Boxes are overpriced

I've bought cheap chinese electronics was in a nice extruded box atleast it looked like that on picture and at a distance, but when you pick it up the material feels far too light, thin, kinda bendy and weak and nowhere near the quality of the real deal

We use some 100mm wide hammond like (I think they are from Fischer) extrusion I think extrusion boxes are quite a bit cheaper when you don't order "kits" but instead order a length cut up in the pieces you need we get the end plates laser cut

-Lasse

On Tue, 10 May 2016 17:43:33 -0400, Phil Hobbs Gave us:

Here is a recent case I completed.

Aside from pactec and hammond there are others. And there is one that the pricing is a little better. I forget who that was. ;(

As someone pointed out the extruded cases seem to be a bit less expensive.

Cheers

Did you look at these guys?

$4.65 singles

Cheers

I know it sounds hokey but have you tried Ebay? They have a lot of direct f rom China enclosures. You might be able to get a contact you can work with for quantity. You could also design it to fit into one of those aluminum ha rd drive enclosures or battery charger boxes and piggy back on that market. If you size the board the same as a hard drive you should be able to find second sources.

Yep. The can costs more than the beer.

--
Les Cargill

On Tue, 10 May 2016 20:00:31 -0500, Les Cargill Gave us:

Excellent metaphor.

And true in many, but not all 'cases'.

They're a smallish company- in the $100m USD range annual sales, and profits < 10%. They used to make transformers for consumer electronics and industrial enclosures.

To take another- Bud Industries- only 120 employees.

These are not giant companies like Tyco ($6bn per year)

True. It saves money when labor is cheap and they don't have to pay for CAD software licences etc.

I think their plastic cases are molded offshore (Taiwan?) - it's gotten kind of expensive to do it in North America.

--sp

--
Best regards,  
Spehro Pefhany 
Amazon link for AoE 3rd Edition:            http://tinyurl.com/ntrpwu8

Those are tubular extrusions with bezel and aluminum end plates. They are probably the most expensive enclosure you can find for the enclosed volume. Unless you need the extrusion for a heat sink, methinks you could do better using sheet aluminum sides.

The plastic bezel insures that the end plates will make good antennas and create problems for EMC (electro-magic compatibility). If you must use an extrusion, you can get packages where the end plates screw directly into the extrusion.

Otherwise, I suggest you look into die cast packaging, such as:

Post a PCB size and height requirements and I'll see what I can find that will put a smaller hole in your budget (time permitting).

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

If these boxes are very overpriced, perhaps you should consider that a business opportunity?

--

Rick C

Sorry. I missed your posting of the size 100 x 120 x 25 mm.

For die cast aluminum...

Sizes available:

Methinks Hammond 1590DD would be close enough with inside dimensions E and F at 115 x 153 x 32 mm. Allied: Mouser:

I didn't do any price shopping or look at foreign suppliers. They're probably cheaper.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

looks ok. they do better prices for bigger lots. I've dealt with them before they are good

sorry for 3 posts - this is more like hammond

Might do that once the layout is finished.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net

Needs to be metal for EMI reasons, and so it can survive handling by squaddies^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H students.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net

Not as pretty though, and harder to get good mechanical strength. I want the box to survive having a BNC cable pulled out by the roots while the box is bolted to the optical table. (That'll need 0.080" end plates or thereabouts, plus a little bit of play in the board mounting so the BNC doesn't get torn out of the board.)

Yes, I agree, but only if you use them. I don't plan to, for both the EMI reasons you give and because they're seriously ugly.

The other possible issue is the sliding top. It may need a bit of attention to get adequate grounding there, e.g. tapping holes for #2 setscrews through the sliding joint in a few places. We'll see.

If you

I use those a lot for dead-bug protos--I cut a piece of Cu-clad to fit inside the lid, and hold it in with BNC bulkhead connectors. Works great.

Thanks. The board is 99 mm x 120 mm, and the tallest thing on it is a BNC bulkhead connector, about 0.75 inches tall. So 25 mm inside height would be good.

The other requirement is that it has to be mountable to an optical table or a post. I'm planning to put four 1/4-20 threaded inserts in the bottom of the box to make that easy, similar to .

Thanks

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net

Thanks.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net

Looks like a good lead, thanks. I'll get a couple and see.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net