Building custom enclosures

[Chico]

I have been toying with the idea of building my own enclosures for a while.  I figure that will never make a box as nice looking as a cast box such as the ubiquitous Hammond 1590BB, but in the spirit of DIY, it sounds like fun.  It would also allow more control over sizing.  

I have a small shear/brake box that I currently use to cut circuit boards, and it claims to be able to cut and bend up to 1.5 mm (16 ga) aluminum, or 18 ga  (1mm) sheet steel.  It is limited to 7 1/2 in cuts however.

What type of material would be the best choice?  A local metal shop will sell me a 4foot x 8 foot sheet of (3002?) .05 (1.27mm) aluminum for $48 bucks.  At that cost, assuming that I can rip that sheet, I could make boxes for well under a buck a box.  I could also make a lot of boxes.

Anyone have experience making enclosures?  Can I hand shear the 4x8 sheet into smaller pieces, then trim on my small shear to get clean edges?

Is 3002? 0.05 Al material suitable for enclosures?

Thanks in advance,

[Marcus Dahl]

http://www.geofex.com/

[Xlrator]

I have some sheets of aluminum that I am going to make into something like this enclosure:



My aluminum is probably 1/8" or slightly less and I have some in diamond plate that I am using to put on the top of BB box.

I have some LMB boxes and I think that aluminum is a little too thin. From what I can tell in the Mouser catalog thay may be 3003 Aluminum. I don't know if that puts yours heavier or lighter than that.

[Chico]

Thanks folks

I may give this a try and see where I land.  The data sheets from Hammond indicate that the 1590 has a nominal wall thickness of 2mm.  Those boxes are virtually indestructable, but I reckon that 1.2mm should be ok for my moderate use.

Any advice on where to learn to bend al?  or get tools to do so?

Thanks

[petemoore]

Ii saw some look like vise grips with welded on
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[Aharon]

I have a little experience with breaks and shears and if you don't have a magnetic break that will allow you to do the bends required to make a smal box,it's very difficult.
The best cheapest way that I came up with is extruded aluminum and then make sides and bottoms to complete the box.
If you have access to a small magnetic break then you are home free to bend small enclosures.
Aharon

[M.D.]

[ but I reckon that 1.2mm should be ok for my moderate use.

Hi I think your 1.2mm should be quite suitable metal gets much stronger as you add bends crowns and domes to the structure.Look at  the side of a van if it was just flat it would get dings and dents quite eaisly but because it has a bit of an arc to it it now becomes strong.


I build custom motorcycles one the side and I use road signs(the alum.ones.)for covers and all sorts of stuff.Lol i'll let you use your imagination where you get those haha.

But they are very strong and lite.

Besides being a licenced mechanic I am a 4th year auto body apprentice and I think if you look in that direction for learning to bend and sculpt metal you will find all sorts of usefull info.

Our text books are from a companie called I-Car and they cover quite a bit on using brakes,and shears and other goodies.I'm not sure if you can get this info online or not but if not drop me a line and I can scan some of the info out of my book for you.

Good luck mike. :twisted:

[Xlrator]

I usually sandwich it between 2 pieces of ply and bend it around a staight edge or pipe.

But nothing beats buying a diecast box!

[MarkB]

I followed Jack's lead and built this one

haven't put anything into it yet, but it wasn't too hard to do by hand, should be REAL easy with the proper tools.
"-)