We have a local metalworking place that will laser cut steel and Al to 3/8". For small runs (like 1), they are very competitive to simply buying the materials alone. I had them make me 3 1U panels from 3/16" steel with 12 D holes to build N patch panels. $15 ea. Powder coated in my color of choice. Blanks were about 6 iirc. Well worth not punching all those holes!
Take a look in your search engine of choice. If you can't find one, our guy will ship. ;) > On Feb 22, 2017, at 16:44, Bob Stewart <b...@evoria.net> wrote: > > Hi John, > > I have to agree with you about enclosures. They make the difference between > a DIY unit and a nice commercial unit, but they are very expensive. The > enclosures I use are about $20 each from Mouser. But the end panels are > another $20 each: milled front and back. So, that's $60 per unit. One > suggestion I might make is to check into what it would cost to make the end > panels from circuit board. At volume, it might be significantly cheaper that > $20 per panel. Learning KICAD well enough to make an end panel isn't that > difficult. > > OSHPark has better prices on larger volume orders. Off the cuff without > looking, I think I pay about $19 per mainboard for an order of 10, so that > would probably work out to $15 for a pair of PCB end panels. That's still > $35 per enclosure, though. You'd probably need to order 15 of each to meet > their minimums. There are other suppliers that have better prices, but I > have no experience with them or their costs. It wouldn't be as nice as > milled aluminum, but it should work just as well. > Bob > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > AE6RV.com > > GFS GPSDO list: > groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GFS-GPSDOs/info > > From: John Ackermann N8UR <j...@febo.com> > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement <time-nuts@febo.com> > Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 8:13 AM > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] TTimelab question > > I really like the setup that Mark is describing. As to TAPR's plans, > we've found that enclosures are a challenge -- metalwork is pretty > expensive unless you get significant volume, and in our niche market, > that's hard to do. > > But I am hoping to find an inexpensive clamshell-type enclosure with > flat front and rear panels, and then do up designs (perhaps with Front > Panel Express) for those panels. That can be done at a reasonable cost, > and at a minimum we can make design files available so people can order > their own panels. > > For my own use, I'm also going to do a couple of 2U rack enclosures -- > one to hold two TICCs operating independently, and another for the > "megaTICC" -- four units slaved together to make an 8 channel counter, > with a Raspberry Pi controller along the line of what Mark described. > (In multi-board mode, each TICC outputs on its own USB line, so the > RPi's main purpose is to deal with the 8 channels of data from 4 USB > connections.) > > I'll make the design files for those enclosures available as well, but > it may be a while as my entire lab is now packed up as we are in the > final stages of moving from Atlanta back to Dayton. > > Also, in a day or three I'll be announcing a simple project that sprung > out of the TICC assembly and testing process that some of you might find > useful. We're still finalizing details on that. > > John > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
