DIY rack enclosure extrusion

[blue_luke]

Hello all!

I made a rather interesting encounter today but let me give you a few lines of Background...

I am 71, retired and still doing electronic, mostly audio and industrial design.
I am sometimes called for industrial electronic design as a consultant.
I am not at all in the process of starting a new business.
I hate making chassis and enclosures for my projects! But it need to be done, and done right.

Now the last line is the most important.... Beer with me

I am currently building a kind of preamp/mixer/matrix/headphones amp thingy.
It should be 2 U high.
Don't ask about this design, it is only made in 2 exemplaries for me and a recordist friend.

The point...

The f***** enclosure!!

Gnnnn!

If you go the cheap and "that will do" route, it's going to look ugly and messy.
If you want to have it look good and pro, it's going to be excrushciently expensive! (yes!)
There is no middle point!
And we all love to see our projects looking nice and pro after all the time and effort involved in designing/building a DIY piece of equipment, do we?

Soooooo, I went to a place that sells "aluminium". I wanted to buy some bars, plates, angles etc.... for this aforementioned project.
But the owner is much more into making exclusive design extrusions.
So I told him that I could not find what I needed and he ask me point blank what I was looking for.
I explained to him our common predicament and he suggested that he would be willing to invest in the cost of the die and a few hundred pound of aluminium to test the market provided I supply him with a proper design and handle the sales!
This is the kind of offer we can not pass!
But I will need some help.
I have a pretty good idea of what we need but I am terrible at CAD design. I am more old school and at ease with paper, rulers and lead pencil.... and pocket calculator!
I would need someone who is fluent with AutoCAD, or at least can supply drawings in DXF format. Maybe FreeCad, that I still can't master!
The gentleman knows his stuff when it comes to design a die, but we need to supply him with a good drawing.
I have a fairly good idea of an extrusion that can be used to build any size of chassis/enclosure, rack mount or desk top using this extrusion and simple flat piece of .065 thick aluminium plate covers and sides, but I need help with providing the final CAD drawings. It has to be AutoCad (DXF?) format.

Who's in?
The way I see it, the extrusion could be sold in small quantities of say minimum 1 meter (40") long or longer, Or I can add value service by cutting length to your spec if needed, everything is opened as the extrusions will be a standard 20 feet long. This is a standard in the field.
The cost of packaging and shipping will become a consideration, but we all want to be the stuff as affordable as possible and economically viable for the manufacturer.
By the way, prices will be quoted in CDN$ and only natural finish (raw surface) will be offered, at least as a starter.

Comments?
Ideas?
Suggestions?

Luc

 

[ruffrecords]

Are you aware of modushop?

https://modushop.biz/site/

They make a range of sizes and shapes of enclosures based on a pair of side extrusions with steel panels for top and bottom and aluminium ones for the front and back. They are remarkably affordable.

Frank Rollen also supplies a range of enclosures using a similar system but I don't have his web site details to hand.

Cheers

Ian

 

[MidnightArrakis]

The f***** enclosure!!

Comments?
Ideas?
Suggestions?

[The f***** enclosure!!] -- See comments and images below:

Here is an example of a mechanical rack-chassis design that I recently completed
here-at-home for a small audio company located in Upstate New York:


I also recently finished this panel design for an audio company located in Ontario, Canada:


And.....I am putting in the finishing touches of this "electronic module design" for
a project by the previous respondent #2 who is in the UK and he had me work on
this for him:


I had designed this entire chassis using SolidWorks Premium:



This is the completed manufactured rack-chassis of the above shown 3D CAD-models and it sold for $20,000 when fully decked-out and sold in quantities of 600-chassis per year. For this project, I had designed BOTH the mechanical chassis AND all of the internal PCB's:


[I am 71, retired and still doing electronic, mostly audio and industrial design] -- I'm 75-years old, still working and have been designing and building audio electronic equipment since the mid-1970's.

