Seeking an enclosure...

Seeking an enclosure that looks like this from the side:

+--- | \ | \ | \ | | +-------+

Think of a meter case, terminals on top, meter face and range-selecting knob on top. Where may I find such things? Steel, aluminium, ABS will do.

--
"He who will not reason is a bigot; 
he who cannot is a fool; 
he who dares not is a slave." 
  - Sir William Drummond
Reply to
Peter Percival
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The usual places have them, e.g. Farnell or RS.

They also have tolerable search facilities to help you find them. It really isn't that difficult, particularly since you already know the correct term: enclosure.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Thank you. I think the other magic word is "sloped".

--
"He who will not reason is a bigot; 
he who cannot is a fool; 
he who dares not is a slave." 
  - Sir William Drummond
Reply to
Peter Percival

So will plywood.

Reply to
default

The choice of materials is non-trivial. If I'm to mount a meter on it, I need to be able to put a, say, 40mm hole through it. Punches such as this

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are limited in the thickness of what they will cut. That particular one will cut up to 16 gauge mild steel, and I've been looking at die cast aluminium...

--
"He who will not reason is a bigot; 
he who cannot is a fool; 
he who dares not is a slave." 
  - Sir William Drummond
Reply to
Peter Percival

If you have patience, you could use a jeweller's fretsaw to cut an arbitrary shape.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Something like this?

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Reply to
Paul Babiak

I've built three sloping panel enclosures from wood. One has an aluminum front panel held in place by a saw kerf cut into the 3/4" side panels. (slides in and out)

For aluminum, a hole saw will do a halfway decent job if you clamp it down well. For plastics and metal a "nibbling tool" makes easy work of square holes. Those conical stepped bits that go from 1/4" to one inch are wonderful for nice precise clean holes in plastic. Another nice tool for plastic is the so-called "multi-tool" with an oscillating blade. I can work a plastic enclosure within 1/8" of the edges without destroying it using the multi-tool.

Wood is a good alternative and doesn't require special ordering enclosures. You can make any shape and size you may want (and your skill allows). I recently made a small windowed square enclosure from some scrap walnut and red acrylic plastic. The digital display and red leds show up with nice contrast. I beveled the corners, epoxied the box together and oiled the wood and had it finished with about four hours of work, and no cost.

Another handy, if limited use, tool is a "Whitney-Jenson" or "Whitney-Roper"

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hand metal punch. It is faster than drilling and leaves a burr-free hole with no distortion in thin sheet metal. You can punch metal as thin as aluminum cans with no distortion and mild steel, (even spring steel it if isn't too thick) I'm in the habit of using pennies for small washers - it's often cheaper than a small pack of washers (and lots cheaper if I have to drive to a store)

I don't know if you can kill one of these punches, mine has lasted me ~40 years, and I've yet to break a punch or die. It won't punch quarters or nickels, but pennies no problem (copper or zinc ones) and can punch dimes too. If it will fit in between the jaws, and the throat depth is enough, it is way better and faster than an electric drill. The punches all have pointed centers to grip the work and you can use a center punch to get accurate placement.

Reply to
default

Something just like that! Thank you.

--
"He who will not reason is a bigot; 
he who cannot is a fool; 
he who dares not is a slave." 
  - Sir William Drummond
Reply to
Peter Percival

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