andreask@watson.bcm.tmc.edu (Andreas Kasenides) (01/11/90)
Here is another challenging question (or info request) ! In the past I have built a couple or so of electronic projects only to find out that when I was ready to put a box around it and put the final screws on it, I could not really find that proper box anywhere. They were either too short, too wide or too bulky. I checked a couple of catalogs but to my amazement nothing exciting was to be found. Well I though as a last resort I can always drop by the hardware store pick up a couple of square yards of aluminum and machine my own box. More surprises there. No hardware store (at least in my area, Houston) carries any such aluminum panels that can be used to make boxes for electronic projects. Can somobody more experienced indicate the source of materials or may be a source of enclosures. I am not interested in enclosures that cost more than the project that is inside ( that was one of the reasons I thought of building my own boxes) Again, thanks a lot for all the info. ============================================================================== Andreas Kasenides andreask@bcm.tmc.edu ===============================================================================
jeh@simpact.com (01/12/90)
In article <126@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>, andreask@watson.bcm.tmc.edu (Andreas Kasenides) writes: > Can somobody more experienced indicate the source of materials or may be > a source of enclosures... [for electronic projects] I'm not all that experienced... but I'm quite fond of making boxes out of eight-inch thick acrylic plastic (common trade names are Plexiglas and Acrylite). You can either use a double-U-section or five-sided-box-with-lid design. The stuff looks good, does not require painting, is a snap to cut, drill, etc., comes in many colors, and also comes in clear and transparent red and the like, so you don't have to provide fancy windows for displays. If you insist on hiding "the works", you can start with a clear front panel, mask off the places where LEDs, etc., are to shine through, and spray-paint it -- from the inside surface. You want nomenclature too? Lay out your front panel on paper, with solid black where the LEDs and displays will be. Take it to a litho shop and have them make a film negative of it, right- reading from the film side. The nomenclature and display "holes" will be clear against a black background. Mask off the display holes and spray paint the back side (the emulsion side) with white paint, then remove the mask; you now have white nom. on black. Glue this to the back of the clear front panel of the plastic box. Holes for switches, etc., get drilled through the plex and the film together. Of course you can mark the positions of these on your original, and the film will act as a drilling and cutting guide. Look in your Yellow Pages under "Plastics -- Rods, Tubes, Sheets, Etc., Supply Centers". Every Plexiglas distributor I've ever seen carries the requisite solvent adhesive (Weld-On #4) and capillary applicator, scribers, and brochures on how to work with this stuff. They also have cutoff bins, and ten dollars or so spent on cutoffs will usually provide materials for at least half a dozen small-to-medium-sized project boxes. Finally, while you're at the Plexiglas store, pick up a length of 1/10-inch square "rod". Small lengths of this glued to the inside of the box make perfect p.c. guides! For larger boxes, use 1/4" plex for greater strength. --- Jamie Hanrahan, Simpact Associates, San Diego CA Internet: jeh@simpact.com, or if that fails, jeh@crash.cts.com Uucp: ...{crash,scubed,decwrl}!simpact!jeh
jones@optilink.UUCP (Marvin Jones) (01/13/90)
In article <126@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>, andreask@watson.bcm.tmc.edu (Andreas Kasenides) writes: > Can somobody more experienced indicate the source of materials or may be > a source of enclosures. I am not interested in enclosures that cost more than > the project that is inside ( that was one of the reasons I thought of > building my own boxes) One of my favorite lines of enclosures for many years now has been the Mod-U-Line Chassis and the Mod-U-Box enclosures. These were initially designed by Intra-Fab in San Jose (or thereabouts) about 10 or 12 years ago. That was when I started using them. They have since sold the design and manufacturing rights to Precision Fabrication Technologies, Inc., State Road 16 West, Monon, IN 47959. Phone 1.800.558.7297, or 219.253.6666 in Indiana. I have not used any of the enclosures manufactured by PFT, so cannot comment on their manufacturing quality. But the product line looks the same. The nice thing about this line is that all the pieces are universal, so you are not "stuck" with set sizes or options. You can order the faceplate you want in the color you want, add either rack mount side plates or "handle" style side plates, you can order the depth you want, etc. It is a modular product line ... Mod-U-Line. Check it out. Hope this helps. -- Marvin Jones uucp: {pyramid, tekbspa}!optilink!jones Optilink Corp. bell-net: 707-795-9444 X 206 Petaluma, CA CI$: 71320,3637
