How easy is acrylic / plexiglass to work with?

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I have a server case (see the links at the bottom), and I'm tired of all of the cables everywhere, so I'm going to go through and sleeve my power supplies, as well as add some lighting, and do one power supply blue UV, and the other one black.
I'm also going to add some fans on the left side of my case to cool of the Xeon's some more, and I'm going to use blu UV reactive fans. My question is, I'm thinking about putting a large window (18"x18") on the left side, but I don't know how easy it would be to mount fans to a plexiglass window. And how thick of plexiglass would be needed to support 3 120mm fans?
If the plexiglass would be too hard to mess with, I'd just go ahead and not do a window, and put the hole and mounts for the three 120mm fans in the side of the case...

What do ya'll think?
Tas.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Has anyone put in the cuts and holes for a case fan in plexiglass or acrylic?
Tas.

 

[Leros]

Its really easy. Just go slow.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Thank you. And one more question for an annoying topic. What thickness? I've searched the sites through google.com, ask.com, and the threads, and they don't really specify which thickness is best. I want to mount 3 120mm fans...
Tas.

 

[RampantAndroid]

1/4 to 1/2 thick? I've worked with plexiglass, and if you're cutting out the holes for the fans that'll weaken it....so you can really go to thick...

 

[Greenman]

1/4" should be pleanty thick. You can drill it with a hole saw for the fans.

 

[RampantAndroid]

haha that'll be oone big holesaw!

 

[Cheesetogo]

If you drill/cut to fast or to close to the edges, the stuff cracks and breaks off very easily. If you go slow and don't drill to close to the edges though, you should be fine.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
If you drill/cut to fast or to close to the edges, the stuff cracks and breaks off very easily. If you go slow and don't drill to close to the edges though, you should be fine.

1/4" to 1/2" thick would be more than enough if you're careful. Thinking about making a custom plexiglass case for my next build b/c mATX sux and I want a good rig that's still portable - looks like custom build time

 

[Greenman]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
haha that'll be oone big holesaw!

Thats not even near the largest hole saw made. The biggest one I have is 7". You really have to be carfull with it though, when the teeth bite it will sprain your wrist if you're using a powerfull drill.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Looks like I'll be getting a 11x17" window kit from frozencpu, and then put in three 120mm fans into the window...
Tas.

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
If you drill/cut to fast or to close to the edges, the stuff cracks and breaks off very easily. If you go slow and don't drill to close to the edges though, you should be fine.

good advice...

also make sure to slean each blade or saw after a little time of cutting...less scratches

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: Son of a N00b

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
If you drill/cut to fast or to close to the edges, the stuff cracks and breaks off very easily. If you go slow and don't drill to close to the edges though, you should be fine.

good advice...

also make sure to slean each blade or saw after a little time of cutting...less scratches

Yeah those acrylic burrs really screw things up if you aren't careful.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Someone talked about making holes in the plexiglass will weaken the sheet. Should I worry about this?
Tas.

 

[Sokratz]

i used lucite acrylic to build my waterbox. for strait edges i used a scorer/scraper and then cracked them. for holes i used a dremel with the drywall bit. it's a horrendous mess and can crack if you're not steady.