[robbneu]

I'm curious to hear any of your experiences in what works best for mounting circuit boards inside enclosures like the Hammond cases. My gut says "just use some screws" but I feel like I might be overlooking something fairly obvious.

I'd appreciate any of your comments. I don't post very often, but I lurk nearly every day.

Robb

 

[tangent]

If your board isn't wide enough to slide into the rails, it may be light enough that some component soldered directly to the circuit board that also has to be attached to the front panel can hold the board up without undue stress. If you can't mount the board to the front panel this way, I would use four #4-40 screws with nylon spacers. Get the flat-head kind and countersink the screw holes so the heads are flat with the bottom of the case.

 

[robbneu]

Tangent,

That's kind of what I thought and the angle I was using in approaching a clone amp I was working on. I just haven't been very happy with the "fit and finish" of it and was wondering if there was a better way to do it.

Thanks for the input!

Robb

 

[drewd]

Particularly if the amp that you're building is going to be portable - if there's much of a chance that it's going to get thrashed around and the board doeesn't fit the rails of the case, use the screws. Things will eventually come apart if you don't.

-Drew

 

[robbneu]

Thanks, Drew. I appreciate your input as well.

I bought a Hammond case for the amp I've been working on and made an absolute mess of it. My board isn't/wasn't wide enough to slide into the slots and so I attempted to mount it using the screws and nylon washers method Tangent talked about. It works, but I'm just not happy with it. Plus, I've had a really difficult time drilling through the aluminum. It's a learning process and I didn't expect it to be instantly great, but as I said, given the trouble I had, I was beginning to be convinced that I was missing something obvious. Now I know, it's just my skills!

Anyway... thanks, guys. I appreciate your advice. This is a fun and addicting hobby and so far, I'm loving every minute of it.

Robb

 

[tangent]

Quote:

it's just my skills

And maybe your tools, too. A sharp drill bit should punch through 62 mil aluminum in a few seconds. Get yourself a center punch and sharpen those drill bits and it won't be hard work any more.

 

[aos]

Aluminum should be trivial. Unless you did something really stupid like I did once, and had your drill set to reverse. I spent several HOURS trying to drill a few holes through a fairly thin steel enclosure, taking over 1/2 hours for each hole and arms in pain for applying excess force. Only to find out that I managed to flip that little thing and it was working backwards. At least I have never took the soldering iron by the tip but at the rate things are going...

 

[robbneu]

Tangent,

The bits I'm using are brand new. Not specifically for drilling metal, but I made sure that they were listed for use with metal drilling. My drill might be a little underpowered, though. Or....

AOS,

Oh, geez... I'll bet that's what I'm doing. Ugh. I'll check. If it turns out that I do have the drill set in reverse, chances are I'll be far too ashamed to post that tidbit here.

Thanks for the advice, guys!

Robb