mikemc@mustang.ncr-fc.FtCollins.NCR.com (Mike McManus) (01/13/90)
In article <840.25ad19af@simpact.com> jeh@simpact.com writes: >In article <126@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>, andreask@watson.bcm.tmc.edu >(Andreas Kasenides) writes: >> Can somobody more experienced indicate the source of materials or may be >> a source of enclosures... [for electronic projects] >I'm not all that experienced... but >I'm quite fond of making boxes out of eight-inch thick acrylic plastic ^hmmm, 1/8" maybe? :-) >(common trade names are Plexiglas and Acrylite). A good idea, I've done this many times myself. I prefer the clear placstic myself, kind of gives things that "high-tech" look. >Look in your Yellow Pages under "Plastics -- Rods, Tubes, Sheets, Etc., >Supply Centers". You can also find plexiglass as most local hardware stores. They sell it as storm door/window replacements. -- Disclaimer: All spelling and/or grammer in this document are guaranteed to be correct; any exseptions is the is wurk uv intter-net deemuns. Mike McManus (mikemc@ncr-fc.FtCollins.ncr.com) NCR Microelectronics 2001 Danfield Ct. mikemc@ncr-fc@ncr-sd.sandiego.ncr.com, or Ft. Collins, Colorado mikemc@ncr-fc@ccncsu.colostate.edu (303) 223-5100 Ext. 360 (they're ugly, but they work!)
aboulang@bbn.com (Albert Boulanger) (01/13/90)
In article <126@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> Andreas Kasenides writes:
In the past I have built a couple or so of electronic projects only to
find out that when I was ready to put a box around it and put the final
screws on it, I could not really find that proper box anywhere. They were
either too short, too wide or too bulky. I checked a couple of catalogs
but to my amazement nothing exciting was to be found. Well I though as a last
resort I can always drop by the hardware store pick up a couple of square
yards of aluminum and machine my own box. More surprises there. No hardware
store (at least in my area, Houston) carries any such aluminum panels that
can be used to make boxes for electronic projects.
4 Ideas:
****************************************************************
I have bought boxes like this in a hit-or-miss fashion from:
Jerryco Inc
601 Linden Place
Evaston Il. 60202
708 475-8440
They have a couple of boxes in their current flyer.
****************************************************************
Get a subscription to Nuts & Volts Magazine which is a kind of poor-man's
equivalent to Computer Shopper:
Nuts & Volts Magazine
P.O. Box 1111
Placentia CA 92670
714 632-7721 or FAX 714 632-3041
$12/year subscription
****************************************************************
I remember on my trips to Silicon Valley two places that seem to have
good stuff cheap (including boxes) and from my copy of a Nuts and Volts:
Halted Specialties Corp (HSC Electronic Supply)
3500 Ryder St
Santa Clara CA 95051
1 (800)-4-HALTED
BBS# 408 732-2814
(I remember a big project box selection)
Haltek Electronics
1062 Linda Vista Ave.
Mt. View CA 94043
408 744-1333
(Lots of metal and plastic stock)
Perhaps you native Silicon Valley folk can elaborate further.
With an eye towards surplus :8-),
Albert Boulanger
BBN Systems & Technologies Corp.
aboulanger@bbn.commmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) (01/13/90)
Printed circuit board material is also handy for small projects, especially because you can run a bead of solder around the corners to shield it. Looks crummy though. The suggestion of Plexiglas is a good one. I've made some real cool large cabinets just with a Plexiglas cutter, a bender, and some 1/4 inch thick Plexiglas. The cutter is a small hooklike knife. You run it along your score line, against a straightedge. It digs a groove, and after a few strokes you can dig the groove deeper without the straightedge. After you dig about halfway through, you can snap the board apart. You can also cut it with a straight handsaw, like what you would use on plywood. That produces a cleaner edge. Most power tools don't work very well on Plexiglas. A bender is a long metal case with a channel across the top. In the channel, there is an electric heating element that gets real hot. Lay the Plexiglas across the box with the line for the fold directly above the heating element. After a few minutes, reflected light from above the fold line will indicate the Plex is starting to get distorted. That means it's soft, and you can do a fold immediately. The fold stays soft for a minute, so you can easily adjust the angle to just what you want. Freeze the angle by throwing cold water on it.
