So, I decided I was going to make a proper job of this mounting plate. And while I'm at it, why not make is transparent?

After scrounging around on google for a while, I found a UK supplier of Perspex called Advent Plastics. Two sheets (one for backup in case I screwed it up) of 5mm clear Perspex with dimensions 170*170mm cost £8.50 including delivery. This was just enough to cover my 3 drive bays and the fitting design with a little to spare for emergencies. Although the price was a bit steep, I have found nowhere locally that sells it so this was my best bet. After a few days and two trips to the sorting office with my "unable to deliver" card I got my Perspex.

I don't have a lot of experience with Perspex, but I figured a fine metal jigsaw blade, some nice slow drilling and plenty of protective masking tape should see me through. The first thing was to lay my protective layer of masking tape and mark out the shape I needed to mount the pieces to the front of the case. This pic shows where I just masked the edges where I'd be making the cut but I decided in the end to cover the whole thing in case the jigsaw base plate broke through the plastic wrapping.

I marked out the shape of the mounting bracket onto the masking tape using my old copper plate jobby as a template. Where there were concave corners on this shape, I drilled 2mm holes so that when I went into them with my jigsaw, I'd get the cut exactly right.

Eventually I got the shape right but the whole thing was just too thick to fit onto the mounts in the case front. So I did away with the mounts all together and got left with a rectangle of Perspex. I decided to just wedge/glue this flush to the line of the CD/DVD drives above.

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