q for someone who made their own case window

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

What thickness of plexiglass did you use? I'm using 1/4", and it is a lot thicker and harder to work with than I thought. But I will be adding a 120mm fan and a 80mm fan to it, so I don't know if 1/8" will be strong enough.

Anyone have experience with this?
Tas.

 

[Parkre]

I made my own, because my case stands just shy of 29 in. IIRC. I had made my window out of 1/8" glass, but unfortunately could not find any trim that fits for 1/8".
So I made them (glass company) make one the same size out of 1/4" safety glass with a 35% tint. Which went well with the "hammered Steel" paint from Rustoleum. And I was able to find trim for 1/4" too for another 10 bucks. Since my case was huge and solid steel (old server type case), the weight of the glass had little impact. I have had my case for 3 years, taken it to dozens of LANs, its my 'portable' lanning rig, and no cracks or chips in the glass yet (knock on wood). I did weld a handle on my case because my case weighs a 60lbs (the 162mm fans from frozencpu.com don't make it light). Solid Steel, huge real glass window, huge steel fans, a few more hard drives and burners than average comp, and you have my heavy a** case which I will never part with.

My advice to you, is to get glass, not plexiglass (if you can afford the weight, that is).

 

[Parkre]

Oh, and if you ask why I haven't put wheels on it, it's because if I did, it would fit under my 6' folding table (or any folding table). There's only about 1/2" of clearance between the handle and underside of the table. 😀

 

[kirbymixmasta]

Don't companies use acrylic glass? Not plexi?

 

[Mickey21]

1/8" is plenty strong for fan mounting and is the defacto thickness for many cases with windows on them. 1/4" sounds too thick for most window purposes. I use 1/8" and I have never had an issue mounting fans and other things on them...

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

My mid-tower has a 1/8" thick window. Its unmodified.

If I were to make a case window, I would look into using Lexan as it is much more scratch resistant than acrylic or poly type plastics.
At an 1/8" I *think* Lexan is stiffer than the others. I've used Lexan to frabricate a couple of motorcycle windshiels. Not recently I will add.
Be sure and leave no sharp edges at the mounting holes as a sharp edge is a stress riser and will encourage a crack if it is going to happen.
I just uae a larger drill and twill it between my fingers to break the edge. If a crack does start in plastic, drill a very small hole at the very end of it and that will keep it from traveling.


There use to be a stickyed thread here in Cases & Cooling. Search this forum for Case Mods and it should be on top. There is a very long list of intresting/helpful links there.


jj

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

parkre: I wouldn't mind using glass, but I have to mod the material to add fans and the like. My case itself is 100 pounds, but I can't afford to get something that I can't work with.

kirbymixmasta: The material I'm using is actually Lucite, but it is close enough. I was more using plexi as a general term... Sorry about that.

GalvanizedYankee: I have molding that can access a 1/8" - 1/4" window, and will mount to a case up to 1/8" thick. Took forever to find the stuff too. And I really miss having that thread as a sticky. I have searched for it several times without luck. But I will try again with your criteria. Thanks.

Tas.

 

[cronic]

use 1/8" plexi and use hole saws to cut good clean holes. i have done 10 to 20 this way with great results.

 

[mindwreck]

I just installed a window on my case today and yeah its strong enough. I have 1/8" acrylic glass i got from home depot.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Well, I found a good bit to use with the dremel, so it's working out with the 1/4" now. I just need to find a better way of drilling the screw holes to mount the fans. Kinda messed those up on my test sheet... Oh well though. So good so far. Now I get to practice my etching...
Tas.