Cut slot in metal enclosure door for ribbon keypad ?

fredag den 18. oktober 2019 kl. 02.44.08 UTC+2 skrev mpm:

MA-4 enclosure, through which, we will route a 12-conductor ribbon cable (m embrane keypad).

et just says steel). It's a Hammond Manufacturing EJ1084 standard cabinet . with some effort, I believe the door can be removed? TBD.

ge the finish if it can be helped. The keypad will cover any cosmetic dama ge on the front, so the concern would be the inside of the door. (And not against repairing the inside finish, so long as it would look OK.)

nd die, and cut the whole thing at once. (Slot perimeter = about 92mm).

ner of ideas (some wackier than others). So, my advance apologies for post ing here, but I'm hoping to get some good advice I can pass along to the fo lks who will have to do this. We're looking at roughly 50-75 cabinets ini tially.

before powder-coating. We just don't have the option to do that this time around.

clamp a template to the front and use a router with a guide bushing?

a 1/8 inch carbide bit shouldn't have a much of problem with a bit of steel

Greenlee punch #229 , 9pin Dsub.

Cheers

MA-4 enclosure, through which, we will route a 12-conductor ribbon cable (m embrane keypad).

et just says steel). It's a Hammond Manufacturing EJ1084 standard cabinet . with some effort, I believe the door can be removed? TBD.

ge the finish if it can be helped. The keypad will cover any cosmetic dama ge on the front, so the concern would be the inside of the door. (And not against repairing the inside finish, so long as it would look OK.)

nd die, and cut the whole thing at once. (Slot perimeter = about 92mm).

ner of ideas (some wackier than others). So, my advance apologies for post ing here, but I'm hoping to get some good advice I can pass along to the fo lks who will have to do this. We're looking at roughly 50-75 cabinets ini tially.

before powder-coating. We just don't have the option to do that this time around.

I would tend to use a milling machine. to use a punch you need to locate t he male and female dies. Would probably be cheaper to have a local machine shop do 75 than buy a die set. At least I would get a quote.

Dan

Good idea, and was actually mentioned today on the shop floor. We actually have one, but it is broken (not on this job) and nobody replaced it. I'm not real keen on a D-Sub hole shape, (as opposed to a slot), but I guess it would work.

the male and female dies. Would probably be cheaper to have a local machi ne shop do 75 than buy a die set. At least I would get a quote.

Uggh. That means we'd have to get accounting involved. :(

There are plenty of local machine shops; some affordable (others not!), and all take time and want plenty of engineering prints, etc.., even for simpl e stuff like this.

I'd really rather not shop it, (and of course, delivery would depend on the ir workload). It's not a rush job.. yet. But dealing w/ outside has alway s proven to be a bit of a hassle for the way we operate -- which I will gra nt unequivocally is pretty nutty most of the time.

Really? Machine shop for 75 cheaper vs. buying a press, die and punch? Stuff must be more costly than I thought...? damn.

Humm... I wonder. (?) I thought the heat might be a problem with the powder-coat finish (inside door). Might be worth trying. (We might even own a router?)

circular sawblade,let it cut into the plate slowly, and use a small a small iron file to finish start and end of the cut. Use new blade with fine teeth.

Some of the membrane panel mount keypads are made to have the ribbon cable enter from the rear of the keypad, not from along the edge. For example: Just mill a slot for the ribbon cable, in the front door, under the keypad, and you're done. Running an unprotected ribbon cable through a door frame is going to trash the ribbon cable as soon as someone misaligns the cable with the slot, and slams the door.

Could you perhaps disclose the maker and model of the keypad so we can get a better picture of what you're working with and possibly recommend an alternative mounting or keypad? Extra credit for a URL or photo of the keypad.

Keypad ordered (QTY-50) from jrpanel.com This design has one membrane button (poppel type), and (9) embedded LED's. About 150 x 200 mm, with a decent length tail. I was expecting a quick-tur n prototype quality part, but I have to say, for the money and calendar, jr panel's probably going to be hard to beat. The only thing that's weird abo ut the whole JRP experience is they just want a full-size PDF image to make the part - not a Gerber, etc.. And they don't provide any tools to get th at done. I designed this one in Photoshop Elements (believe it or not).

