Anyone know who might have made this enclosure?

[k brown]

I'd dearly love another, but my local electronics shop says it was surplus and they can't get any more.

Like a dope, I threw away the little slip of paper that was inside identifying the mfr.

Easy access inside, as the top is only held by two screws. Nice thick, machined sides. Great little box.

 

[Whoops]

I'd dearly love another, but my local electronics shop says it was surplus and they can't get any more.

Could at least they inform you of the manufacturer or their supplier for that case?

 

[k brown]

Could at least they inform you of the manufacturer or their supplier for that case?

No, nobody knew; probably in their stock for a long time - last of it's kind.

 

[MidnightArrakis]

I'd dearly love another, but my local electronics shop says it was surplus and they can't get any more.

Like a dope, I threw away the little slip of paper that was inside identifying the mfr.

Easy access inside, as the top is only held by two screws. Nice thick, machined sides. Great little box.

It looks easy enough to "Reverse-Engineer", come up with a 3D CAD-model of it and then have it fabricated by a sheet-metal shop.

How many do you want?

/

 

[k brown]

Thanks for that, but I don't know CAD, and I just need one or two.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

It looks easy enough to "Reverse-Engineer", come up with a 3D CAD-model of it and then have it fabricated by a sheet-metal shop.

How many do you want?

/

Seems to be made of a non-standard extrusion (front & back) and injected alloy cheeks - or are they machined?
Any idea of how to make it cost less than a kidney for one-off quantities?

 

[k brown]

The bottom, front and back are a single bent sheet of aluminum - not extruded; the top is another sheet; The thick sides are machined.

Very clever design I've never seen before. One edge of the top sheet is trapped under a lip, then secured with just two screws - great for anything needing easy and/or frequent access inside, like prototyping or device with battery inside.

 

[MidnightArrakis]

[The bottom, front and back are a single bent sheet of aluminum - not extruded; the top is another sheet] -- That's what I figured how it was, just by "guesstimating" what I could see in the photo. That is easy enough to design and model.

[The thick sides are machined] -- You can either go with how this enclosure was originally designed or, you can simply not need or require to have such thick sides and use a more "standardized" type of enclosure design. It appears to me that the sides are about 3/8ths inch (i.e., 0.375" or 9.525mm) thick. It would be easy enough for me to create a small enclosure using a "standard" sheet-metal design and thickness for the basic box and then a separate piece for the top cover. If you could remove the top cover and take some -- clear -- close-up photos of the whole thing from every possible angle, that would help out immensely!!!

[One edge of the top sheet is trapped under a lip] -- This type of a bend is called a "joggle" and I have used it before when I had designed some video electronics enclosures (see images down below). It's not a "big deal" to do that.

In a completely different thread on this forum, a "GroupDIY Contributor" needed a mounting bracket for a transformer that they had and I came up with the following design shown down below. Another member who is located in Denmark has his own machine shop and he had offered to fabricate the 10-pieces that the "Contributor" had wanted. I could either turn you onto him or.....since you are here in the U.S., I could come up with a design that you are happy with and then I could send my CAD-files off to any one of several specialized "prototype and low-volume" sheet-metal shops that can spit out sheet-metal parts directly from CAD-files. There is probably a good chance that there might be one or more such types of sheet-metal shops in or around the San Francisco bay area!!! I personally know of several that are all located up in the New England states. Your call!!!




A "joggle" bend is shown here:


Notice how the top cover is "folded-under" the front-panel:


The company I had designed this rear-panel and its associated 2U enclosure for had 250 chassis and rear-panels made only as a "prototype"!!!


What do you want to do now??? At least make a series of measurements and send them my way, OK??? Let me know, OK???

/

 

[k brown]

Yes, that's a very similar top plate design.

It's not important enough to go any great lengths - kind offer though; I just thought someone must have seen this enclosure before and would know who made it, so I could simply order another or two.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

The bottom, front and back are a single bent sheet of aluminum - not extruded; the top is another sheet; The thick sides are machined.

Then, what prevents the back of the cover to collapse? I surmised the back was an extrusion with a groove maintaining the cover. Obviously I'm wrong.

 

[k brown]

A couple of steel U-brackets, each with a tab bent down.

Two more with unbent tabs are what the other edge screws onto. The lip the cover slips under is part of the single front/back/bottom sheet.

Due to the thickness of the machined end pieces (which are also screwed to the U-brackets), even with the cover off it's very rigid and rugged.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

OK, thanks for the pic.