Power tools redux, or “Daves tears stuff up”

With thanks to Macthud, a jigsaw was found, and [de?]construction continued. Using a couple tricks I learned on various modding boards, I cut a 10″x4″ window in the left side of the casing, and a 3″x3″ window in the right side. This was done using 1/2″ bit in a power drill to cut the pilot holes, and a single-speed jigsaw to cut the lines. I had already marked the lines in pencil, and masked out the rest of the case with duct tape to prevent the sliding jigsaw from damaging the finish.
The panels popped out fine, and I only had one bad moment of the jigsaw jumping around slighly denting the case. Next time I think I’ll use a better jigsaw, but for now, this was fine.
The next step was using 1/4″ clear plastic tubing for the ‘framing’ around the holes. That involved cutting the tube to lengh and slitting it lengthwise with an x-acto knife. I pushed that over the edge of the cut holes, and that gave me an interesting ‘silicon putty’ look around the edges of the windows.
I then cut 2 pieces of lexan to the right size (did you know that when after scoring Lexan with a carpet knife, breaking it sounds _Just_ like a rifle shot? Woke me up.)
A couple pieces of velcro on the inside of the case and the lexan was mounted. Voila! Looks great. Time to reassemble the case!
And there the problems happened. The tolerances inside a Shuttle case are -miniscule-. There’s enough room on the left side of the case for the internal mountings, but the right side with the smaller window… nuh uh. The case is -right- against the bracing hardware and the power supply.
So, the right side window had to come out. I think I’ll do an external mount on it, so it takes up no internal space at all. But for now it’s an open hole. I’m keeping an eye on the heat in the case, just in case airflow has been a problem. I don’t think it’s been affected too much, but it’s definately on the radar.
I really need to get a new camera so I can share the project pictures. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!