Blowhole in Plexi Window

[Volund]

difficulty: medium
tools: dremel, drill
materials: masking tape, dry erase marker, measuring tape,

guide text:

Intro
Please read our http://www.d3scene.com/forum/case-mod-guides/14477-warning.html before attempting the following mod. Have you always wanted to improve air flow in your computer case but had no more places to put a fan? Or you have a side window and really don't know if the window will break? Well here is the guide for you! This mod to your case will take time and lots of effort but in the end it's worth it.


Directions
Step 1: Marking your hole-
Since this was one of my first mods, I practiced using a Dremel on a CD cover. If you already have experience with a Dremel then you're a step ahead. First take your fan grill and place it where you want. I decided to place it besides my graphics card but below my CPU, also if you'd like you can make your fan diagonal by just placing your fan diagonal. If you're the type who likes things to be straight and perfect, that's where the measuring tape comes in handy. All you do is measure the sides of the fan to the edge of your side panel for each corner, so that both corners have the same amount of spacing (this is what I did).

Next try not to move the grill while you tape the grill to the window. Preferably making a "+" sign in the middle of your grill. Now take your dry erase marker and mark the circle and place dots in the center of the four smaller circles on the outside. When I was doing this I found out that when I took the tape off, where the tape had been placed there was no circle. This problem is easy to figure out. All one has to do is place the tape in a different area and also turn the grill because where the smaller holes were there are also none marked places. Ok now you have 5 circles. Right? You then take the masking tape again and put it around the big circle. This helps the window not to crack. Put 2 layers of tape around it.

Step 2: Cutting your hole-
Take your side panel to a place where you would like to cut it and not have any damages to any of your furniture. I first laid it flat on my dad's work bench. Since the window I had was plastic and was at least ¼ in. I had no worries about cutting through any time soon. I turned my dremel on to the lowest setting. Just enough to cut the window but not to melt it and believe me the plastic can melt if the Dremel is set too high. Go nice and slow at first making a little round indentation on the dry erase mark where you are going to make the hole.

Do this 4 or 5 times and once the indent has gotten deeper into the plastic start cutting one place at a time going even deeper. Now you want to take breaks because well this did take me 2 hours to cut and you can sometimes get into a rush. You defiantly do not want to rush this. Then, finally, when you feel that it's so deep that it's going to fall through, dremel in one spot until you break through to the other side. At this point I placed half of my side panel off the table so as to cut through the window. You will then find out that after you cut the hole the circle you just cut will come out easy. Also if you were like me and drill slowly, you will notice that your hole looks very circular. I also used a sanding bit to clean up and shave off some pieces that were jagged.

Step 3: Drilling the four smaller holes-

Ok now since you cut the big hole and that's out of the way, you can start taking off the tape that was around the big circle. Now when I did this I noticed that the dry erase marker came off so I had to re-measure it all over again and then re-mark it but you can also use a permanent marker if you wish so that will not happen. Then get your drill out with a bit that will fit your circles from the grill. Test it by putting the bit through the tiny circles. This is the good part, LEAVE YOUR GRILL ON THE WINDOW. I noticed that the hand drill would move and get off centered if it had nothing to really hold on to. When you use the fan grill, the grill gives the drill a place to drill instead of just anywhere. If you want you can leave the grill on the window when you drill out all of the holes. I did not do this. I drilled halfway for all four of the circles and then took my grill off and continued to drill out my holes.



After all of this, I cleaned off my side window with water and a rag and then tried to see if my fan would fit. Unfortunately only one hole was out of place but that was easily fixable with my engraving bit from the Dremel. I just shaved off a cm. and the hole worked fine.

title: Blowhole In Plexi Window
Link: Blowhole In Plexi Window PC Mod Guide - Creative Mods: PC Mods, Case Mods, Pictures, Guides, Forums, Reviews and more
author:
difficulty: medium
tools: dremel, drill
materials: masking tape, dry erase marker, measuring tape,
category: case
date created: 2003-12-31 11:02:04
date modified: 2006-08-26 19:35:33