How to cut up my aluminum case??

[mrscintilla]

Got a lian-li pc50. want to cut some slits and drill 4 holes to have space for a 80mm fan on one of the aluminum side panels.

What's the cheapest way to do it? I can mark the holes and slits easily. But what's the cheapest cutting tool for it? Or will homedepot or somewhere take cutting order once I mark it up? I really don't want spend more than $15 for the job.

Thanks for any insight.

 

[Grunt03]

I have used a rotozip to cut holes before, it was pretty easy and came out looking really great

 

[Mikeyflan]

If you have a Drill get a Hole Saw 3" might find a new one on ebay, then get some trim about 9 1/2" (9.5")

 

[krazzypanda]

scissors?

 

[BigHurt]

DREMEL!!!!! hehe

 

[mrscintilla]

Okay, thanks for the tips. I went to sears and got a cheap cordless drill, and drilled about 20 holes on the case. Now, the fan runs directly above the northbridge, great!!! But future lessons for others: don't buy cordless, go for cord. THe batteries run down really quickly.

 

[xbassman]

Originally posted by: mrscintilla
Okay, thanks for the tips. I went to sears and got a cheap cordless drill, and drilled about 20 holes on the case. Now, the fan runs directly above the northbridge, great!!! But future lessons for others: don't buy cordless, go for cord. THe batteries run down really quickly.

An 18V cordless drill will do the job nicely.

 

[akira34]

Originally posted by: xbassman

Originally posted by: mrscintilla
Okay, thanks for the tips. I went to sears and got a cheap cordless drill, and drilled about 20 holes on the case. Now, the fan runs directly above the northbridge, great!!! But future lessons for others: don't buy cordless, go for cord. THe batteries run down really quickly.

An 18V cordless drill will do the job nicely.

I have a 16.8V drill with two batteries. When I picked it up (from Sears) it was the highest V rating drill that wasn't over $100 for just the drill. I've done a lot of work with the 16.8 and never had it run out of charge too fast. Of course, I make sure the batteries have a full charge before starting. If you don't do the charging as you're supposed to after buying it, it WILL run down a hell of a lot faster than it should have. I always charge items for the first time overnight. That way, I'm sure they are at 100% charge for the initial charging. This tends to give you better results than doing a short initial charge time.

I'm thinking about getting one of the cordless Dremmel tools... I'd go cordless since they've advanced a long way over the years AND it will be a lot more convenient for me to not have yet another cord running to power when I want to use it.

 

[Jeff7]

Titanium coated drill bits will slice through the metal quickly. Yes, they are more expensive than steel, but they have a big advantage - they'll still be sharp a hell after drilling metal. I got a set of bits at Harbor Freight fairly cheap. Minor caveat - they're still coated with oil from the factory; I guess the cleaning stage is an added expense that their manufacturers don't bother with.