The Perennial Project Enclosure Problem

[john12ax7]

Maybe not quite what you need but these can be useful for a variety of projects. You can get different sizes with different number of cutouts. And then the Neutrik D panels are available for all kinds of analog, digital, power connections.

https://prospeakerparts.com/product...3-3-4-x-1-5-8-pre-punched-for-3-d-series-xlrs

 

[ruffrecords]

Maybe not quite what you need but these can be useful for a variety of projects. You can get different sizes with different number of cutouts. And then the Neutrik D panels are available for all kinds of analog, digital, power connections.

https://prospeakerparts.com/product...3-3-4-x-1-5-8-pre-punched-for-3-d-series-xlrs

I had completely forgotten about those. I still have a couple of long thin ones left over from an ancient meter bridge project. Thanks for reminding me.

Cheers

ian

 

[grid_stopper]

3D printing can be OK, for rough prototyping, and internal parts, for shipping product it leaves much to be desired, with the Fred Flintstone surfaces, unknown finished product material properties. Over hyped.

can be true, but not necessarily so. i can make pretty flawless boxes in terms of surface finish. you can do even better if you use a resin printer instead of traditional FDM. looks injection molded essentially. also you dont even need to have the printer, JLC will do it in either fdm, or resin with any material for extremely cheap, to a high degree of accuracy. newer filaments like PA-CF are extremely durable and look quite nice when used on a well calibrated machine

 

[grid_stopper]

It's certainly feasible, but there are size limitations (typically large desktop machines are 300x300x300mm).
Another issue is time. I recently printed an open box 200x130x60mm. It took the best of 12 hours.
If the box has a roof, it needs supports that add significantly to the printing time.
Here's an example of a box that also took about 12 hours to print.
See the deformations.View attachment 135897

all of these issues, including the warping are quite easily avoided with a little forethought

 

[ruffrecords]

I received the cube shaped blocks from aliexpress the other day. They seem very light. I am not sure what material they are made from but they feel lighter than steel.

Cheers

Ian

 

[blue_luke]

Whenever you design a small project, whether it be passive, semiconductor or tube based, at some point you have to think about the enclosure it is all going to fit into. Full disclosure, my mechanical skills are poor. What used to be called "fitting" is all I can manage these days. Forget about drilling or filing holes and bending metal. I am happy to have a flat panel made by Frank Rollen, for example, and fit the controls and connectors to it but that is as far as I want to go.

The panels themselves are not the issue. The problem is finding an enclosure with the panels in the positions I want them. For some projects, a flat panel at either end of a box is fine. It worked well for the Classic Solo Project and I build all my power supplies this way and there are plenty of readily available standard enclosures of this type. However, there is a whole range of projects where what you really need is a nice flat removable panel on the top onto which you can fit the controls, and another nice flat panel at the back onto which you can fit the connectors. And it would be really nice if it came in a broad range of sizes. I have searched widely but as far as I can see this kind of enclosure does not exist so I was wondering if there is some fairly easy way of creating it? Would it be possible to make one using extrusions to make corners (similar to the way I have seen in pictures of Calrec modules) or maybe a framework could be 3D printed and have metal panels fitted to it. Bottom line, it would be nice to have a scaleable standard solution to this problem.

Cheers

Ian

Check my other post, I am working on a partia solution to this very problem!

 

[MidnightArrakis]

Check my other post, I am working on a partia solution to this very problem!

[Check my other post] -- Which "other" post where? I didn't see any other posting of yours within this thread. Maybe I missed it.

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[ruffrecords]

[Check my other post] -- Which "other" post where? I didn't see any other posting of yours within this thread. Maybe I missed it.

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I think he is referring to his own post https://groupdiy.com/threads/diy-rack-enclosure-extrusion.88722/

Cheers

Ian

 

[ruffrecords]

I just tried Ettinger but they want a 30 euro export fee plus 24 Euros shipping which effectively doubles the price.

Cheers

Ian

In the end I decided to bite the bullet and order direct from Ettinger's web site. I made payment in Euros by IBAN. I got an invoice in the post today with just 80 Euros for the parts and 25 Euros freight charge. There was no charge for VAT or customs. About an hour after the postman had been the parts themselves turned up. So basically they cost me fractionally over one Euro each delivered which I am happy with.

Now to put them to good use.

Cheers

Ian

 

[MidnightArrakis]

In the end I decided to bite the bullet and order direct from Ettinger's web site. I made payment in Euros by IBAN. I got an invoice in the post today with just 80 Euros for the parts and 25 Euros freight charge. There was no charge for VAT or customs. About an hour after the postman had been the parts themselves turned up. So basically they cost me fractionally over one Euro each delivered which I am happy with.

Now to put them to good use.

Cheers

Ian

[In the end I decided to bite the bullet and order direct from Ettinger's web site] -- Somewhere along my recent Internet travels, I accidentally stumbled across some company's website that also manufactures a line of "Mounting Cubes" similar to those made by ETTINGER. I don't know if their "Mounting Cubes" are any more or less expensive than those offered by ETTINGER, but I thought they may be a good alternative source. Interested???.....

[Now to put them to good use] -- Always the challenge, huh???

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