Rear Mounting XLR Jacks

What's the thickness of your material?

If you're using 3mm follow the datasheet cutout measurements, the same measurement applies for both front and rear mounting.

Thicker material will need a cavity hole on the rear of the panel, big enough to take the whole circumference of the jack comfortably. The cavity hole depth depends on the thickness of material, but the mounting surface should be 3mm.
Edited by johnwmclean - 11/29/10 at 12:05pm

You will have to get the sockets designed to be mounted like this but yeah, just measure the outside diameter of the socket and it will fit.  Countersunk screws (M3's) are a tight fit but it does work.  Here is one of my amps which is done like this, check out the lower left hand corner in this picture (it is a bit large)

 

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/1244/p1000708.jpg

I found that a Greenlee 15/16" (US inches) punch (Mouser 586-3808) is perfect for back mounting Neutrik products in aluminum cases. I used it for both my RCA phono jacks as well as the locking 1/4" headphone jack on my EHHA. The hole size is perfect, you just need to measure and drill the screw holes to hold the part in place. For that, I used a typical screw set (stainless #4-40 screws, flat washer, lock washer, nut) and it worked great. I was very pleased with the results (http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/506984/ehha-rev-a-interest-thread/897)

 

The tricky part is material thickness of the case you are using. For a Par Metal case, the 0.06" thick back does not require any extra effort. Punch it and forget it, they install perfectly. However, for the front panel, things are quite a bit different. I whole-heartedly agree with John that the thicker material requires a bit more effort. For a 0.125" thick front panel (standard Par-Metal thickness), I had to hog out a fair amount of material in order for the lock on the locking 1/4" jack to work appropriately and for the jack to be at the correct depth.

 

I used a hand-held dremel tool with a depth guide and slowly removed enough material in order to float the jack at the desired depth. Admittedly, I learned a lot during this process and would most certainly use a form or router guide next time rather than go "free-form" like I did for this installation. At least it is on the back of the panel where no one (except for you lucky head-fi'ers) can see.

 

Here are a couple of shots as an example:

 

 

Yes, as stated above, a guide or template would have yielded a MUCH more precise and professional cut.

 

 

Note, I leveled, marked and drilled the mounting holes at this point, from the back.

 

 

Final depth. Note, this took a few routes to get right. Remove just a little material at a time until you reach the desired depth. If you have a precision depth guide on your router, then you could probably do this in one step. Lacking the correct tools, I just eyeballed it until it looked right. Just be sure not to go too far! Ultimately, you need something to mount against.

 

Hope this helps.