So with Million Man Lan (MML5) fast approaching and figuring I’ll be having case window envy, I thought I’d try making a new transparent top lid to my case. My requirements were (1) it had to be cheap, (2) couldn’t involve modding any of the original case pieces, and most importantly (3) it couldn’t actually make the already sweet case look any worse.
I went to Home Depot and picked up a piece of Lexan (polycarbonate) and some aluminum angle (1″ and .5″). Total cost of materials was about $35. I debated going with something cheaper than Lexan, like arylic, but since my monitor will sit on this, I opted for strength and durabilty. Constuction took about 3 hours with the majoirty of that just for figuring out how to piece it together. A jig saw with a fine metal blade worked very good in cutting both the aluminum and the polycarbonate. I won’t go into gory details of the construction, but the Lexan slides perfectly until the top lip of the front face and it’s held in place with two thumb screws in the back (just like the stock lid).
Meanwhile I do still have the original solid aluminum top in the event I ever want to swtich back (like when it’s eventually rack mounted).
Tags: Comp hardware / mods
