Rackmount Enclosures

Hello Everyone,

I've just been searching the forum for info on rack enclosures. I've found a lot of useful stuff, but find it hard to believe the prices. If you had asked me to guess, I would have bet you could get a good 2-space rackmount enclosure for around $10 or $15! Does it really cost $50 or so to get such an enclosure? What part of the material or manufacturing drives up the price so? I must be in the wrong dang business. Hard to believe that when you see rack gear in stores for $100 or so, it costs the manufacturers 1/3 or so of the retail price for just the enclosures? :?: :?: :?: Isn't there a better way?

Glenn

In the old forum I post a DIY rack enclosure. I wonder if the pictures are still floating around. They are quite easy to make from items at Home Depot.

Joe

[quote author="JRE Productions"]In the old forum I post a DIY rack enclosure. I wonder if the pictures are still floating around. They are quite easy to make from items at Home Depot.

Joe[/quote]

Can you enlighten us all on what materials we would use and how much it would cost to make an enclosure from scratch?

Do you know of a website link that you can provide us on how to make our own rackmount enclosure?

Are there any manufacturers and/or distributors where we can buy well made enclosure in either steel or aluminum for a VERY reasonable price?

Thank you for all your help ahead of time Joe.

CHEERS!

I had drawn some plans a while ago, and someone hosted them for me. But the long and short is this. Buy your front pannels. I prefer aluminum as it is easiest to work with.

The to make the box: Buy C channel used for the top and bottom plates on Metal Studs. This is basically a C channel piece of galvanized metal that is not to thick. The C channel will be bent into a rectangle or picture frame looking box. Basically if you cut a triangle knotch out of the C channel where each corner is, the C channel will fold into the rectangle. If you leave a little flap on one end they unit can be pop riveted in the corner to hold it to gether. Then add a top and bottom plate. Add front plate.

Last I checked Home Depot sold Aluminum plates cut at 17" x 10" I think. That is what you would make the C channel box size. If anyone has seen a BUD project box, that is how it is made. C channel that is folded up into a square. Then a top and bottom added. In this case you add the front rack pannel to the box, by mounting it with screws at the two ends.

JD

Glenn, even in the UK rack boxes cost a lot! It's really frustrating as a custom builder of pro-audio gear, but it is something that I have to accept. The only way that the likes of Behringer and similar companies do it is, I suppose, by getting their gear made in China.

I've built a couple.
It's really simple if you got the tools but really boring.
Mine are threepiece, bottom and frame as one, a lid and a faceplate.


This box is no more, i've split it up to two 4ch ones instead.
2mm Al



This one is up and running.
1.5mm Fe


HT
EDIT* Pics will be gone in some days due to lack of space

[quote author="Tweak"][quote author="JRE Productions"]In the old forum I post a DIY rack enclosure. I wonder if the pictures are still floating around. They are quite easy to make from items at Home Depot.

Joe[/quote]

Can you enlighten us all on what materials we would use and how much it would cost to make an enclosure from scratch?

Do you know of a website link that you can provide us on how to make our own rackmount enclosure?

Are there any manufacturers and/or distributors where we can buy well made enclosure in either steel or aluminum for a VERY reasonable price?

Thank you for all your help ahead of time Joe.

CHEERS![/quote]

Hi... there are a few other ways to make some good looking enclosures too besides the method JD described. It's pretty straightforward sure but still, it's a lotta work I think. It is also described in a lot of detail for fancy tube amp builders in a book called Building Tube Amps (I think?) I have it... you use aluminum channel, plate, taps and dies and the enclosures are very strong and nice for high end fancy audiophile equipment.

I'm a big fan of recycling enclosures, just about everything I've built has been in modified boxes that are often really high quality. Like I got a 24" deep 3U UPS box with simple fron and rear panels that could be re-used so I cut it in three sections and made a rear panel for the front section with 3mm aluminum ... the whole thing cost me 6$ and I can get two more enclosures out of it. I got a really cheesy 2U network box at a hamfest for $2 and replaced the front panel with a $3 3mm panel and it also came out pretty decent... not proffessional at all but still really usable. Here's a picture.





The paint was the most expensive thing on that box.

Also! The hammond mid size boxes just happen to be perfect for a 2U enclosure and cost lest than half of what a par-metal box would be. Again, just add a front panel.

I also scavenge old computer equipment boxes to build non-rackmount stuff and pedals. I work in a computer store owned by DIY hackers with junk going back to the early 80s so I have an advantage there. :razz: Here is a broken CSU/DSU box that I'm building a preamp in.



I've thought about this a lot too because unlike some folks my DIY projects are always drastically cheaper than the equivalent commercial stuff and the cost of a really nice finished enclosure would often be more than I could afford for an entire project.

HTH, and welcome to the forum it is a really remarkable place. :razz:

Kiira

Nice job on those enclosures, Kiira! Since I work in the ISP/telecom biz, I love the idea of building stuff in an old CSU/DSU box! haha I'm going to have to do some more dumpster diving, because I know that our techs throw out allot of old customer telecom infrastructure stuff for newer phone systems and network products.
A couple of summers ago I found some huge PBX gear next to the bins, which would have been prime for scavenging metal from. but this was before I was into DiY audio. I did pull some system cards out of it though which I still have.

In my quest to find M4 screws for a reasonable price, I recently found this company that caters to airplane builders:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/me/aluminum.html

They'll apparently sell sheets of aluminum ( 4 x 4 sheet for $47 is waay better than Par-met*l charges) which could possibly be metal worked into an enclosure. Also they have 'grab bags' of alum and lots of other neat parts.. so we can finally fulfill the burning need to have airplane wheel as a coffee table base. ha..

So yeah.. if anyone has a good line on metric screws for a reasonable cost in the USA, please let me know.

well, enjoy..

-Jay

I recycle alot too. I just bought a pair of video distribution boxes on ebay for $8.00 with shipping they arrived at my door for about $22. I got two boxes that are 2RU with nothing on the front panel but an on off switch. The back panel unscrewed and came off in one piece. I stripped the guts which had some great parts too. I just need to get a back plate for them. I have about $11 each into these 2RU racks that are really nice. Here was the auction for pictures: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7574216724&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMERFB%3AIID&rd=1

BUY OLD GEAR JUST FOR THE BOX!

I also have seen guys buy the cheap UREI eq's for the box. It is the same box on a 1176. So if your building a 1176, check old the old 537 ect....

JD

indigdom,

I've found mcmaster.com or boltdepot.com to be OK rates. it's amazing how much some places want for a darn bolt. Especially metric.

PS I won't go on and on about restoring my old KZ550 bike. That was loaads of fun to find bolts for!