Steel for enclosures

[abbey road d enfer]

I tried some Zintec and I am not happy with the appearance.

That is surprizing; what don't you like? I've used it for years and never had a complaint.

 

[ruffrecords]

That is surprizing; what don't you like? I've used it for years and never had a complaint.

The samples I have received are  dull, lacklustre and have very poor scratch resistance

Cheers

Ian

 

[abbey road d enfer]

The samples I have received are  dull, lacklustre and have very poor scratch resistance

Cheers

Ian

Well, I do only rackmount stuff, so I can't say it's a major issue. My customers are not deterred by the grey matte finish.

 

[john12ax7]

Many thanks for the insight. I tried some Zintec and I am not happy with the appearance. I think I will use cold rolled mild steel, drill the holes I need and then have it treated - could be passivation, plating or painting - I think I prefer plating. Just need to find somewhere local to d o it.

Cheers

Ian

I think painting and powder coat looks nice.  But have had issues where it's no longer conductive,  so you have to scrape it off to expose the metal.

So would agree plating is better,  or anything that preserves conductivity yet still corrosion resistant.

 

[ruffrecords]

Someone very kindly posted the complete neve manual for the 1080 module which includes a drawing of the steel side plates used in all Neve modules. A note on the drawing says the finish is Nickel plate not chromium as I had originally assumed.

Cheers

Ian

 

[ruffrecords]

Just a quick update. Using the same supplier I ordered some galvanised steel versions because that would certainly fix any long term rust problems and the appearance could not be worse than the Zintec samples I had received. I was very pleasantly surprised when these arrived to find they look very nice indeed. A vry nice shade of grey not unlike the old fashioned hammer tone finish.

Cheers

Ian

 

[john12ax7]

Is it possible to post pics of the nice  vs not so nice metal?

 

[JMFahey]

The nice metal is what you usually see on the "outside" , including backpanels and such, usually painted or zinc plated.

The not so nice is typically used "inside" , both for aesthetics and because it does not stand spills, fingerprints, etc. that well.

Look inside any Desktop PC cabinet and you´ll see used as chassis and separators all over the place.

It´s dull gray and shows folding machine scratch marks along edges.

 

[ruffrecords]

Is it possible to post pics of the nice  vs not so nice metal?

Here you go.:

Left to right, rusty cold rolled steel, Zintec and galvanised. The ZIntec looks much worse to the eye than the picture shows.

Cheers

Ian

 

[john12ax7]

Thanks.  Seeing pics helps a lot.