Sending Frontpanels: Advise !

[jtoole]

[quote author="Greg"]Has anyone sent a Par-Metal back panel to Front Panel Express to be engraved? The actual thickness of the steel is thinner than their options, and their drop menu only has aluminum and perspex.[/quote]

I ran across this thread because I'm about to send my first set of panels off to FPE in the US.

I'm using a Parmetal 10-19082x - I wanted to have them drill and engrave the front and back. It seems that everyone agrees that FPE can't do steel, but this is from the par-metal website in the section for 10 series enclosures:

Front panel is 0.125" aluminum alloy (5052-H32) with brushed finish in black or clear anodize. Other panels are 0.05" thick steel, painted in black or gray. Rear panel is 0.06" thick aluminum alloy (5052-H32) painted. Aluminum handles and hardware are included.

Sounds to me like the rear panel is aluminum. Is that correct? It feels light enough to be aluminum. Just wanted to share this info/make sure i'm not making some mistake... Is that the series most people are using?

...

btw - Greg - My official thanks for the all info you've posted about the G-SSL project and getting parts in the US. Very useful parts list, etc...

...

Joshua

 

[nrgrecording]

I don't know these cases... but "Rear panel is 0.06" thick aluminum" sounds good to me.
If you send other material than aluminium to FPE... no problem - they just don't use it :wink: otherwise their cnc will get confused :roll: :green:

I tried to send steel to FPE germany for engraving... (because my frontpanel distributor sent me steel panels - but I ordered aluminium) ... and they noticed it. :green:

and.... do we really need engraved rear panels?
I'd seen original ITI Equalizers marked with a felt-tip pen at the backside... :wink: who cares

 

[jtoole]

[quote author="nrgrecording"]
and.... do we really need engraved rear panels?
I'd seen original ITI Equalizers marked with a felt-tip pen at the backside... :wink: who cares [/quote]

Thanks for the info. You're FPD webpage has been a great resource and inspiration btw.

I asked myself the same thing. My problem is that electronics and software are my day-job-trade, but I'm very novice when it comes to metal work. I've put enough time into this project that I figured the extra cost to keep the rear very clean and pro would be worth it.

At some point I'll probably drop the cash for a drill press and/or some greenlee punches as I've read about on the forum here. Since this is my first from-scratch DIY build, i figure it might be cheaper to get the rear panel done by FPE vs. buying all the tools... maybe I just need to jump into it though, the rest of the build process has gone so smoothly I just might suprise myself...

thanks again,
jt

 

[Greg]

The rear panel is indeed aluminum... I drilled one a week or two ago it's definitely not steel. If you wind up sending the rear to FPE please post your results.