Pressed metal stompboxes

[brett]

I'm considering getting some boxes made by a local firm.  Does anybody have any suggestions about the size, shape, holes, etc?

What would people pay for a good quality steel box?  When I said that I wanted them for about $6 to $8 Australian dollars, the manufacturing guy seemed comfortable. (That's around the US$5-6 mark, probably US$10 by the time I shipped them in bulk to the US).

I'm considering making it about the size of a Hammond 1590BB, which seems a popular box.  But a dit deeper, maybe 50mm instead of 32mm.  I can get the holes punched, etc, too.  So I was considering getting 2 jacks (10mm) and a stompswitch (12mm) cut out.

Has anybody else done this?  Maybe I'm missing something here?

[Ansil]

question you can get the hammond boxes cheaper than 10 bucks each

[brett]

Som how much does a diecast box like a Hammond cost in the US.  

We pay about $16 Australian, which is a bit over US$12.  

Anyway, I suppose it can't hurt to get a quote on pressed metal boxes from the guy I was talking to.

What made me think about this was buying a kit for a DI box the other day.  It came with a very fancy pressed metal housing (several holes pre-punched, screw holes threaded, etc), all the hardware and electronics for $33.  Given that it had at least $25 worth of electronics in it I figured that pressed metal boxes must be quite cheap.

[gtrmac]

An advantage to getting an enclosure custom made would be that it would have all the holes pre-punched. That would obviously avoid the time consuming work of laying out and hand drilling them. You could also look into getting them painted. Professional painting, especially powder coating, would make them look a lot better than most of the stuff that you can up with at home.

You can even go the whole 9 yards and have them silk screened while you're at it. But that can run into some money for the screen burning.

Anyway, I would try to do something like the Fulltone style boxes. They're pretty nice IMO. They're done with 2 pieces of steel but aluminum could be used also.

[Ansil]

its not bad, but if you are going to get more than 50 boxes you woudl be better off getting some hammonds price comparison wise.  you can get them under 10 bucks if you buy in bulk.  there si a link floating around for some cheaper boxes that are in the same league as teh hammonds.. aprox same size and such.

[RobB]

The sloped front two-piece fulltone type boxes would suit most applications.  I like the way these boxes open like a wah (the rubber feet are the thumb screws).  

If you’re thinking of on selling your boxes then perhaps you shouldn’t put holes in them.  A powder coated finish might be worth considering/pricing too.

[petemoore]

What would be cool is if you could get recessed holes.
 By recessing them you increase strength...like when FORD MO CO did work with the A frame of the Mustang steering system, bending a curve just 'so' in the metal increases it's strength over the same thickness flat piece exponentially...making it lighter, stronger, and uses less material.

[Rodgre]

Has anyone ever done/considered this?

I used to go to a vocational high school (where I took electronics, natch) and there was a Metal Fabrication shop there. They used to take jobs on every once in a while. It gave the students projects to do.

I commissioned them to build my master control panel for my previous pedalboard. It was heavy gauge metal bent into a wedge shape with holes drilled in it for footswitches and LEDs. It was quite nice, even if some of the holes were EXACTLY on center and it took them a couple of months to do it. That said, they did it and it was free.

I thought about having them make me a couple of custom boxes like the Fulltone style at some point. Has anyone else done this or tried it?

Roger

[Hal]

wasn't there a thread a while ago, about box fabrication, and in the end everyone decited that it would cost too much?

Well, if you are going for it, I would suggest you make some kind of sloped front.

[Jim Jones]

Hi Brett,

When you say "pressed metal' the first think I think of is the 70's Colorsound cases with the "pry off" bottom panel.  Is that what you have in mind?  If so I would be interested if the price is right!  

Jim