My new favorite enclosure

[sfr]

I haven't been around the forums in a while, (not that I was ever one to add much) I've been doing a lot of woodworking (building guitars!) this year, but I've gotten back into electronics this month and hammered out a few effects I've been wanting.  (Playing again with a band for the first time in a while, and not singing inspires some desire for footswitches, I guess.  Just standing and strumming doesn't seem like enough to keep my mind occupied.)  I got sick of trying to cram everything into the smallest box possible and was at my local radio shack picking up some resistors I really should have had already, and I saw this box:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062217&cp

It's probably not new, but I'd never seen them before, (all the Radio Shack boxes I'd seen were either too flimsy, too big, too small, or plastic) and they were only 2 or 3 bucks so I grabbed one.  It's sturdier than it looks (although not the most road-worthy thing compared to a Hammond) and real easy to drill.  And the room!  No more being off by an 1/8" of an inch and finding out my jack won't clear the bottom of the pot!  It's a perfect size box, big enough to have plenty of room, but not huge, and the way the cover comes off makes it really easy to solder the pots and switches and jacks and such whilst they are in the box.  (If I don't do it this way I'm bad at judging my leads and get a rats nest of wires) My favorite part is that with a heavy-duty set of metal shears or a dremel tool it's really easy to mod. for an angled front for the footswitch.  (by the way, if you do this, you want an angle less than 45 degrees.  Ooops.)

I guess this is a silly post, but this is one of the first boxes I've worked with that hasn't felt like the "not fun" part of the process.  It seems like I never box my effects up because of the hassle.  I was just really excited to find these.  I still like hammonds better in the end, but to bang out an effect the night before practice, I think I'll be hanging onto a few of these.

By the way, digging through the forums for the first time in a while, there's a lot of cool stuff I missed.  You folks are all still pretty darn cool!

[squidsquad]

Not silly...every little thing helps someone...thanks!

[Marcos - Munky]

I use a box that is very close to this one. I think it's the same size, and it's made from aluminium, just have a few differences. It works great, and it's pretty cheap.

[Noplasticrobots]

You know, I had recently been wondering why RS didn't sell metal enclosures because I never saw them, so I searched this product for stores near me and low and behold every store near me said that it's in stock.

But they don't because I never see them at any of the local Rat Shacks.

I swear the RS "search for this product at store near you" feature just gets you into the store because there's only been one product I've ever searched for that was not in stock at store near me.

[guitarhacknoise]

oh yeah!
I put my first ever project in one of those, well before I had found this place (aron's) I had found EPFM at my local Half Price books and built the TSF, I used a Buffered version of the 4049. I finished it up right before practice, I had plugged it in and played one chord, sounded awesome! unplugged it and took it with me to show off and........................nothing! it had locked up and so I experienced my FIRST failure right after I had experienced my first success! all in the same project and the same hour!
-matthias

[Caferacernoc]

I think it is this guys favourite too. Look how cool it can look:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7374064352&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

[Paul Marossy]

My first project was in that same exact box. I cut it down so it was about 1-1/4" tall instead of 2-1/4". Now my Highway 89 is in it:

[Garrett]

My first project was in that same exact box. I cut it down so it was about 1-1/4" tall instead of 2-1/4". Now my Highway 89 is in it:

diamond in the rough!  Man I never knew you could make those boxes look that good. Good job dude. perfect for large longer boards.  Rat Shack would be proud.

Garrett

[Paul Marossy]

Thanks Garrett.  I really just had the enclosure lying around and I wanted to make use of it.