Predrilled enclosures from PPP, Mammoth, etc...advice needed

[therecordingart]

I've been puttering around with building stuff now for a little less than 10 years on and off. The one thing I absolutely hate the most is drilling and painting the enclosures. I'm at an age now that the time I have to spend on my hobbies is very limited and I don't build as much as I'd like because I don't have the motivation to mess with making the enclosure. That said...

What is your experience with predrilled enclosures? I can't find info on their sites that lists the hole sizes that they use. The bypass switch and pots seem obvious, but what about the LED and DC jack? Do their drill layouts leave enough room internally to fit your board(s)?

[kodiakklub]

Ive never bought predrilled or painted boxes, but there was a complaint on another thread that mammoth's machine work and paint jobs are not very good. But then again, I would never let a company whose primary job is to pull, pack and ship pedal parts (and they happened to have a drill press in the corner with a less than skilled employee) drill my boxes. I doubt smallbear paints their own boxes so he might have it subbed out to a decent shop, but thats an assumption. in all honesty, laying out and drilling the box is the fastest part of the job for me. my mantra is its not done right unless i do it myself, or send it out to a legit machine shop or paint shop. all you need is a 1/2 unibit (stepped) and a drill and a 3/32 pilot bit. some 3in1 oil will extend the life of the somewhat pricey unibit. to make it real nice, get a compound square and a center punch and an extra fine tip sharpie.

[harmless]

I've bought a few pre painted / pre drilled enclosures from Mammoth.  The drilling seemed accurate but a few of the holes needed de burring.  Mammoth sells led bezels that fit the hole size they use, but I can't recall what they are off the top of my head.  They also sell DC jacks (internal and external nut) that fit the hole, and they appear to be standard sizes to me.  If the layouts they offer exactly matched your hole needs I think you'd be fine.  I was building a trem and wanted an expression jack, but I couldn't fit another jack into their existing drill template so I ended up using an 1/8" plug instead of a 1/4" to make it fit.

Both powder coated enclosures I got were nice.  I drilled the last one myself (it was a 1590a) and it went ok (in that I was mostly winging it and the beginner project here with 300 giant caps eventually fit).

[mwynwood]

I've bought a few painted and drilled enclosures from Mammoth and they are always great.
Way neater and more accurate than I could paint or drill! Highly recommended.

The DC jack are 1/2" to fit this: http://www.mammothelectronics.com/4SJK-101DC-p/600-1000.htm
The LED hole fits this perfectly: http://www.mammothelectronics.com/4SLEDBZ5-1-p/1000-b100.htm

[therecordingart]

Thanks, guys! It's not that I *can't* do the metal work...I have been doing it for years and have a workshop in my garage...I'm just sick of it. I started out just happy to be building stuff, but now I'm getting super meticulous about it. If I don't center punch a spot perfectly or my pilot bit wanders just a tad I let that off center hole gnaw at my brain. The circuit can be great, but the pedal is ruined in my mind. Obsessing over the enclosure seems ridiculous to me since I don't get any enjoyment out of that part of it even when it does go my way. I figure save the trouble and spend a few extra dollars. If I need an extra hole here or there I can add them and only obsess about that one hole.

I'm a little bit of a neurotic mental case.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Thanks, guys! It's not that I *can't* do the metal work...I have been doing it for years and have a workshop in my garage...I'm just sick of it. I started out just happy to be building stuff, but now I'm getting super meticulous about it. If I don't center punch a spot perfectly or my pilot bit wanders just a tad I let that off center hole gnaw at my brain. The circuit can be great, but the pedal is ruined in my mind. Obsessing over the enclosure seems ridiculous to me since I don't get any enjoyment out of that part of it even when it does go my way. I figure save the trouble and spend a few extra dollars. If I need an extra hole here or there I can add them and only obsess about that one hole.

I'm a little bit of a neurotic mental case.

+1 

I know exactly where you are coming from 

[The Tone God]

Sort of a self plug but we have started to offer pre-machined cases. We mill the cases so the holes are clean and do not need any deburing. There is short video showing a case being milled in the "member's video" thread or you can check our YouTube channel. On our store site all the hole sizes are specified and the diagrams for the case layouts are to scale so you can test the layout to see if it fits your design before ordering.

The only thing is right now we are not offer powder coating but we may in the future if there is enough demand.

Andrew

[B Tremblay]

Sort of a self plug...

Like the Grand Canyon is sort of a big hole in the ground! 

[Strange]

Mammoth's finish work and drilling is pretty bad. I placed a 'test order' as I would also like to find a solid place for finished and pre-drilled boxes. The boxes I received all had poor drilling which required way too much filing to get the controls to line up. In addition to the horrid drilling each box had a combination of paint chips, scratches, debris in the finish and a number of pin holes into bare metal. According to Mammoth's customer service these were all fine to pass Mammoth's quality control - even the crappy drilling. When I pay extra to have someone drill an enclosure I do not want to spend more time fixing their drilling with a file than it would have taken me to drill it myself.

I am not sure if Mammoth and 4Site have the same person doing the drilling/finishing. I ordered a few test boxes from them as well and I will report back. My guess is that they will be on par with Mammoth's work - I am pretty sure they share the same roof. I will most likely buy bare enclosures from them until I find a company that can provide consistent quality.

Edit: I ordered several from PPP a while back and I recall them being pretty decent. I will give them another shot in the future.

[kodiakklub]

if anyone uses autocad i can send you the DWG's of all of the popular boxes for laying out. they also have a lot of the usual parts we use (16mm pots, footswitch, jacks, led, etc). below is a link to a pdf of blank box templates i did that has most of the usual boxes we build into.
http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=47464&g2_GALLERYSID=ea0b93ea78a83cfa487fe220d2f8af2b