into the sheet.






















Along the bottom, the sheets are fastened to some 1/2-inch angle.


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## theJesus (Aug 16, 2011)

This is coming along very nicely.


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## Wile E (Aug 16, 2011)

It is such a monster. I am entirely jealous of it.


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## PopcornMachine (Aug 16, 2011)

Ah, the old false back trick!


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## arnoo1 (Sep 2, 2011)

are you dead? haha
can't wait for the next update


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## micropage7 (Sep 3, 2011)

i love aluminum things


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## Spotswood (Sep 3, 2011)

Top and bottom sheets cut.  Still needs to be fastened though.


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## arnoo1 (Sep 9, 2011)

Spotswood said:


> Top and bottom sheets cut.  Still needs to be fastened though.
> 
> http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/... Water Cooling Case/TopAndBottomSheetsCut.jpg



looks sexy


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## Spotswood (Nov 14, 2011)

Slots for wire and tube routing were cut out of the top and bottom shelves.  I attempted to use a pattern router bit, but the deep cut forced the bit's bearing into the 3/8-inch thick particle board, ruining it.  






So I switched to using a pattern to guide the base of the router.






The slots along the edge of the bottom shelf were cut in such a way to allow tubing and wiring to pass without significantly weakening the 1/2 x 1-inch u-channel.







Bottom shelf slots:







Top shelf slots:













Finally, two slots were also cut out of a portion of the "false" back:


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## PopcornMachine (Nov 14, 2011)

Good to see an update.


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## Spotswood (Nov 18, 2011)

The three pieces of "false" back were attached to the bottom shelf via three pieces of 1/2-inch angle and some socket cap screws.


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## Spotswood (Nov 23, 2011)

Up until now the front of the case has been held on with masking tape, but its now time to attach it securely.  I had originally planned on drilling through holes and bolting the front to the case, but there wasn't much room for my hands to hold onto a nut, so I increased the size of the through hole a bit and pressed-in some PEM nuts.







The front frame consists of 1x1 and 1/2x1 u-channels.












Button head bolts were used to attach the front to the case.


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## DeAtHWiSh (Nov 24, 2011)

This is filled with pure awesomeness!


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## Spotswood (Dec 1, 2011)

The side panels were cut via the help of a large makeshift square made from a small square clamped to a ruler.












The radiator ventilation cutouts were made with the help of a router template. Some bits of scrap aluminum were bolted to the underside to eliminate any errors with placing the template accurately on the sheets.







Determining where to make the cutouts was easily done via a dab of India ink on the head of a screw and some masking tape.  The panel was repeatedly pushed up against the inked bolt.
















I'll round the corners later.


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## Spotswood (Dec 2, 2011)

In order to accurately drill the bolt holes to attach the perforated aluminum to the side panels, I fabricated a drill template from some left over flat bar stock and a drill bushing I had lying around the shop.






A couple of spacers was used to quickly and accurately place the jig on the work piece (to avoid having to measure/layout the location of the holes).







Some .063 perforated aluminum cut to size:








To accurately cut the rounded corners on the side panels a router jig was fab'd from a piece of the corner round used on the body of the case, 1-inch u-channel and a couple of 1-2-3 block hot glued to some particle board.  Two strips of Mylar from an old drum head was used to smooth out any irregularities.







Tah-dah!


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## Chicken Patty (Dec 2, 2011)

God this thing is coming out beastly!


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## de.das.dude (Dec 2, 2011)

the best thing i love about  spotswood is that i can tell he really thinks about it and carefully measures everything out. also the attention to detail and perfection begs for


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## Sinzia (Dec 2, 2011)

That decorative looking "corner round" or whatever you'd call it... where do you get that? I've been thinking of using your build as a bit of inspiration and make one myself, but I have -zero- ideas on where to get the materials.

-Oh crap, you're in NH? Hi, neighbor!-


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## Spotswood (Dec 2, 2011)

Sinzia said:


> That decorative looking "corner round" or whatever you'd call it... where do you get that? I've been thinking of using your build as a bit of inspiration and make one myself, but I have -zero- ideas on where to get the materials.
> 
> -Oh crap, you're in NH? Hi, neighbor!-



I had to order $100 of the corner extrusion, which means I have a ton left over.  PM me if your interested in a chunk.


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## de.das.dude (Dec 2, 2011)

you are so awesome i would work with you for free, just because i would learn so much from you lol.


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## Spotswood (Feb 9, 2012)

Another requirement for this case is a hidden door latching mechanism.

Look Ma!  No latches!







