Well, my very first casemod project has come to a screeching halt. I decided to mode the case of one of my Shuttle PC’s to give it a little more glitz and glamor. Since this machines are taken to shows regularly, and tend to be on display, I figure a little more whiz-bang would be good.
For those who don’t know what a casemod is, it’s a way of customizing your PC case using colored lighting, lexan windows, and other doodads to make it look cool. Some examples: a normal pc, and a Shuttle box like mine, but with a blue tinted case.
I decided 2 side windows with internal red or blue LED’s would look great. This would require cutting the panels out of the side of the case using a metal blade for my jigsaw.
After measuring where I wanted the panel to go, I cut the 4 pilot holes with a 1/2″ drill bit, and reached for my jigsaw to mount the metal blades in, and cut the rest of the panel.
Cept, I can’t find my jigsaw. This is an ancient jigsaw I’ve had for 15 some odd years – a little black and decker number. I’m not devastated by the loss, but it does sort of put a damper on the evenings project.
I’ll probably pick up a new jigsaw at some point, though I’m considering a reasonabl dremel tool, which seems more versatile, and with a little tweaking (ala a metal cutting wheel), doing these sort of mods should be pretty easy. I wouldn’t mind hearing from the more experienced tool users on the merits of using a dremel tool vs a jigsaw or the like.
We have a case here that is a fairly elaborate dragon that T did on his case. He recommends that you use a dremel for the clean up work but as he used a dremel for the entire thing, he can’t say with any real certainty that one would be easier then the other.