[I am sometimes called for industrial electronic design as a consultant] -- I also work as a "Design Consultant" (my "active audio" days are now sadly behind me!!! -- Band "sound-man", recording engineer, roadie, PA and sound systems design, etc. --) and I am currently working as such on a "100% FULLY-REMOTE" basis with a large U.S. defense contractor designing test equipment for STINGER Missiles used to wipe out Hezbollah, ISIS and the Taliban!!! >> TALK ABOUT MAJOR -- FUN!!! -- <<

[I am not at all in the process of starting a new business] -- Neither am I.

[I hate making chassis and enclosures for my projects!] -- I >> ENJOY << designing chassis and enclosures and I still find doing so to be -- FUN!!! --

[But it need to be done, and done right] -- Is there any other way???

[I am currently building a kind of preamp/mixer/matrix/headphones amp thingy. It should be 2 U high] -- You know..... there are plenty of affordable 1U, 2U and 3U enclosures available!!!

[But I will need some help] -- >> HERE I AM!!! <<

[I have a pretty good idea of what we need but I am terrible at CAD design] -- I have both pretty good ideas (I hold a U.S. Patent for a "novel and unique" 2U rack-enclosure design) and I am not too shabby with creating 3D CAD-design (See above).

[I am more old school and at ease with paper, rulers and lead pencil.... and pocket calculator!] -- Been there, done that!!! I have spent years and years and years standing at a "drafting table" creating and drawing schematics, mechanical designs and even PCB layouts -- WAY BEFORE -- computers were introduced!!! I even still have some of my mechanical pencils.

[I would need someone who is fluent with AutoCAD, or at least can supply drawings in DXF format. Maybe FreeCad] -- Does it have to be AutoCAD? As is shown below, I use the SolidWorks Premium 3D Mechanical Design CAD-Modeling program here-at-home to create all of my rack-mount chassis and panel designs. And.....SolidWorks -- DOES -- output both an AutoCAD DXF and DWG format file.

[The gentleman knows his stuff when it comes to design a die, but we need to supply him with a good drawing] -- Can do!!! See the above examples..... Show me what you need, OK???

Will something like this do???.....



[I have a fairly good idea of an extrusion that can be used to build any size of chassis/enclosure, rack mount or desk top using this extrusion and simple flat piece of .065 thick aluminium plate covers and sides, but I need help with providing the final CAD drawings] -- It's typically -- 0.064" -- aluminum. Help is here with providing you with your final CAD drawings:



[It has to be AutoCad (DXF?) format] -- Can do!!! GOT IT!!!.....

[Who's in?] -- Count me IN!!!.....

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[ccaudle]

I have a pretty good idea of what we need

Is it anything like these enclosures?
Extruded side enclosures at Protocase

That company has a service making enclosures, but this place seems to sell the bare extrusions, either corner pieces which require sheet stock for all the sides, or side extrusions which then require sheet stock just for top, bottom, front, and back.
Isel extrusions

 

[MidnightArrakis]

Hello all!

I made a rather interesting encounter today but let me give you a few lines of Background...

I am 71, retired and still doing electronic, mostly audio and industrial design.
I am sometimes called for industrial electronic design as a consultant.
I am not at all in the process of starting a new business.
I hate making chassis and enclosures for my projects! But it need to be done, and done right.

Now the last line is the most important.... Beer with me

I am currently building a kind of preamp/mixer/matrix/headphones amp thingy.
It should be 2 U high.
Don't ask about this design, it is only made in 2 exemplaries for me and a recordist friend.

The point...

The f***** enclosure!!

Gnnnn!

I have a pretty good idea of what we need.....Suggestions?

Luc

[I have a pretty good idea of what we need] -- How about these?.....

https://www.takachi-enclosure.com/cat/extruded_aluminium_enclosures



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[totoxraymond]

Fwiw i like the modushop galaxy line enclosures because they have a sort of a t-slot on the inside faces of the sides.

I like to use them to bolt things that need heatsinks like voltage regulators.

Cheers,

Thomas

 

[ruffrecords]

[I have a pretty good idea of what we need] -- How about these?.....

https://www.takachi-enclosure.com/cat/extruded_aluminium_enclosures

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Does Takachi have distribution outside Japan or do you have to order direct? I could not work that out from their website.

