The obvious place to mount this display is in the front drive bay. Clearly the display is far too big to fit in just one drive bay and so two 5¼” drive bays will be needed. The LianLi case I'm mounting this display in has four 5¼” drive bays available and so this isn't really a problem. Taking two of the blanking plates out and dropping the display behind them showed that both width and height wise this display would fit perfectly.

Noritake have various data sheets available for all their displays available on their website. I took a quick look at the dimensions of display before continuing.

Unlike LCDs, the VFD displays often have what’s known as an "exhaust" - Pictured both above and below. It's important to take this into account when designing the housing or mounting.

Using masking tape I covered the two blanking plates, this also helped joined them together. Now this next bit is important to get right. Using a pencil I marked the actual display area. Note that it is not centred on the PCB.

In true modding style I took a dremel to this template and cut the shaded area (shown above) out. If you’re looking for a perfectly straight edge it’s far from the perfect tool but it should do the job. Using a metal file I smoothed off the edges and imperfections.

While the dremel was out I took the chance to grind the lip that remained between the two blanking plates.

Thats most of the hard work done, now comes the actual fitting of the display.