DIY Guide for making Aluminum cases?

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Our any other non-wood material such as plastic?

Not for amps, but for preamps and other DIY applications where you need electronics inside a box and in/out ports on the panel? I'm talking about DIY starting with raw aluminum sheet metal that needs to be cut and put together.

I plan on getting aluminum sheets and a cut-off saw and go from there, but looking for tips/guides on how to connect the pieces, how best methods on non-circular cutouts, etc.
 
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If you go to the Design & Build> construction tips forum and browse the useful threads there, you'll see many ways of going about the actual construction - all the methods that seem like a good idea but don't really work are there too, which saves a lot of money buying useless tools and wasting materials.

This thread is a good example.
 
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I plan on getting aluminum sheets and a cut-off saw and go from there

but looking for tips/guides on how to connect the pieces, how best methods on non-circular cutouts, etc.

I'm going to build power supply box using plywood and alu sheets

attached drawing of the main alu part
 

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I make my own chassis, front and back panels, pedal enclosures, etc. .... but I have shears, folders and punchers with assorted dies at home.
Otherwise it's difficult working "with your teeth" .

Rather than flat sheet alone, consider aluminum extrusions.
They come in tons of shapes and can sure help you build complex enclosures.

Search the ChipAmp Forum, and the Galleries, some guys have come up with very clever ideas.
 
I make my own chassis panels. I use a DIY CNC machine. the panels look like they were professionally manufactured. I like the look of wood sides with front, rear, and top from aluminum but there's no reason you couldn't skin the sides with aluminum too.
 

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I use a DIY CNC machine.

wow, cool ... that would surely be nice :)

looks I will have new chassis

also showing offsetting a screw to know where the lid belongs :clown:

yeah, many things can go wrong when doing this
it is ofcourse much better to use professional machines
weight ?
not much ... 2KILO
 

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I've made a few tube amp chassis from computer side panels, like so.

(There is wood on the sides and a panel on the bottom but I haven't got pictures of it in that stage.)

This is all done by hand, no big cnc router or anything like that, a sidepanel, aluminum snips or a metal jigsaw blade and a hammer, some wood, and some C clamps.

I can provide more details if requested!
 

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Kuroguy - wow, I really like how you can make your own chassis combining alu and wood.

I don't have access to a CNC machine, but I do have a drill press. Do you think that I could get away using that if I only need to create holes up to about 3/8"? I think I can purchase CNC cutters and put them in my drill press chuck. Lots of runout, but I just need a hole for a knob or RCA jack, etc.

It seems that you can buy a few sizes of aluminum stock, for the top/bottom panel, and for the front and rear panel, and then tie these together via the wood side panels like you show in your earlier post. Is that what you do? What type of aluminum do you buy?

Thanks for posting about this. Nice.
 
If all you need to do is drill holes in aluminum a drill press will be more than sufficient. get some step drills and you can do holes up to 1.5". you can use hole saws for larger sizes. In fact, ignoring the lettering, I can make these panels and do the woodwork with only a drill press, chop saw, and table saw.
 
...and I use 1/8" 6061-t6 aluminum for the front and top. the top can be thinner to save a few cents if you want, but 0.1" thick will allow you to tap threads into it. I buy large pieces of aluminum and cut them to size on my CNC but you can have the supplier cut them for a few dollars. well worth it if you don't have tools to cut aluminum plate. bar stock can be cut on a chop saw if you go slow but I'm not brave enough to try to cut plate on a table saw - that's sure death if something goes wrong.
 
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