jeh@simpact.com (01/14/90)
In article <25869@cup.portal.com>, mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes: > You can also cut it with a straight handsaw, like what you would use on > plywood. That produces a cleaner edge. Most power tools don't work very > well on Plexiglas. In my limited experience, a small table saw will work fine, PROVIDED that you have a carbide-tipped blade in it. Expensive, but will last a long time. Or, the Plexiglas dealers sell special blades for the purpose. But scribe cutting as described by Mark is fine for working with eighth-inch stuff. In quarter-inch I've usually found that the scriber makes too curved an edge for gluing -- I don't feel like filing down variations that large. No doubt my technique needs to be improved. Then there's flame polishing of the cut edges. When one of your edges is going to be seen, you want it smooth. You can polish it with 'n' successive grades of grit on a bench grinder.... or you can flame-polish it in a few minutes with a Bernz-O-Matic torch. Again, the plex dealer will have brochures telling you how to do this. Naturally you will not get it right the first time, but that's what your cutoffs are for... --- Jamie Hanrahan, Simpact Associates, San Diego CA Chair, VMSnet [DECUS uucp] and Internals Working Groups, DECUS VAX Systems SIG Internet: jeh@simpact.com, or if that fails, jeh@crash.cts.com Uucp: ...{crash,scubed,decwrl}!simpact!jeh
roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) (01/15/90)
> Most power tools don't work very well on Plexiglas.
In my experience, one very good way to put a nice sharp clean edge
on plexy is with a milling machine or lathe run at high speed. In either
case, a very sharp carbide cutter helps. I've never tried it, but I would
guess a conventional home workshop router would work just as well, or
possibly even one of those cute little dremel tools.
As somebody else already pointed out, flame polishing is a good
quick way to get the very last bits done. You basicly just sweep a flame
across the edge once or twice. Getting the proper motion might take a
little practice. Around here, the guy who runs the shop uses a hydrogen
flame for this because it's clean, but he's probably just being paranoid
(and it's readily available in the shop). At home, I would imagine a
well-adjusted propane flame would work just as well.
--
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy
"My karma ran over my dogma"esmonddp@jupiter.crd.ge.com (Daniel P. Esmond) (01/15/90)
In article <126@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> Andreas Kasenides writes: >Well I though as a last resort I can always drop by the hardware >store pick up a couple of square yards of aluminum and machine my >own box. More surprises there. No hardware store (at least in my >area, Houston) carries any such aluminum panels that can be used >to make boxes for electronic projects. Hardware stores are designed for Joe Consumer. If you want quality, affordable, sheet metal in small quantity, go to an autobody supply shop. They offer several guages of a few metal types, often in sheets as small as 2'x 4'. You should be able to get strengths ranging from soft enough to bend with your fingers, to thick enough to resist severe impacts. - Dan
are@munin.uio.no (Are Nundal) (01/15/90)
Hi there! I have been using Flexibox cases, and are very satisfied with them. They have many different types, rackmount or smaller, with or without handles, some types with heatsink etc. etc. These boxes give a very professional appearance to your "home made" equipment, and are very easy to assemble. It is even possible to custom make your own design using their sortiment of extrusions. They are made by Powerbox. Powerbox inc. 1503 Spruce street, Boulder, CO80302 USA 800 444-1461 Powerbox Konigstrase 21, D-7000 Stutgart 1, West Germany 0711-22 12 61 And I also have adresses for a few other countries, e-mail me! Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with this company. Are Nundal are@ifi.uio.no University of Oslo Norway
tell@oscar.cs.unc.edu (Stephen Tell) (01/16/90)
In article <25869@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes: >You can also cut it with a straight handsaw, like what you would use on >plywood. That produces a cleaner edge. Most power tools don't work very >well on Plexiglas. Funny you should mention plywood; I've gotten good results using a plywood type blade in a table saw on 1/8th inch acrylic. The idea is to get a large number of teeth per inch. With a good guide/fence on the table saw, nice straight guts and right angles are easy to do. If you're using the standard "glue" for the stuff, which is really a solvent that "welds" the two surfaces together in a few seconds, good cuts are important. This joining process is very poor at filling gaps, but produces good results. I think that the reason power toos cause trouble is that the acrylic is a rather poor conductor of heat, so if the blade heats up, the heat has nowhere to go (unlike cutting metal, for instance). If the workpiece melts, things get rather difficult - it may weld back together after the saw blade passes by! Use care when drilling also; similar problems can occur. I haven't quite perfected the art of drilling the stuff myself. Steve -------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Tell tell@wsmail.cs.unc.edu CS Grad Student, UNC Chapel Hill. 919-968-1792 Former chief engineer, Duke Union Community Television, Durham, NC.