Prepping the case cover
As mentioned on the previous page, I am hoping to cut an ‘L’ shaped window onto the right side of the Elite 110’s cover. I got out my rotary tool, a dozen or so cutting disks, and most importantly a pair of safety glasses. I cannot stress how important a pair of safety glasses is as whilst I was cutting the case, the one of the cutting disks snapped and a piece flew by my face.
This is the cover freshly cut. I still needed to filed down the edges and smooth out the lines. To be honest, I’m not very satisfied with my cutting skills, I’ve filed down the edges and they are not straight enough. I doubt my skills can ever make the window edges completely straight, and the metal edges are quite sharp. So I’m on the look out for plastic trims to line the window edges. Will update when I find some decent ones.
After that, I wrapped some 180Cw waterproof silicon carbide paper around a sanding block and went to town on the outside of the case. The Cooler Master Elite 110 comes with a ‘gritty’ paint coating on the outside, and I wanted to get a smooth finish before I started slapping the paint on. By laying the groundwork with a smooth surface, this eases all the sanding down and buffing needed later on between each coats of paint. There’s no need to sand down to the bare metal, just a smooth surface before laying on the primer.
The benefits of using waterproof sanding paper is that they don’t turn into mush when you wet sand. After a good going over, I rinsed the cover in soapy water to remove the dust, and saw which parts needed more sanding by spotting the remaining original paint gloss that was still present, they will feel slightly more rough as well.
A second sanding session, and the covering is ready for the primer.
