This looks promising! Keep us updated.

Damn man, nice work!

Another requirement for this case is the ability to mount six SSD drives.  The original plan was to mount them to the bottom of the case, but if there ever was a leak in the water cooling system, all of the SSDs would be toast.  So instead, I came up with the idea to mount the drives to the underside of a motherboard tray.  


Half-inch standoffs were screwed into the MB tray's existing PEM nuts.     

And onto that a .10-inch thick sheet of aluminum was bolted.

Love it!

The front inner sheet was turned into Swiss cheese via 9 holes for the 120mm intake fans.  The holes were cut with a 1/2-inch flush trimming router bit, guided by a template.

I spent a full day squaring up the case frame, squaring joints, re-aligning joints etc. in preparation of fastening the sheeting.  

The steps I use to attach a sheet are:

Drill a hole in the sheet.

Use the hole in the sheet to guide the drill bit for the hole in the frame.

Thread the frame hole.

Countersink the sheet hole.

Admire work.


The case with the inner front, bottom and lower back panels attached.

Looks great!  Can't wait to see it finished!

My client selected some nice low-profile casters (with 2-inch wheels) which I mounted right away since the case is all nice and square.  


Three of the #8-32 stainless steel bolts were screwed directly into the frame via hand tapped holes.

you said the backplanes had LED wires? im looking hard for anything that will give each hard drive of mine an activty light, where did you get those? 

I attached the .1-inch thick side and front panels with 6 stainless steel flat head socket cap screws.  The front panel extends past the tops of the side panels by .10-inch in order to hide the top's front edge.

 
The process to attach the panels is:

• Drill pilot holes along the edges of the panel
• Clamp the panel to frame and use the pilot holes to drill tap holes into the frame
• Remove the panel and tap the frame holes
• Countersink the panel holes

The side panels extend past the top of the frame by the thickness of the hinge.  These will later be scribed and cut to length along the back of the case.

nice!!

You do amazing work

Nice build so far. I have a love/hate relationship with countersinking holes and threading them... but the final product can't really be beaten.

blood4guts

Nice build so far. I have a love/hate relationship with countersinking holes and threading them... but the final product can't really be beaten.

Thanks.  
 
Yeah, I always try to avoid threading countersunk bolts, preferring to fasten them with a nut.
 

Man this build is coming along nicely. Looks sick! +1