Re: Metal Enclosures

["Gomez ADDams" <gomez-at-netherworld-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

> Original poster: "Bart" <bmcguyer-at-houston.rr-dot-com>
> 

> Where can you find metal enclosures to make a power control console out
> of?

...at a reasonable price, I assume you mean.  If you have lots of money,
just ring up Newark Electronics, or anyone else that carries Bud and other
rack makers.

 But for the rest of us, try your local electronics surplus stores.   Years
ago, I picked up a somewhat beat-up, slope-front cabinet for $10.  All I had
to do was pound out some dents and add a coat of paint, and scare up a nice
thick chunk of aluminum for the front panel from the local scrap yard  The
aluminum was fairly dodgy looking, so I hit it with an orbital sander to
give it a nice soft finish and left it bare.

 A couple years later, I re-built the thing for a 240volt/39amp variac, and
had to have a big "pan" extension made to make the bottom deeper.  Of course
at the time, I was working at a place that had a sheet metal and welding
shop in it...

 I still use this panel for all my coiling, except that it won't be big
enough for SPCP-1.

 Now then, there's nothing wrong with hitting your local scrap metal dealer
and picking up a single metal panel that seems about the right size for what
you want to build, and then making a wooden cabinet for it.  And wood is
easier to deal with for most people with common tools, although it is
actually much heavier for a given amount of strength.

 If you have a Sams Club, Cosco, Harbor Freight Tools, or the like near you,
you might consider picking up a cheap welder and learning how to use it.
You'll also be able to use it to ballast big transformers.  Scrap sheet
steel is typically $0.05 a pound or so, and then you can make almost
anything.

> How would you make holes for all the connections? Panel Meters? and so on.
> I am clueless, and any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

 One way to make holes larger than your drill bit, draw a circle slightly
smaller than the size you want, drill a whole butt-load of small holes
around the inside of the circle, then cut away the bits remaining with a big
pair of diagaonal cutters, a chisel, or a small abrasive wheel in a Dremel
Tool.
Then use a bastard (curved face) file to smooth off the rough bits.  This is
very labor intensive, but it worked for me when I was a kid and had much
more muscle and time than money.

 If you can afford it, consider buying a few Greenlee chassis punches.  They
are expensive, but worth every penny after you have them in terms of saved
labor.

 Good quality holes saws will cut aluminum (but not steel) if you use them
with cutting oil and go slowly- don't let the oil smoke- if it does, you're
getting the cutting teeth hot and will soon detemper the steel.  Use low
RPM's and do not push hard, let the weight of the drill do the work.

- Gomez (Bill Lemieux)

.........................................................................
"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our
fellow men; and along these fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions
run as causes, and they come back to us as effects." -Herman Melville