Cheers

Ian

 

[MidnightArrakis]

Does Takachi have distribution outside Japan or do you have to order direct? I could not work that out from their website.

Cheers

Ian

[Does Takachi have distribution outside Japan or do you have to order direct?] -- I recently contacted TAKACHI Enclosures on your behalf and I left them a message briefly detailing that I knew of someone in the UK who had an interest in their enclosures. In response to my message, I was given the following link for specifying/sourcing/purchasing TAKACHI Enclosures within Europe:

https://uk.misumi-ec.com/vona2/make...enclosure/el_control/E1500000000/E1501000000/

MISUMI Europe contact:
[email protected]

And.....since you have openly-admitted here on this forum that you are "3D CAD-challenged", should you find any of their enclosures to be of interest for use in any of your projects and/or products, just go ahead and download any of their STP-files and then send them to me in a PM, along with any specific information about the enclosure that you would like to know about. From there, I could import the STP-file and make any measurements or maybe "zoom-in" to any specific area and create any 3D-images you already know that I am "famous" for.

TAKACHI Enclosures has (I think) two different lines of enclosures that specifically feature what they call are "slide-plates". These enclosures are extruded aluminum enclosures with a removable top-panel (that slides out) and end-caps that can be removed by unscrewing some machine-screws. The bottom-panel is fastened to both the front and rear extrusion undersides by a short sheet-metal screw. In a general sense, I believe that these enclosures are of the types that you are specifically looking for. Again.....should you find something to be of interest.....download and send me the STP-file.

GOOD LUCK!!!

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[abbey road d enfer]

I would need someone who is fluent with AutoCAD, or at least can supply drawings in DXF format.

I am fluent with Autocad (was a tutor in the early 2000's. I now use Nanocad, which is 100% compatible with Autocad 2D.

I have a fairly good idea of an extrusion that can be used to build any size of chassis/enclosure, rack mount or desk top using this extrusion and simple flat piece of .065 thick aluminium plate covers and sides, but I need help with providing the final CAD drawings. It has to be AutoCad (DXF?) format.

How would you provide me info? I must say I have formal training in drafting. dxf is not an issue, I use it commonly for gcode production.

 

[ruffrecords]

@MidnightArrakis thank you very much for the distributor link. They have some really interesting enclosures. It looks like their CH series has front, back, top and bottom removable panels so it cold be used on virtually any project. Interestingly it is listed as a control box. Anyway, the one that would probably do the job for the first project is their part number CH6-16-14GSP but it is a little expensive at 58 Euros,. I could not find an STP file for this on the distributor web site but they do have .dxf files. Are they any good?

Takachi also does a sloping enclosure which is constructed in a very similar way (their CF series). This could be extremely useful for DIY mixers. Some of them are quite big. The largest I could find was 450mm wide, 281mm deep and 49mm high at the front and 98mm high at the rear (CF45-28GS) priced at a very reasonable 127 Euros.

Cheers

Ian

 

[MidnightArrakis]

@MidnightArrakis thank you very much for the distributor link. They have some really interesting enclosures. It looks like their CH series has front, back, top and bottom removable panels so it cold be used on virtually any project. Interestingly it is listed as a control box. Anyway, the one that would probably do the job for the first project is their part number CH6-16-14GSP but it is a little expensive at 58 Euros,. I could not find an STP file for this on the distributor web site but they do have .dxf files. Are they any good?

Takachi also does a sloping enclosure which is constructed in a very similar way (their CF series). This could be extremely useful for DIY mixers. Some of them are quite big. The largest I could find was 450mm wide, 281mm deep and 49mm high at the front and 98mm high at the rear (CF45-28GS) priced at a very reasonable 127 Euros.

Cheers

Ian

[Takachi also does a sloping enclosure which is constructed in a very similar way (their CF series). This could be extremely useful for DIY mixers] -- Like this???.....

