OKW USA project cases

[Graham]

Hey everyone, so up here in Canada is seems next to impossible/prohibitively expensive to use new steel or aluminum casing.

I just came across Metcase and seemed to be located in the US and Canada(I can't corrected but I have no problem ordering stateside, it was Okwhenclosures in Canada I was thinking about them may price them too). I'm going to email about a quote on Monday, actually maybe as soon as I finish this post.

I will be nice to finally have a racked piece in a proper case.

They seem to have several qualities and do etching on site., as well as an array of customs products.

While I don't have the best piece of gear to rackmount I currently have two very clean DDA S/M series strips cased in plastic houses right now, with a proper size PSU and a few mods too.

I figure since the front panel of the new case would be module, I could always reuse the case if I wanted to. That said, I love the DDA pre's and the EQ's are certainly nice to my earn.

They also off their own software for designing the front panels and rear punch panels just like FPE.

I'm hoping I can get something together for under $200 for gift for myself for 8 months sober. One year sober will be something a little nice

Am I way out to lunch on a $200 budget considering I have all the components already?

I'd ask for other Canadian vendors but I haven't found anything but odd shaped Hammonds over the years. I stick which Hammond for pedals.

 

[Graham]

So AWC vendor has some very odd designs but I have a feeling he does more medial equipment although he can go full custom.

Edit: I don't want to keep editing or adding as I'm unsure of the rules, but  AWC is looking alright. Haven't gotten to try Metcase yet though.

AWC seems to sell a lot of premade/customizable 19" units for what I would assume would be for hostpital equipment or some type machine monitoring.  From his off the shelf parts, there were only 2 out of maybe 20 units that would work for me. That was until I found his custom fab stuff. Looks like he can do just about typical rackmount stuff, colours, printers and lots I don;t even know about.

I don't want to come of gloating about him as I've never talked to him and unfortunately I can use his software to test layouts yet due to email problems.

I will still get a quite Metcase tomorrow or Monday.

 

[Graham]

If anyone has any objections to my updating of this thread, please let me know. It is just of much interest to me as I've found rack case so expensive in Canada,

I have shifted the focus of this thread to a company called OKW Enclosures. The Meta cases I originally mentioned seems to specify in phone cases, not sure how I ended up there.

So I've had a few back and forth emails with a friendly man Travis, it seems they can do just about anything in the enclosure world. As we've just begun communication, I am just now inquiring about size and scopes of projects. Ie) Will they do one off face places, or projects. Will they do sort of customer runs for group buys. From looking at their site they can obviously do sheet metal work, painting, CNC/drilling/tapping, CNC punching and folding, custom sizes, and of course custom front panels.

I know I may be coming off as a shill here but I had never heard to the company until I googled it a few nights ago. And to be honest I still can't vouch for it. I'm just looking out for affordable and reliable shops. Previously when I try to find metal shops in my area(near Toronto), I was priced over $500($450 in one case) in work to rack the DDA channel strips I mentioned above. This was with me including all materials(stips, ceonnetors, cabling, power trans, and other I'm forgetting.

Anyway, I will keep you guys update on how this works out. I know a lot of members are lucky to be able to use such sites as Front Panel Express,but a custom 1u case I was quoted near $1000 plus shipping(don't quote, I don't have the email in front of me.)

 

[Brian Roth]

I saw this company mentioned on another forum.  I don't know anything about them, but worth investigating.

http://www.protocase.com/


Bri

 

[Graham]

Thanks for the additional head sup Brian! It seemed like a lot of us are looking for metal work lately.

I heard back from Matacase today and they sent a copy of their design software. I will say I think OKW much easier to deal with so far thought, but the be fair, that only based on a single response from Metacase. OKW seems to said my any file I can deal with and having educational discount for autocad makes that easier.