Newb question- front panel thickness

[Godders]

First post so first of all thanks to all the regular posters here. I've been lurking for a while and I've learned loads.

I'm building a green pre and want to get a front panel made and of course I want it to be green. :grin:

The problem is the guy that makes them here in the UK only does green panels in 2mm thickness aluminium, I've noticed reading around that people genrally tend to use 3mm thickness for their panels.

Is 2mm insufficient for some reason or does it not really matter?

Cheers

Nick

 

[Godders]

That makes sense, I'm glad I asked. :thumb:

I'll probably go with the additonal panel solution, if it only needs holes drilled and no finish it'll probably be pretty cheap anyway. Hell I might even just get a blank panel and drill the holes myself as they won't need to look super neat.

Thanks alot for the response Roger.

 

[laitue5]

I think the fatter panel the better panel :green: In my opinion it gives a quality touch to have a heavy panel.

 

[Godders]

[quote author="laitue5"]I think the fatter panel the better panel :green: In my opinion it gives a quality touch to have a heavy panel.[/quote]Yeah I guess aside from the practical reason a thin panel looks pretty flimsy and cheap.

 

[PRR]

Anything with thickness less than 1/100 its length gets whippy. Depending on the load, 1/20 or even 1/10 of length may be a better choice: that's typical floor-joist proportion. But we don't walk on panels.

For 16 inches between rails, we want at least 16"/100 or 0.16" or 4mm panel to not be whippy.

We get away with 3mm or 2mm partly because both ends of the panel are firmly clamped.

Actually, if we can tie the front to the top/bottom, we have tremendous "thickness" and we only have to worry about the short dimension. A 2U 3.5" panel, 3.5"/100= 0.035" = 1mm. Sheet-metal fronts, deeply flanged or tied to top/bottom panels, can be plenty stiff. But at some thinness, the concentrated local load around pot/switch shafts will feel wobbly.

And you can do what Mechanical Engineers have been doing since before Jesus learned a trade from His dad. Look at someone else's work, see how it feels, and copy good examples. Joseph didn't have BOCA Building Code tables, but he'd seen enough roof-logs and shelf-planks to carpenter-up a house or chicken-coop and all the trimmings.