drilling holes in steel chassis

onocentaur · Post by **onocentaur** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:41 am

So I went ahead and bought the V4 asus barebones. Mostly put together now and very quiet (love the enermax modu82+!)

I want to get a bit more airflow in the chassis to help with the passive gpu cooler; there's a grill at the front for an 80mm fan but I want to fit a 92mm one (annoyingly, I assumed it would have mounting holes already for 92mm as there is an identical sized grill at the rear which has mounting for both 80 and 92mm

). There's just enough room for some holes, and it'll be hidden behind the plastic front when I'm done so it doesn't have to be too neat; does anyone have any suggestions for the drilling? Would it be worth making the holes .5mm smaller than normal to help reduce vibration? (I'll be using rubber fan mounts).
I'm not going to take apart the motherboard etc so I'll be careful not to get any swarf into delicate areas!

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:53 am

Hi,

I'd suggest using a twist drill, but this will definitely produce some small metal shards. It might be possible to contain these by putting some thick sticky tape on both sides of the spot where you drilling, and I'd recommend that someone help you by holding a strong vacuum hose right next to the tip of the drill bit.

But, it would be far preferable to remove all the delicate bit that can be broken/shorted out, do the work, clean it up, and reinstall the bits...

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:13 pm

This reminds me of the time i glued a zalman heatsink to my northbridge with some AS ceramique, just to find out 10min later that now my VGA card bumped into it and couldnt be inserted any longer. So i had to dremel off half the flanges with it still attatched to the motherboard.

I taped a bunch of paper towels together till i had a giant sheet that i could put over the entire side of the case, then pushed it down over the heatsink and tore a small hole so just the heatsink could pop up through it.

If you have the option though, its best just to remove all the electronics from the case first. I'd suggest using a holesaw or dremel and cutting the fan hole larger and not just drilling new mounting holes for the fan.

Taking the electronics out really doesnt take much more than 20min, and its the safest way to do it.

Plekto · Post by **Plekto** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:57 pm

I 2x... no, 30X this. Dremels cause powdered metal to go everywhere. Think of it as like powdered glass but conductive(just as itchy if it gets in your skin, btw).

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:08 pm

Yeah, there's a few people around here who found out the hard way that you need to remove the kit first and cleanup after drilling.

Pop...fizz..."What's that smell?"

onocentaur · Post by **onocentaur** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:00 am

you know what, I think I'll just go with an 80mm fan

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 8:24 am

johnlary2403 wrote:Steel plate has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.14% by weight...
...
Drilling holes made up of steel are good to use because it has a strenght

Eh? Not sure what that means?

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 8:46 am

jhhoffma wrote:
johnlary2403 wrote:Steel plate has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.14% by weight...
...
Drilling holes made up of steel are good to use because it has a strenght
Eh? Not sure what that means?

Im going out on a limb and saying he's just a spammer....wait for the how to guide rip dvd thread with links in 3....2...1.... [Mod comment: Survey says... Ding ding ding!]

As for drilling with mobo in... hand drill, new bit, tape, vacuum and go slow...cutting oil will help keep the metal shards from flying... and cross fingers on boot.

drilling holes in steel chassis

drilling holes in steel chassis

Re: drilling holes in steel chassis

Re: drilling holes in steel chassis