Flea Market Bargain -- Enclosure for my LM3886

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Is there a place that will make a custom face plate for me? Rectangular silver aluminum around 5 millimeters thick, with 4 countersunk mounting holes and rounded corners?

For like $50 or less?

I'm thinking a silver aluminum faceplate would look very nice on this amplifier with the black top and wooden sides. The faceplate would stick out past the wooden side panels a bit or at least be flush.
 
I used to work for AEI. That is a commercial audio player, for use in retail stores, etc. They were a competitor of Musak, based in Seattle, WA. They were bought by a few other companies in the early 2000s. Now they are part of Muzak. Outside their former corporate offices in Seattle (it's now a art supply store) is a life sized bronze statue of Jimi Hendrixi. I could have gotten truckloads of those players for free, we were switching over to a network based download player at the time (2003 ish). Unfortunately, I wasn't into diyaudio then...wish I still worked there to grab all the throwaways and use my employee discount!
 
That would be another idea - my thought with using acrylic or plexiglass is that you get that smooth look, you pain the back, which gives it a even sooth look. Optionally you can just print a overlay and put it behind.

But I mean it depends on what kind of look you're after, wood never goes out of style :)

How do I get a piece of plexiglass cut with a nice edge and I guess it'd have sharp corners right? I suppose the screws would stick out as well instead of being countersunk?
 
I used to work for AEI. That is a commercial audio player, for use in retail stores, etc. They were a competitor of Musak, based in Seattle, WA. They were bought by a few other companies in the early 2000s. Now they are part of Muzak. Outside their former corporate offices in Seattle (it's now a art supply store) is a life sized bronze statue of Jimi Hendrixi. I could have gotten truckloads of those players for free, we were switching over to a network based download player at the time (2003 ish). Unfortunately, I wasn't into diyaudio then...wish I still worked there to grab all the throwaways and use my employee discount!

Wow! Yeah my boyfriend figured it was a commercial audio loop player. Very cool that you worked there :)
 
Have a look at Front Panel Express

https://www.frontpanelexpress.com/

Whether it will be in budget I don't know but they are your on side of the water. I'm seeing VU meters in the tape slot.

John

Yeah I have no idea what kind of VU meter would fit. I am guessing i'd have a heck of a time making it look good. The opening isn't even centered on the panel. I was thinking a logo printed on my color laser printer and glued to the back with the logo centered in the opening. And then some sort of other labels for over the other holes. After spraying it all flat black on the front. But I just can't picture anything yet that would look good. So that's why I was thinking about just replacing it. I'd love plexiglass with it painted black on the backside as suggested. I could then put foil tape on the back of that.
 
Printed the four feet I designed in OpenSCAD. 10mm tall, 1inch diameter.

I hot glued them in place.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Here is the printed foot compared to the shorter stock hemispherical one:

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Thanks for the suggestion that I print them. I was needing replacement feet anyways because I was short one of the hemispherical ones.
 
I have used Old Amps put up for sale in Ebay as not working. Managed to salvage some heatsinks and caps also. Lots of the Denons are good choices for good cases. Plus you can reuse the input RCA and output speaker sockets too.

Very cool! Great idea! :) I'll have to keep an eye out for the denons :) Can you give me an example ebay link right now of one you think would be good? I see tons. (For a future project).
 
Added these little stick on rubbery silicone adhesive feet -- three per black cylindrical foot. They are the small kind you use for kitchen cabinets. I have a huge sheet of them left (got like 100 for $4 off ebay).

The unit doesn't move around now :)

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


I might eventually replace those with a flat rubbery disc which I adhere with 3M adhesive spray. That is, if I don't like look.. but I think the look is growing on me.

They add few more mm if height .. so I have about 13mm of height now on the bottom for ventilation.
 
My boyfriend will be cutting a rectangular hole for this in the back left side of the unit.

I paid $20 for it. It's a filtered ac inlet with switch and fuse all in one.. very handy :)

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Rayma here on diyAudio was kind enough to recommend this and bought it a month or so ago.
 
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Switched, fused, IEC filter is good.

$20 is a little bit expensive.
Pity it is not enclosed inside a screening can.

Oh sorry, actually I paid $10 for it with $3 shipping: $13 total. Don't know where I came up with $20.

Can I build some sort of enclosure for it? Rayma seemed to think this was a good one when it was recommended to me here. I don't know why it needs a can . Is it not enclosed enough with the chrome sheet metal. Should I put foil tape over the seams?

So this filter isn't going to do it's job? What's going to happen since it isn't in a can?
 
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A filter takes interference to the enclosing chassis. The wires that pass that interference to chassis emit EMI.
The enclosing can acts as a screen to limit the EMI coming from the wires and filter.

Cheap SMPS use exposed filters and as a result emit a lot more EMI than an enclosed can type of filter. I don't know how they pass the EMI testing !

You can add on a can. All the seams should be electrically connected. Soldering is good.
The can should be electrically connected to the chassis and the ONLY two holes through the can should be:
a.) to the outside where the can passes through the chassis and needs to be connected around the periphery of the hole.
b.) where the the two power wires pass through to feed the mains transformer.
 
I can't wait to get this amp going! :) It's been so dangerous the way I have it now with the mains power exposed, in no enclosure.
Double insulate all the mains carrying wires. I dliberately reserve my RED insulating tape for this use. It protects and warns.
Insulate at least once, all the connectors that carry mains voltage.
If you can use rubber boots over groups of connectors, even better.
That means dropped tools can't touch and wayward fingers can't touch.
In normal use the lid is secured and only kids with opened out paper clips risk touching/probing exposed parts.
Try to minimise that risk if there are risk taking kids around.

And put in close rated mains fusing as near the input as posible, your fused IEC does this for you.
 
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I have the AC inlet marked on the back now for cutout. I measured with calipers and used a square to draw the pencil lines.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Working on a label for the ac inlet (which will be to the right of the text within the white bordered box). Any suggestions of the text I should have to the left would be appreciated. I just typed in what I know with my limited experience.. would like to make it look more impressive if possible with all the right jargon and information :)

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


This label will be laminated and adhered with 3M adhesive spray. It will cover the existing round hole to the bottom, left of the inlet as well as all the existing white text on the back of the panel near it. The label will have an index card backing to keep it from sagging into the round hole it will be covering.

The round hole which will be covered by the label will be taped from the inside with a layer or two of aluminum foil tape.
 
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