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Mounted these back bars which will support the component trays.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v363/navig/Exoframe%20Mini/Backsupportbars_zpsb0568bf9.jpg

Next, I tackled finishing off the bottom panel.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v363/navig/Exoframe%20Mini/Bottompanelfinish1_zpsb3cf3d21.jpg

More reconstruction!


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v363/navig/Exoframe%20Mini/Rebuild6_zpsda2f4776.jpg

I started rebuilding the system.

I went after the bars that had wires running inside them, as it was easier to work the wires piece by piece.



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And here we were after getting everything back from finish work.

Special thanks to Chico Metal Finishers for the flippin awesome orange and black anodizing.

The creation of the metal corner...

Time to get a little rough!


Generated the brushed aluminum look by running my sanding block across the metal bars, first in 180 grit then 220. Its important to run the whole length in one...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v363/navig/Exoframe%20Mini/Breakdown7_zps8ad9c96e.jpg







http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v363/navig/Exoframe%20Mini/Breakdown8_zpsf9c75a80.jpg

Everything looked good so far, so time to disassemble and prep for final finishes!



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v363/navig/Exoframe%20Mini/Breakdown1_zps85ec0b48.jpg

This project is gettin’ there! Time for a final pre-assembly. Make sure everything fits and looks good before the final breakdown for finishing details.




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I may go back and do that once I am 100% sure all my wiring is correct--I have a fear of permanent connections. The nuts do seem to work just fine especially for wrangling 5 connections at a time.
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The wiring of the LEDs is pretty intrinsic to the case, so I’m going to also run the wiring within the frame.




The cables are small enough to run simply thru grommited holes:

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Time to start on lighting.

As I had mentioned previously, I planned on going with UV lighting. I picked up this roll from Amazon for pretty cheap--UV LEDs on a strip:

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Next, I put together my cables.

I needed the following leads: Power switch x2, Reset switch x2, Power LED x2, Lighting switch x2.

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Next task I tackled is a bit of a signature of my exoframe design cases. Since the frame is made of tubular aluminum, I’m going to run a lot of my cables within the frame itself.




To get my...

Next I cut my front angled plastic panel.

Cut them with a beveled edge so that they would sit in place properly:

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At this point, I received an awesome gift in the mail!


Top panel arrived courtesy of Delvie’s Plastics (delviesplastics.com). ⅛” gray acrylic, laser cut fan grill. Basically I passed John...

Next goal, work on the plastic back panel. This panel is going to need cutouts for the power supply and the motherboard.



Started first by tapping some mounting holes:

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Next, I located my drain port:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v363/navig/Exoframe%20Mini/Radiatorfanmountdrainhole1_zps637ddb5f.jpg

Next step: mount the radiator/fan.


First step was to locate my bottom fan, which will be an exhaust pulling air across the radiator.

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So, once again, time to mount up my hardware and check my clearances.





Radiator goes here:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v363/navig/Exoframe%20Mini/525radmounted_zpsd769a752.jpg

Plan for the mounting brackets for the blu-ray drive would be a pair of supports that mount to the sides of the drive and span from the vertical orange posts to the front panel bezel.



Started...

My next step was to construct my support and brackets for the 5.25 optical drive.

However, before I build all that I needed to locate my 5.25 drive.

After a lot of measurements, I settled on...

Time to fabricate a pump/res mount.


Cut this form from the orange plastic:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v363/navig/Exoframe%20Mini/Pumpbracket2_zps7e58d8d7.jpg

Now that I had all my major structural components ready, I wanted to test fit my major pieces to get a general idea of layout and fit.





Empty System:

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You may have noticed on some of the pics above that I’ve also installed my hard drive mounting system.

Actually what happened was that in between building the two bent shelves, I found out I had...