Sheet metal enclosure idea!!!

[stoned_survival]

hi! im working on my first pedal and have completed the circuit design and tweaked it using PSPCE
now i want to strt working on the enclosure! i want to ask a question....tho this one might make me sound stupid!! but well!!a doubt is a doubt  
yeah! so i was thinking of making my enclosre out of sheet metal!Heres how
cut the sheet metal and bend it as needed!! make 3-4 simialr enclosures so that they snugly fit into one another...now take a glue which works well with metal,...and place all these enclosures together with lots of glue in between and then use some threaded fastners(screws and nuts) to fasten these sheets together ...this according to me should give u an extremely strong enclosure?!?! say what??

basically the idea is to make the enclosure out of  3-4 sheet metal sheets glued and fastened to each other to make a more durable box?!?!

[plankspank]

now take a glue which works well with metal,...and place all these enclosures together with lots of glue in between and then use some threaded fastners(screws and nuts) to fasten these sheets together ..

The only glue that I know of that works good with metal is JB WELD, and it is not cheap at about $5 for a small dual tube. Not a good cost effective way of making an enclosure... considering you can buy a "B" size enclosure for about $5-6......

[petemoore]

  I think bolt 'em together.
   Actually start with thick-strong enough material that multiple sheets not need be stacked to achieve thickness. I've found sheets which make strong enough be can be cut with shears.
     Yer talkin' lotta workin' on'...believe me it can be done.
  Hard to get a nice finish product, fun to play with -[if you don't damage yourself in the process].
 

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

You need pretty solid sheetmetal if you are going to be stomping on a box.
I don't think glue is an option.
Think pop rivets, if you must.

[stoned_survival]

well i guess i must not venture on the "sheet metal enclosure" side then...the views dont look to good to me

[DDD]

I'm almost sure you'll face serious problem with drilling holes in such a sandwich.

[stoned_survival]

well thats not true! holes can be drilled sepearately in all 3-4 sheets and then when the 3 -4 sheets are glues and riveted(or fastened  in any way) the holes can be filed a little to match exactly!?

[theundeadelvis]

Why not just try this: http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/FXRack/fxrack.pdf

[stoned_survival]

i went to teh market to explore more on the sheet metal front...even the thickest sheet dint looks as durable as to take a coupla stomps...wonder where ill find such a sheet!?

[R.G.]

Stoned;

The metal industry refers to a flat piece of metal under 3/16" thick as "sheet" and over 3/16" as "plate". So it's entirely possible to bend up an enclosure out of "sheet metal" that's 3/16" thick. In steel, you'll be able to drive a truck over that box and not have it collapse. "Sheet" also refers to thinner stuff, down to soda-can thin, thin enough to crumple with your hand. So it's impossible to say correctly that enclosures can or cannot be made out of sheet metal - it depends on which sheet metal, and how thick.

There have been many commercial pedals in bent single-layer sheet metal enclosures. It can be done, and practically too. You just have to know what you're doing. Right materials, right tools, right skills.

Making a glued up sandwich of metal sheets will be very difficult to do and get to come out well.

As to your trip to market, it is quite difficult to find an assortment of metal sheet in a number of sizes and thicknesses. You probably will have to go to a metals supplier, not a "market".  You can find these on line. Try google.

[stoned_survival]

thanx RG...thats some cool info..ill work on it and post ehre if something turns up

[petemoore]

  I've had pretty good finds at 'my scrap yard' and 'the' scrap yard too.
  Some of the 70's stereo's that are now junk have bottom plates that is about perfect, can be sheared, is strong enough, can be bent...fine line between shear-able/bendable/ and strong enough for stomp-switching, but have examples here of 2 x 'U' boxes [two ~'u' shaped pieces..sharp-ish corner bends
  1 piece is top, front and back [circuit/jacks/pots wires all fastened to this one piece]
  2nd piece fits in 1rst and is the bottom and two sides.
  Believe me the second one turned out better than the first, but getting nice even lines all the way around with 'homey' jigs is tricky.
  Fastening the two pieces involved ultra hardwood blocks to put little screws in.

