Project Sinister: Things That Go Bump In The Night - Slicing Up the Bezel
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My biggest issue was the stylized swoop running down the lower half of the bezel. In order to make everything look right, I would need to cut that swoop right out, and doing that would result in the hole being much bigger than where the fans were located. Plastic is a much easier material to cut than steel or aluminum and, grabbing my trusty Dremel, I set to it.
With the plastic cut out, I mounted the bezel to the chassis to see how well the fans and opening lined up. With everything lined up roughly where I wanted it to be, I set about filling in the gaps around the top below the floppy drive cover and the bottom.
Using the other floppy drive cover, I first glued into place using some epoxy. With the Dremel and my cutting wheel, I cut up through the edges of my opening and into the floppy cover. I glued the floppy cover into place first so that it was nice and solid when I set to it with the Dremel. Additionally, with the cover already glued into place I was confident that it would line up nicely and not have to fiddle with the small cut-off ends of the cover trying to glue them in afterwards.
Using the cut off remains of the floppy cover, I start to fashion my relocated USB ports. After carefully carving away the right size opening for the front USB ports to poke through with a hobby knife, I glued it into place with more epoxy. The best part of using the left over floppy cover was the lip on the top and bottom. The bottom lip gave a nice, wide surface to apply the epoxy to, as well as a stronger base for it. The top lip will give the fan opening a nicer finished look while also covering the front USB circuit.
With the modified front USB port cover installed and the top floppy cover in place, I couldn’t resist putting the radio controlled air plane spinners in place. I’ve seen this done on a few other mods out there, and I really like the finished look it gives to the mod. With these spinners in place, it will help to break up the squared look of the whole case and give it a little more personality. While the practical purpose of these spinners in assisting the airflow is questionable, the look of them outweighs these concerns for me. Often modding, for me, is a fine art of balancing decorative ideas with functional engineering. While I absolutely love creating modded components that look good, I really want to harness style with functionality and create a piece that not only has a definitive stylistic element but also serves a purpose. This creates an excellent fusion of art and engineering and increases the appreciation of the end product greatly.
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