Motor housings - cylindrical enclosures

[theskintman]

I've been looking around for a suitable enclosure for an external motor for my planned DIY TT. I've done some googling and looked on all the typical enclosure sites (Maplin, Farnell etc.) and not had much luck.

I remember when I made a chip-amp last year, there was an extruded-type cylindrical tower that split in two lengthways and had room for a circuit board on the inside, but I can't even find that one now.

I was wondering if any of you guys have any pointers - where do you guys find such enclosures?

Cheers!

 

[EC8010]

How about a piece of 4" diameter soil pipe cut to length, with MDF end caps? It's easier than you'd think to do such a thing. Use a piece of thickish A3 paper rolled round the pipe as a guide for a fine indelible marker, then saw with a hacksaw gently rotating the tube as you go. Tidy it by rubbing on a piece of emery cloth on a flat surface. Cut the MDF with a jigsaw, or perhaps with a router on a trammel. Put a bolt through the middle and tighten firmly. Put bolt in power drill, apply emery cloth backed by hard wooden block and you have a crude lathe.

Glue it all together, add a little filler, spray paint, and voila!

 

[theskintman]

EC8010, that is a fantastic idea! Anything that saves a few pounds - good 'outside the box' thinking. I have a length in the shed already (flue piping)

 

[sreten]

Hi,

If you want some electrical shielding I'd suggest investigating stainless steel kitchen containers,
magnetic shielding also then investigate kitchen tinware which is tin plated steel - usually painted.

/sreten.

 

[Ouroboros]

The larger Tescos (UK) have some lovely cylindrical containers of different sizes made of bamboo. The larger one could even make the basis of a cylindrical loudspeaker enclosure.

 

[EC8010]

Glad you like it. You can add electrical (electrostatic) screening by lining it with kitchen foil. You'll need aluminium solder to earth the foil if you want to solder directly, or you could just bolt a solder tag to it. It isn't really possible to do much about the electromagnetic leakage field.