Enclosure construction

[audi0]

I was looking for suitable enclosures for a couple of projects that I was working on, I needed four of different sizes, the commercially made ones that I had short-listed were a bit too much for the available budget, so I got thinking how I could build something like I wanted myself, I ended up with some readily available off the shelf extrusions and AutoCAD and came up with this:

The Concept

[audi0]

Early stages of manufacture, the extrusions are cut, the back and face plates I used are 3mm thick as that's all I had laying around, you could make these more chunky if required
The fixing holes are drilled and tapped

[audi0]

The routing jig for the front panel holes and holes in face and back plates being drilled

[audi0]

Plates are finished with coarse sandpaper to give a 'linish finish'

[audi0]

The small box shown here is for a Rod Elliott RIAA pre-amplifier, the circuit board complete ready for standoffs and wiring.
This box is ~100mm (4”) square x 50mm high

The length of the outer casings are purposely made longer than the width of the inner channel chassis so that when you tighten the screws, it clamps together. The inner channel chassis is the same extrusion as the case, with one side sawn off.

[audi0]

These are the other three;

1. An old project of mine an Elektor Class A headphone amp that I build many moons ago, (circa 1983!) its a perfect fit in the new chassis, note the tags left on the back to heatsink the output transistors and the large hole in the faceplate to recess the control knob. I plan some hidden LED's in there to light up around the knob

2. Is a Tripath amp board sitting in its new chassis, the board is missing a few parts while it's being upgraded.

3. ls a passive pre-amp / input selector, I plan a Lightspeed Attenuator for this one!

The plan is to get the main bodies powdercoated (don't know what colour yet) and fix the backs and faces with some M4 stainless steel socket head cap screws

I'll post more pictures as the project progresses

[wintermute]

Very Nice work Audio0 Where did you get the extrusions? and roughly how much were they? I'm going to need a case for my B1 (once I get some momentum on it).

Tony.

[audi0]

Hi Tony,

The extrusions, 150 x 50 x 3mm and 100 x 50 x 3mm I bought from a local alloy supplier (Capral) The 150 x 50 x 3 was about A$25/M and the smaller one, 100 x 50 x 3 was about A$18/M
The 3mm sheet I had laying around, I think you would pay about A$40/M² for 3mm sheet

Although I planned to use nutserts, I just drilled and tapped the extrusion instead.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.. Steve

[planet10]

Well done Steve. Your boxes have the same configuration as the NAIM NAIT I & II that i once owned.

dave

[jleaman]

Clean and nice, when is production going ? :P