TAKACHI -- CF45-23BB == (Original enclosure file downloaded as a STP-file. The "Top-Panel/Meter-Bridge" panel has been custom-designed by me):



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[neve2254e]

Yes. Enclosures are a pain, mostly the finish work!?!
I have been using Lansing enclosures for years now.

www.lansing-enclosures.com

Very nice looking enclosures. The pain for me is how to do the millng and printing.
I have engraved the front panel, done powder coating then silk screening the lettering, done UV printing on an overlay.

I am currently looking into a company called,
send cut send.com.
Of course you need to design your own enclosure, however it would be great to have one place do most of the work. I spend a small furtune sending my parts to get milled, then get silk screened and or engraved.

Kind regards
Eric Slaughter

 

[MidnightArrakis]

Yes. Enclosures are a pain, mostly the finish work!?!

Of course you need to design your own enclosure.

[Enclosures are a pain] -- I've never thought so!!! To me.....enclosures are "my friend"!!!.....

[you need to design your own enclosure] -- Designing enclosures and primarily rack-chassis at that.....is what I do for a living!!! So, I don't have a problem designing chassis/enclosures/housings, etc.


















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[ccaudle]

[Enclosures are a pain] -- I've never thought so!!!

To be fair, the original complaint was that the finish work was especially a pain, and I do find that finish work on anything (metal, wood, plastic, flat, box, doesn't really matter) is a pain for home building because first I don't have a dedicated space that I don't mind to have sanding dust or paint overspray on, so it always involves putting out protective coverings and lots of clean up after, and secondly because without high quality air filtration it is difficult to keep dust particles off the finish before it cures, so often has a not-quite-top quality look to it.
Sending out a design to let a pro shop do it solves that home cleanup headache, but adds a lot to the cost for a one or two quantity, since you tend to pay the same for setup whether you are buying one or dozens.

If coming from the perspective of the design work side, yeah, that's "just" another advanced skill you can work your way into with time and practice, but once you have the design and have to physically produce it, now you need machine tools, paint booths (or powder coating booths and a dedicated oven), which needs lots of space, etc. Or you need lots of money and pay someone else to do the dirty stuff. Always trade offs.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

[Enclosures are a pain] -- I've never thought so!!! To me.....enclosures are "my friend"!!!.....

[you need to design your own enclosure] -- Designing enclosures and primarily rack-chassis at that.....is what I do for a living!!! So, I don't have a problem designing chassis/enclosures/housings, etc.

Designing is not the problem. Anyone with decent drafting abilities can do it, and after a few initial mistakes be quite good at it.
The problem is actually manufacturing it.
Typically it takes cutting/milling/punching/bending metal, some kind of finishing, either paint and/or anodizing, engraving, silk-screening or UV printing.
All these things require space and money, that can be justified only in the context of a business.

 

[MidnightArrakis]

@MidnightArrakis thank you very much for the distributor link. They have some really interesting enclosures. It looks like their CH series has front, back, top and bottom removable panels so it cold be used on virtually any project. Interestingly it is listed as a control box. Anyway, the one that would probably do the job for the first project is their part number CH6-16-14GSP but it is a little expensive at 58 Euros,. I could not find an STP file for this on the distributor web site but they do have .dxf files. Are they any good?

>> I just received the following information from TAKACHI Enclosures about the -- CH6-16-14BBP (Black) -- enclosure for you:



[I could not find an STP file for this on the distributor web site but they do have .dxf files. Are they any good?] -- STP-files for the CH-Series of enclosures are not available (as of now), but DXF files are. Are DXF files any good? Well-l-l-l-l-l-l-l.....that would be a subjective issue. While the DXF-files are only 2D in their nature, should there be enough "other" information available concerning the DXF-file (i.e., having a DXF-file showing both detailed X & Y dimensions of an object or geometry and the Z-dimension is mentioned within a datasheet, as an example) it is possible to create a 3D CAD-model from a 2D DXF-file. I have done so a couple of times about 5-years ago or so. It's not quite a straight-forward process, but it -- IS -- doable!!!

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