Anyway, the cabinet door opens to the left. One of our engineers had the i dea to bring the ribbon tail UNDER the circuit board to connect, using a ri ght angle 0.1" pitch header. Works perfectly, and keeps the ribbon out of the way of where hands need to be in the box to install it. Also, it preve nts the ribbon from getting caught up in the door latch and gaskets. (Wish I could take credit for the approach.) :)

Oh, and yes, the ribbon exits from the approximate center of the keypad, no t the edge. Using 3M 300LSE adhesive, I'm hoping the box retains NEMA-4 ra ting (if/when) we test for that. But I'm not really worried that much abou t it, "should work". Ha! (Sounds like one of those "famous last words".. .)

BTW: I may have learned of JRPanel here on SED, and if so, a belated thanks to whoever posted it. It was basically one-week in our hands, from design to finished goods. And the quality, "look-&-feel", and the Pantone color match was actually pretty good - not that it mattered in this case. Bottom line: the result is certainly sellable. The only weird part is the PDF de sign requirement.

And before you ask: I do think next time we might consider NOT embedding t he LED's. They look fine and work great, but it did raise the cost per key pad a bit. Didn't really matter for this job since we already had the corr ect color, factory-stock cabinets in inventory - whatever savings there was would have been eaten up in labor drilling all those discrete holes for an LED daughter board mounted to the inside of the door. And we save 6-weeks on production not waiting for pre-punched, color cabinets.

We shipped the first 10 units using that exact approach. I wasn't going to mention it because I was too embarrassed to admit it. :)

Results: Meh The friction (heat) damages the finish, which you then have to cover up. It's also a challenge to control the length of the finished cut, and then you have to file and protect the finished edge.

In a pinch, yeah. But not for the next 40 builds.

And YES, agree 100% - new blade with fine teeth is a MUST!! The first box with existing saw blade was horrible.

contract out to some guys with a water jet.

If there's no hurry order from Hammond.

MA-4 enclosure, through which, we will route a 12-conductor ribbon cable (m embrane keypad).

et just says steel). It's a Hammond Manufacturing EJ1084 standard cabinet . with some effort, I believe the door can be removed? TBD.

ge the finish if it can be helped. The keypad will cover any cosmetic dama ge on the front, so the concern would be the inside of the door. (And not against repairing the inside finish, so long as it would look OK.)

nd die, and cut the whole thing at once. (Slot perimeter = about 92mm).

ner of ideas (some wackier than others). So, my advance apologies for post ing here, but I'm hoping to get some good advice I can pass along to the fo lks who will have to do this. We're looking at roughly 50-75 cabinets ini tially.

before powder-coating. We just don't have the option to do that this time around.

however you do it it'll damage the powder coat finish, just some methods wo rse than others. Fix that or you get rust streaks.

NT

you should be cutting the steel not melting it ;)

how big a slot do you need?

mpm wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

A dremel tool with a cut-off wheel (the kind concrete saws use but thinner) makes a perfect slot.

The right way to do it would be to drill two small holes, one at each end of your slot width. Then plunge cut with the dremel between those two holes. Then there are cutters which have the ability to cut on their shaft sides if you need to widen the slot.

Lasse Langwadt Christensen wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

READ. He said "12 conductor ribbon cable".

Don't see many fashioned from welding cable, so I would say it is likely one of the 22 or 24 or 26 Gauge versions. Slot for the #22 and no worries. If there is enough room behind the cover piece, one could us a round hole and make the flat cable into a round one and pass that thru. It makes a bigger 'knot like' exit though, so space is needed in the ingress and egress areas.

mpm wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

Well then two siamesed round holes with a chamfer to knock the edge off would work.

If it is a small enclosure you may not even be able to get the die in there.

Most punch systems for flat items will be hard to apply to a formed door. The autobody pull-punch tools are easy, though

provided you can start it with a pilot hole.

Round holes with a cemented-in grommet would be the easiest aperture to make, plugging it and routing a cable through should be easy.

middle of the pad: so find a drill press and hole-saw a 18mm, or larger hole and pass the ribbon through that. it seems that hole shape is not important so long as it's wide enough for the ribbon.