[cazoo]

hi folks,

i picked up this nice black cigar box to house the new pimeta amp i am building. my question is this. the width of the panels on the cigar box are roughly over 1/2" thick. how should i trim this down to attach the panel mounts? i just purchased a dremel rotary tool but now i'm wondering if there is an easier way to do this. (and i don't have access to any professional quality woodworking tools.) any suggestions would be very helpful. thank you.

 

[Francis_Vaughan]

Personally I never find just mounting the connectors and controls into the wood a terribly satisfactory answer. It always looks a bit tacky. Two alternatives.

Fabricate a small metal panel, and then cut a large hole in the box behind the panel. You can use brass screws etc. to attach the panel so it looks the part. A black glossy panel would look great. Something from an engraving place would work well. They could engrave approriate looking labels. The sort of thing that is stuck to trophies and the like.

Another idea I rather like, is to not cut the box at all, but make up a panel the size of the inside of the box, that sits in the box, so that you open the lid and see the panel. All the connectors, switch gear, volume control are placed on this panel. It looks very cute and very retro. Very much in keeping with the whole cigar box ethos. Need to find a nice Bakelite volume knob

More costly, but could source from an engraving house too.

You may find it valuable to get some adhesive foil to shield the inside of the box.

 

[Wodgy]

When I needed to do this, I bought a rasp bit for my handheld drill. The rasp lets you sand away the wood perpendicular to the drill, so you can work inside a prebuilt box like that. You need to exercise caution so that you don't sand away too much of the wood, just enough to get your panel mounts through. You can do the same thing with a Dremel sanding bit (I'd definitely try it), but you may go through the bits fairly quickly and some Dremels don't have a lot of torque.

A Dremel router attachment might also work (and would be a much more appropriate tool, to be honest), but you would have to find a router attachment that works at a 90 degree angle. They have everything for Dremels, so it's quite possible they have such a thing, or you may be able to use the basic Dremel 90 degree adapter with their router attachment.

 

[kilkil]

I like to use a forstner drill bit to the required depth. A little hard to do in a box though, I'd probably just put a rasping bit on the dremel to reduce the thickness.

 

[MASantos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Francis_Vaughan You may find it valuable to get some adhesive foil to shield the inside of the box.

Where is this kind of foil available??

 

[skyskraper]

nasa surplus sales
http://www.sale.hq.nasa.gov/nasasale.htm

 

[Wodgy]

The cheapest place for metal that can line wooden boxes that I've found is craft stores. They sell copper sheeting in various gauges for very little money.

It depends what you want to shield against though. Copper is a very good shield against RFI, but if you want effective shielding against EMI you need to use steel, mu-metal, or other stuff.

 

[cazoo]

thanks for your suggestions. i'm going to look into the foil adhesive as well as the right angle dremel attachment and those bits you mention.

 

[Blooze]

I've used a dremel to route out a hole on the inside big enough for the jacks, etc. to fit in, leaving a small lip for the nuts to snug up on--but it's a big pain to do.

One option is to get a small sheet of teflon or aluminum that fits the inside dimensions of one end of your box, drill a hole all the way through the side of the box that's big enough for the part than chamfer the outside edge to finish it. Then you part just mounts to the right size hole that's drilled in the sheet.

Here's a link to a picture thats on another forum that describes this. You might have to cut and paste if the link doesn't work.

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/ma...ages/3660.html

 

[cazoo]

whoa, thanks for the link, that case looks goregeous!