Thread: Plexiglass Case

as for the drives you need to use the proper size bolts to hold them in. I luckily had some laying around that were the perfect length.

I wouldn't use a bandsaw or any other saw to cut plexi. Look for a plastic cutter/scorer (looks like a funky knife), score it several times, then place in on a hard flat surface with a even edge (I used the corner of a wall), then place the score right on the edge and snap it in two. It will give you a nice clean and straight (if you score it straight) edge.

Do not use that 5 minute epoxy crap, I tried and didn't hold crap. People suggest a plastic glue that will fuse the pieces together. Since I just bolted mine together other people will have to elaborate on that subject.

What I did to mount my motherboard was use standard brass risers, and screw them into the plexi (acrylic in my case), then secure the MB to them as usual. Now for the hard drive, I an assuming you want to mount it on the top of your case. Just get 4 L brackets and attach them to the plexi (spaced to the size of the HD of course), then use the standard screws for the HD.
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2 L Brackets on either side of the HD attached to the plexi!

But I advise (and so will others here) that you mount the HD verticly and not horizontaly to reduce the chance that the heads will collide with the platters when a hard bump occurs.

Squeezer,

I am in the middle of constructing the exact same thing. It is a pile more work than I thought it would be.

Here is what I compiled so far:
- I haven't tried a band saw BUT I have been using a table saw and it works great. Just don't go too fast and let the material feed itself in. My experience with a band saw and woodworking is better for curves rather than straight lines. I haven't tried a scorer but I imagine they work just fine, a tablesaw is readily available for me.

- After cutting the pieces out, use a flat power sander with 120 to 220-grit paper and clean up the cut edges. You will eventually use a small torch approx 1/2 away to heat the edges to "clear" them. Experiment on a scrap piece first to get the motions down.

- I haven't found good glue for plexi or acrylic so I spent the few buck and bought a 4-40 tap and proper size drill bit and I have drilled/tap every joint and it seems to be very strong. I used 4-40 x 1/2" pan head bolts and they seem ok.

- To mount the motherboard, you will need either the removable "metal" mounting plate that is in computer cases, which has all the usual stand-offs OR if that is not available, then you will need the copper stand offs and you will need to manually drill each one into their respective location for mounting the motherboard. If you don't have the copper stand-offs, any computer store should have hundreds (I know we do). Also grab the proper screws from the computer store for the stand-offs, this will save you a pile of aggravation in sourcing goofy screws.

- Normal computer hard drive screws are meant to thread through metal and would not be long enough to go through the 1/4" plexi BUT grab some anyways while you are at the computer store (they will have thousands) and see if you can counter sink them slightly into the plexi so they will thread properly into your drive. Most hard drives can mount from either their side or bottom.

Hope this helps - sorry it's long-winded...

Chkdsk.

here is a case that i recently built - http://www.apmracing.net/case/DSCF0017.JPG

We used a portable jig saw to do the cutting and a disc sander to sand the edges. Yes, everything is rough, but it is intentionaly, because it will eventualy be lit with LEDs, and then the rough edges seem to glow. It really is an awesome look. We used 6minute epoxy (dont use 5minute epoxy, it has to dry in 6minutes otherwise it explodes! ), and it seemed to work moderatly well. When the surface was properly cleaned and pressed together very firmly, it was very clear - however, it is easy to make mistakes.

HERE is a link to a site where this guy built a nice little plexi case. He explains the rights and wrongs he ran into and the best solutions he found...

ok having taken a few years of plastics shop i will share a few things that i know anyways
1 a table saw with a sharp blade makes great cuts that are not rough and when used with lighting or other things glow nicely
also polish to a nice almost glass like finish speaking of polishing a cotton buffing wheel and a product called meguirs <comes in various numbered grades usually start with 20 or so for the rough polishing and work down to i think like 10 or so i forget wich way the numbering goes for the quality but you get the idea
2 to glue acrlic plexiglass which ever you choose to cal it go to a auto paint store or they can usually tell you where to get it and get what is caled methly ethyl keytone <i think its spelled right i don't know> or M.E.K for short with that stuff if its seem joints usually just clamp the edges together and then run a small bead along the edge and it will draw itself into the seem <capilary action> with larger pieces like say glueing two 3x3 1/4 inch pices ontop of each other you can either soak bolth pieces in the m.e.k or get some of the colored acrylic glues run a few lines of glue in various places and press together <hint for a neat cracking effect use a table vise and apply alot of pressure it will spiderweb the acrlic as it sets up and the finished piece will look all cracked but be very much solid also if you engrave one piece then glu another pice ontop of it with the colored glues the glue will be a darker color in the engraved area
hope some of that helps i apoligize for my lack of punctuation but hey thats why i had mostly shop classes
that and i just home from a 12 hour work day hmm not sure what i hit or why my text is slanting but ok

I just got done building mine and will post pics as soon as I take them. I had all of the peices sut to size at the glass shop that I bought the plexi from. It cost me $23 for all 6 peices and they sold me some Acrylic Cement(#16 clear, thickened cement for Acrylic Sheet is what the tube says). I cut all of the openings with a jig saw and drilled holes for all the fans. I found the smaller the holes and the sharper the bit the better.