Had my case "professionally cut." What do you think?

[iwearnosox]

So I mailed my front panel out to someone that was highly recommended, and here's the result. I'll refrain from the specifics for now- what do you think? They only made one cut, can you guess which one it is?

My case, professionally cut.

 

[iwearnosox]

Yeah, that's it. Just looks like poop but wanted to get a second opinion.

It's wood because it's on my coffee table.

 

[OulOat]

How much did you pay?

 

[Lizardman]

What is that hole for anyway.

 

[Justin218]

is it just me or are the squares not parallel to eachother?

 

[iwearnosox]

The hole is for a LCD display. I paid (drumroll please) $100 for this cutout, and another that they have yet to send to me on a 5 1/4" faceplate. I had tried to get ahold of someone with a waterjet but my emails got ignored for two weeks.

This job was done by wahoo computers, who came recommended by some folks over at hardforums. It's so rediculously off center and crooked they must have been drinking or busted it out in 5 minutes.

Blah, I don't know what to do with it now...

 

[iwearnosox]

Originally posted by: Justin218
is it just me or are the squares not parallel to eachother?

It's not you. The bottom one is floating off where it pleases.

 

[HappyPuppy]

That blows. I could do better with a jigsaw and a file. For $100 I could do a hell of a lot better!

 

[iwearnosox]

Yeah, I'm pretty sad right now. The rest of my work and the case was coming together so well, too...

 

[iwearnosox]

oooh, a reply from the shop that did it:

"If you are unhappy with the part I would like to get it back from you and make it right. Please mail it back to us and we will inspect it and make it perfect. "

Uh, what to do. I mean this thing is clearly fuxored, yet they felt ok sending it. It's so far out of spec that it's not really "correctable."

 

[cheapgoose]

well, personally, i feel that the best part of modding is doing it yourself you know.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: iwearnosox
oooh, a reply from the shop that did it:

"If you are unhappy with the part I would like to get it back from you and make it right. Please mail it back to us and we will inspect it and make it perfect. "

Uh, what to do. I mean this thing is clearly fuxored, yet they felt ok sending it. It's so far out of spec that it's not really "correctable."

Take a marker and write everything that is wrong about the hole right by the hole so you can draw some arrows. This way they can't claim that the hole is perfectly okay.

 

[Def]

Wait.. $100??? What the hell did they say they were going to cut it with?!?! Going rate at a machine shop that could possibly have a plasma torch or the like would probably charge you $30-40 max(even that would be steep, but you'd be paying for the equiptment)!

That looks like it was done with a 'steady' hand and just normal tools(bandsaw and file).



Besides, what's to stop you from doing even better than that with a Dremel and a small file?

 

[rpc64]

$100 is WAY too much, even if they did it right.

 

[Lizardman]

Originally posted by: Def
Wait.. $100??? What the hell did they say they were going to cut it with?!?! Going rate at a machine shop that could possibly have a plasma torch or the like would probably charge you $30-40 max(even that would be steep, but you'd be paying for the equiptment)!

That looks like it was done with a 'steady' hand and just normal tools(bandsaw and file).



Besides, what's to stop you from doing even better than that with a Dremel and a small file?

Why on earth would you want to cut a 2mm thick piece of AL with a plasma torch? Plasma torchs don't exactly leave the nicest finishing marks. Looks more like a dog chewed then it was cut.

 

[iwearnosox]

I'd of gladly paid $100 if it were done right from the get go. Remember, this is only half of the job- the other half is a 3 layer faceplate (aluminum, plastic, plexi) that I'm turning into an ipod dock. We'll see how well they munge that.

Anyhoo I spent a few hours filing and trying to fix it. I think I did a pretty good job:

Revised faceplate.

There's a piece of plexi that goes over this that also uses a custom controller to light multiple RGB led's. Will be cool when it's done!

 

[FlowerMan]

For $100 you could have bought a Dremel and DIY And you'd have a dremel for future mods

 

[Jeff7181]

Holy Shyt!!! You spent $100 to have somebody cut holes in your case? Christ! I've been cutting cases for friends for bigger fans, LEDs, front USB ports, better airflow, water cooling setups, etc. for a couple years now, and I charge them $20 for my time, and the accessories that get used with my rotary tool. Maybe they're not "professional cuts" but I leave no sharp edges, I measure everything. I even put a mirror smooth finish on a friend's whole case after cutting a window in the side panel... I charged $50 for that cause it was time consuming. Only complaint he had was that he can't even touch it without leaving finger prints.

 

[Justin218]

It doesn't look too bad now. Don't sweat it...

 

[boyRacer]

$100 eh?... well you did seem to make it look better... but you could've brought it to a fab shop and they would've cut it for $5...

 

[iwearnosox]

Actually I own a dremel. The job was sent to them (wahoo computers) under the pretense that they had access to a laser for this, if needed. Whatever, they're clowns, and I'm a clown for trusting them.

A "fab" shop?

The case is $200, I was only looking for someone to do it without munging it beyond repair. Thankfully this was repairable...

 

[deerslayer]

A "fab" shop?

Metal fabrication shop.

It doesn't look bad now.
I guess you've learned your lesson

 

[iwearnosox]

Coming together. The plexiglass is lit by seperate LED's in the vents, rotating through all possible color combinatations at a programmable rate via a custom controller.

Weeeeeeeeeeeee

I just want to finish this thing!

 

[Egrimm]

Nice, glad it turned out ok with the hole for the lcd after all. Looks very good so far.
Have a similar case and have done exactly the same thing with led's in the bottom holes apart from mine being blue (having a blue theme, metallic/blue case with blue CC and only blue leds), such extra leds look so sweet as it helps make the plexi glow.

 

[Tab]

Wow, I think it came out very well. Though I dont like the orange glow on the PlexiGlass.