Guys, I am working on putting my Aikido HP amp into a nice enclosure. Esthetically, I would like the headphone jack to be a plain hole in the front panel of the box. In other words: I would like nothing to stick out from the front (no nuts, o-rings, parts of the jack.. nothing).
I got this Neutrik jack. Has anyone done this, and is it possible at all?
I got this Neutrik jack. Has anyone done this, and is it possible at all?
You're going to need one big L-bracket to mount the TRS jack onto and then shove it through the front panel.
Anything is possible Ethan seems to have the right idea. This boils down to how thick your faceplate is.
If the faceplate is pretty thick, or wood, I would probably mount it to piece of ~1/16-1/8" mild steel and attach the steel to the back of the face plate. You may have to recess the inside of the faceplate to allow space for the nut. If the faceplate is thin, I would follow Ethan's advice and mount the jack to a rigid "L" bracket attached to the bottom of the case (that would work with a thick face plate also).
Keep in mind the front edge of the jack will have to be flush with the outside of the faceplate so there is enough room to plug the headphones all the way in. You might be able to trim/file off the female jack to account for the faceplate thickness to completely hide it. I don't see any issue doing that.
If the faceplate is pretty thick, or wood, I would probably mount it to piece of ~1/16-1/8" mild steel and attach the steel to the back of the face plate. You may have to recess the inside of the faceplate to allow space for the nut. If the faceplate is thin, I would follow Ethan's advice and mount the jack to a rigid "L" bracket attached to the bottom of the case (that would work with a thick face plate also).
Keep in mind the front edge of the jack will have to be flush with the outside of the faceplate so there is enough room to plug the headphones all the way in. You might be able to trim/file off the female jack to account for the faceplate thickness to completely hide it. I don't see any issue doing that.
The neutrik jack shown above has treads on the front part. Cant i just tap a tread into the front panel and screw it in?
How thick is the front panel and what material is it? If it's aluminum and 1/8" or thinner then you'll want something steel behind it, which is what we've been assuming. Honestly, you may be able to mount a steel plate with some J-B STIK and an outer ring of J-B Weld and tap the panel and plate together. Otherwise it will not likely last long at all.
Aluminum, 10mm. I have had a company doing a cut out in the back, so at the place where the jack will be, it's 6mm or so
For us other Americans, 6mm is about 1/4" (I wish we'd just switch to metric and be done already). That would be plenty of material to tap and mount.
Two issues arise there, you either need to tap all the way through, which will be as unattractive, IMO, as having the nut there. Alternatively, you could blind tap the hole using a bottom tap. You'd have to file the connector a little shorter, which is not an issue, but it does not leave much room for full threads. That would only give you enough material to fully capture 2-3 threads. As the threads are not that course and aluminum is soft, I would have concern with it failing over time.
If you where not subjecting this to heavy use - say your the only one using it and the headphones are rarely removed - it would probably be fine. I would probably epoxy (Say WestSystem type of high quality epoxy) the jack in once I knew everything was working fine.
You have have a larger area milled out, epoxy in a steel plate, and thread that, but it seems like more work that some other methods.
I would say start by taping a piece of scrap aluminum to see if treading all the way through provides the look you desire. If not, try blind taping some scrap 6mm to see if you can do it, or ask your machinist if it is doable.
Two issues arise there, you either need to tap all the way through, which will be as unattractive, IMO, as having the nut there. Alternatively, you could blind tap the hole using a bottom tap. You'd have to file the connector a little shorter, which is not an issue, but it does not leave much room for full threads. That would only give you enough material to fully capture 2-3 threads. As the threads are not that course and aluminum is soft, I would have concern with it failing over time.
If you where not subjecting this to heavy use - say your the only one using it and the headphones are rarely removed - it would probably be fine. I would probably epoxy (Say WestSystem type of high quality epoxy) the jack in once I knew everything was working fine.
You have have a larger area milled out, epoxy in a steel plate, and thread that, but it seems like more work that some other methods.
I would say start by taping a piece of scrap aluminum to see if treading all the way through provides the look you desire. If not, try blind taping some scrap 6mm to see if you can do it, or ask your machinist if it is doable.
Here is my construction of a headphone jacket 1/4"/ 6.3mm in a front panel, more photo's in another post here at diyaudio or see my build log in amb.org (links below):
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/hea...-jacket-1-4-10mm-front-panel.html#post6109931
AMB Laboratories DIY Audio Forums • View topic - α24 with M3 preamp built log&Q's
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/hea...-jacket-1-4-10mm-front-panel.html#post6109931
AMB Laboratories DIY Audio Forums • View topic - α24 with M3 preamp built log&Q's