A length of .125x.75-inch flat bar was bolted to the bottom of the door to act as a lip that will hook into the u-channel along the bottom of the case, for example:







Along the top of the door, there is a piece of angle with three "hooks", which were routed out using a cobbled together router template.  












A thick piece of flat bar was filed down to where it'll slide easily inside the u-channel along the top of the case.  To that three "posts" were bolted to it.  When slid forward, the posts will engage the hooks.


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## Spotswood (Apr 17, 2012)

A large area of the right side panel was cutout for a 16x15-inch acrylic window.


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## t_ski (Apr 17, 2012)

Glad to see you're still going with this, but I'd love to see it come along a little faster


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## adulaamin (Apr 17, 2012)

Man I wish I had the resources and skills to do what you do... AWESOME job so far... Can't wait to see it finished...


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## Spotswood (May 7, 2012)

I made a mistake, placing the false back too far into the case, which required having to re-fabricate the back sheet.  But I figured I could take advantage of the situation by improving the mounting of the motherboard tray, by fastening the tray to the false back with a 7/8-inch long spacer.







I don't remember if I already offered this tip before, but I try to reduce the wear and tear on my 1/2-inch flush cutting router bit by first rough cutting with a 3/16-inch spiral downward cutting bit.


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## johnnyfiive (May 7, 2012)

Whoa, awesome progress! This thing is going to look awesome!


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## Spotswood (May 28, 2012)

A PSU mounting plate was routed out of a piece .10-inch thick aluminum sheet with the help of a custom template.

In order to accurately transfer the locations of the PSU mounting holes, threaded hole transfer punches (mcmaster.com part # 	3385A31) were threaded into a PSU.












And then the PSU was carefully centered and pressed into the sheeting, with the end result being a perfect squarely mounted PSU.


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## Phusius (May 28, 2012)

faster!  faster!  ::cracks whip::

_thats what she said_


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## de.das.dude (May 28, 2012)

Spotswood said:


> A PSU mounting plate was routed out of a piece .10-inch thick aluminum sheet with the help of a custom template.
> 
> In order to accurately transfer the locations of the PSU mounting holes, threaded hole transfer punches (mcmaster.com part # 	3385A31) were threaded into a PSU.
> 
> ...




thats a nifty piece of tool right there :O


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## t_ski (May 29, 2012)

Phusius said:


> faster!  faster!  ::cracks whip::



Agreed.  Spotswood, your builds are awesome, but they take just too damn long


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## Spotswood (Jun 4, 2012)

Another router template was made to cutout the areas for the PSUs out of the back sheet.  A guide was clamped to the bottom of the template to keep the cutouts perfectly aligned along the bottom.


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## Spotswood (Aug 19, 2012)

Turned out that I needed to cut one more slot out of the bottom shelf. But the last time I used my wooden "small slot" router template, I somehow managed to crush one edge, so I quickly cobbled together a new out of some left over t-slot extrusion.  I'm really loving using these t-slot extrusions to make router templates - fast and accurate!







Here's a teeth-shattering video of me cutting out the slot.


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## Spotswood (Sep 10, 2012)

Performed the mind-numbing task of fastening the bottom and top sheets to the case frame via flat head socket cap screws.  Through and countersink holes were drilled into the sheet and transferred to the case frame via a self-centering counterbore drill bit.
















Bottom sheet all fastened:







And top sheet all drilled out:


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## mediasorcerer (Sep 10, 2012)

What a monster, pleasing to see your metalwork, inspiring and thanx! How will you finish the aluminium? what about anodizing in a color??


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## Spotswood (Sep 10, 2012)

mediasorcerer said:


> What a monster, pleasing to see your metalwork, inspiring and thanx! How will you finish the aluminium? what about anodizing in a color??



Thanks.  Current thinking is for a black powdercoat finish.


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## mediasorcerer (Sep 10, 2012)

I used to do casting in aluminium, it can look great polished, but does oxidise slightly over time, black powdercoat sounds beautiful. cant wait to see it!


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## Spotswood (Nov 5, 2012)

Drilled out the holes for the vandal resistant switches and fastened the front sheeting to the case.


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## HammerON (Nov 5, 2012)

Long time no see
Glad to see you are making progress


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## de.das.dude (Nov 6, 2012)

i thought you had forgotten us XD


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## Spotswood (Nov 21, 2012)

Finished the lower portion of the back sheet, which involved installing the PEM nuts, trimming the PSU mounting plates to the final size and creating an extra solid cover plate (which I almost forgot to do).


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## adulaamin (Nov 21, 2012)

I am in AWE... 

Keep it coming... Keep it coming...


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