Wood finish enclosures

[duck_arse]

nice IN label. also, extra point for the post joke.

was it much work? can we see the workings? wood I mean, I've seen phaser guts before.

[aleks_tedstone]

The IN label was an accident, hopefully Mantic Effects are unlikely to hunt me down and sue me...

Unfortunately I don't have any photos/videos of the process, but everything is glued to a standard 1590B to make sure its all shielded and grounded. I think this project would be a lot more work without a table saw, as I used mine with the blade set to 45 degrees for the mitre edges. I still found it hard to get everything to mm accuracy, so some of the vertical joins are a bit gappy. Sanding took quite a while, as I don't have a router for the rounded edges.

Things I learned:
-Thin wood (2mm) is required to make sure all the hardware can still be screwed on, once its thickness is added to the metal case. I had to recess some of the hardware (jacks, potentiometer) which adds a lot of work, as my boards were more like 5mm.
-Letter punches are great
-Superglue is your friend until its not

[duck_arse]

yeah, except for the superglue, I pretty much repeat all those issues with every build. don't talk to me about sanding.

superglue < - > sillicone

the "in" is subtle enough that you need to look twice to see if, and then you can pass it as done on purpose.

[edit:] I use my router to thin the planks. double stick it in a channel and buzz them thin. then sand. and I usually sand rounded edges, cause the router is too big and difficult on those tiny thin panels. boy, the fingers I could cut w/ a table saw! [I've just been gifted a lectric scroll saw, haven't turned it on yet.]

[aleks_tedstone]

I only recently got a table saw and I am being very careful with it... Just getting into the rabbit-hole of jigs, sleds, etc. I stick to old fashioned hand tools unless I am 100% sure I can do something safely with the saw. Router sounds like a good tactic in the absence of a planer/thicknesser (which I don't have either).

What kind of silicon adhesive do you use? That sounds like a very good idea with it being flexible and all... Superglue is a bit brittle for this purpose so I am banking on 3 of 5 panels being held on by the jacks, pots and switch nuts! Doubt it would survive a gig.

[duck_arse]

sillicone - I found a half size cartridge thing at bunnings, so I end up throwing out much less. I don't glue wood with it, just all the other stuff, like non-skids. pva all the way for the wood.

[duck_arse]

scuse me, here's my P45 build, finally finished after 7 or more years by side. guess what I call it ......





a long list of dumb build ideas evident. push buttons for one. acrylic panel for another. tank-style build one more.
no gut shots because yukk. haywired veroboard, who wants to see that? also, the screws were in before I thought of it.





external bias control. phase/vibe switch. caps 1:1 or 10:1. two range oscillator - but with way wrong pot taper, all bunched at fast end. wood is from an old lounge, made locally, I say it's Brazilian Teak from the smell. quite why it's in an australian made lounge, I don't know. knobs from an old old Roland AS1. vintage.

and yes, the purple phase. and the camera barfed on the purple, it's not that blueish.

[ThePracticalPeasant]

Router sounds like a good tactic <snip>

What kind of silicon adhesive do you use? <snip>

yeah, except for the superglue, I pretty much repeat all those issues with every build. don't talk to me about sanding.

I know this is a year old but I thought I'd weigh in as I have just a bit of experience. For wood to wood bonds I'd highly recommend switching to a wood glue like TiteBond II. It is the fastest setting wood glue that I've used; joints hold together within 15 minutes and are almost impossible to pull apart within an hour (I regularly pull clamps at 15 mins and send laminated cutting boards through the planer at the 60 minute mark).

For bonds between wood and plastic/metal, I prefer mechanical fasteners due to the propensity inflexible adhesives like superglue to release as the wood component expands and contracts with humidity. Silicone is an option but I hate the smell and long cure time. I've had good results with a quality two part epoxy: My experience with epoxy is that cheap means brittle, while the higher quality options offer more flexibility/elasticity in the cured product which in turn better accommodates the movement of the wood.

As for routers, the big names all carry cordless trim routers: De Walt, Makita, etc. I personally use the (corded) Makita RT0701C with a 3/16" round-over bit for this type of work, and it works an absolute treat; far easier and quicker than a full sized routers or any of the inexpensive router tables when working on small projects.

Edit: Fixed the [broken] links