[5thumbs]

Purchasing metals is pretty much expensive anywhere right now, so you'll have to carefully weigh the economics of this idea.

One place you can order sheet/plate/channel/etc. is Online Metals (http://www.onlinemetals.com).  Even if you don't go through with this idea, you can get a lot of information about what is available and an idea of the costs.

If you have a bending brake that can handle thicker metals, then the idea of working with thick sheet might work out.  Big bending brakes cost hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars.  If you don't have one, that's a big cost up-front.  If you don't want to buy a bending brake, you could TIG weld all the little flat pieces to make a box, but it would be a nightmare to keep the dimensions consistent unless you're quite adept at metal working and TIG welding already.

Another idea is to use channel as opposed to sheet/plate.  Channel is a squared C-shape, so you don't have to bend the sides.  Get a chopsaw, cut the channel to the length you want, then TIG weld flat plates on the open ends of the to make a box.  Cut an appropriately-sized piece of sheet/plate to form a bottom cover.  Next, you could then pop-rivet L-brackets to the inside of the box to make a mating surface so you can screw through the flat base and close up your box.  If you don't have a TIG welder or the requisite TIG experience, you could use the L-bracket/pop rivet idea to attach the ends to the channel as well.

For this idea, aluminum channel appears to be cheaper than sheet at the same thickness (aluminum architectural channel is roughly 1/2 the price of 1 square-foot of 0.125" sheet, given comparable square-footage.)  That, plus the fact that you don't have to bend the sides, makes channel an option worth mulling over as you explore this idea.

Now for my $0.02...if you're building this for economic reasons, then it is unlikely you could make this idea more economically viable than buying pre-made enclosures.  However, if you are doing this to be unique and/or have an excuse to work some metal (another one of life's pleasures ), then you could make it work out with some careful planning around the skills and tooling resources you have available to you.

Good luck!

[johngreene]

I just bend up some aluminum and 'solder' the corners together with Dura-fix.

--john

[stoned_survival]

i dont beliee this...i skipped this on wiki :O
Steel Studs and the $0.25 Effect Enclosure
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/steelstud/steelstud.htm

this kindsa stuff is really cool i believe
I live in india and the metal industry is BIG here...i could manage steels sheets at way cheaper rates i guess...and since im in a technical college..i can bend em at the sheet emtal workshop too...but y wud i doo all of that wheni can use such stuff....u get this stuff in all sizes....and the best part is that with a lil bit of filing u could make an inclined enclosure too!

but anywyas this discussion about sheet metal has been extremely cool
thnx everybody

PS- i just realized theres gonna be a problem with these things....you cant buy small quantites..the minimun u bu is one frame...nd thts LONG...but well!! lets see,....maybe i have to come back to sheet metal eventually   

[drewl]

I ran a machine shop a while back for a place I worked since I was doing their CAD layouts for making boxes and such.
I coulda' ran off dozens of boxes or amp chassis' if I'd only been into this stuff back then....DOH!

[zombiwoof]

When I was in High School, I took an electronics elective, one of the projects was to make a simple tube tester.  We had a sheet metal bender there, we bent the metal into a top/sides enclosure and soldered the corners/edges closed with a big soldering iron and filed them smooth, and attached a bottom plate with screws.  Pretty simple if you have something to bend with!

Al

[johngreene]

Pretty simple if you have something to bend with!

Like a box break from Harbor Freight?
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c126/johng001/IMG_1653_2.jpg

--john

[zombiwoof]

Pretty simple if you have something to bend with!

Like a box break from Harbor Freight?
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c126/johng001/IMG_1653_2.jpg

--john

Yup, that's funny, because the enclosure they show there is almost exactly what we made in H.S., only mine was about half as long.  Wish I had that piece of equipment now!

Al

[ClinchFX]

I used a steering rack from a small car to make this press.



I hand ground the V blocks for right angle bends and for two other angles.

Peter.