A picture can say a thousand words, but not sure it can cover all the frustration (cursing) from 200h of failed prints, but I have one more item to manage on my plan for this entire mod. The crown piece to earn the name of the mod – Unhidden | Tribute.
But I was determined to print a full custom front with cutouts for the fans, to show them as well as adding a little personal touch to the otherwise fairly untouched case.
Complete with the authentic snap in and fold out design of the original front. Toook some tries to get that one right with guess-and-print approach.
As the design of the original front is extended beyond the frame I wanted to design a frame/tunnel that goes all the way into the fans. Precision required.
Tested a few designs, but decided to print it with an edge on the front pieces and an edge on the fan rings. That way I had something to glue/fuze the pieces once done.
Moved on to test how to merge the pieces the best way. To thin (just 2,4mm) to do metal enforced pins. Decided to go with a printed plug and use Acrifix on the entire edge.
Couple of hundred of hours and some kilometers of add:norths finest filament, but it is close now.
Yummy. Complete with a cut out of a very famous and awesome logo
Voila! That is starting to look just like the real front panel, just with a little more holes.
I ended up melting some filament ontop of each joint. Didn’t trust just the bond of the Acrifix after a stress test. Going to pull A LOT on these pieces during sanding. Don’t want to have to restart after second last sanding.
The real rings fuzed together as they have to be much thinner where they join as two fans share one edge.
Sorry for the really bad picture. I had a fight with Dropbox and accidently deleted most of the pictures of the sanding process. Mostly 50h of screaming muscle ake and dust, but getting close to a good finish. As I’m going to add vinyl it’s very unforgiving. Paint fills, so with primer you could prob go here, but I still need 3-4 more Putty applications and a few more full rotations of wet sanding (280, 320, 480, 600, 800, 1000)
Thank you Cooler Master Nordics for sending that badge <3. Printed a holder for it to snap into the backside of my front.
Same exclusive matte vinyl added to this. Going to look nice to the two tone finish of the rest of the case accentuating the lines of the C700P. Tomorrow is the final day. I got some hours left with the 3D printer with the finishing pieces
