Triad - First Production Enclosure Photos

[spudulike]

Shame, I think Hammonds suck, the steel looks way more professional. Good luck with them

[LyleCaldwell]

Well, the steel is more professional, in that it's almost impossible to work with at home.  In the metal shop it's all stamped out before bending, but at home you'd have no flat panel to work with, and it would be really difficult to drill.

Aluminum is lighter, just as strong, shields just as well, and is easy to drill.  The only downside to the Hammonds is the sloped sides, but they're still easier to work with than a flanged steel enclosure side.

Aluminum also doesn't rust and when sanded it has a nicer natural metal look than steel.

[LyleCaldwell]

Just got the second production prototype - well, half of it.  They botched the bottom case, and forgot to reverse the sheet before punching, so this has rough punch marks and is lacking the bottom, but they will have a better version tomorrow so I can sign off on the production run.  I was able to greatly reduce the height, down to 1.29 inch.

Here's the previous taller version:



And the new thinner version:

[JimRayden]

Getting better each time.

Watch out with the excess solder on the power jack.

---------
Jimbo

[LyleCaldwell]

Yeah, I'll have to wick that away a bit.  The clearance between the bottom of the solder joints and the bottom of the enclosure is ridiculously small.  About the height of those heatsink screws - maybe just a hair more (got it written down around here somewhere).

Sometimes it's hard to trust the calipers, but we measured this 4 times and it will be enough clearance.  Wow.  The board doesn't move at all, but I'm going to put some plastic on the bottom of the enclosure bottom, just in case.

[PenPen]

Lyle, what about selling some of the painted enclosures? Or taking orders for a few? I'd myself prefer to get some smallish square steel boxes in the same style as a Rat2 or perhaps a Big Muff style casing but using thicker gauge steel. Right about now I'm looking at finally boxing some stuff I've been working on up. If it would help defray your costs I'd put in a small order for a few custom boxes. And black would be the color of choice anyway.

[LyleCaldwell]

All of these are spoken for (100 for the first batch).  The total price is just over $1500, which isn't bad per pedal, but it's a lot of money up front.  But these are very much made for this one pedal - to use these for anything else would mean Bondo everywhere.  And then to add holes, change holes, etc, would just be murder.  Drilling through steel, particularly when you'd have to make a lot of jigs to put the enclosures safely in a press, is really diffficult.

Again, the same size enclosure is already available as the Hammond 1590DD, and you can order it in a very durable black powedercoat and it's easy to drill and work with.  I don't see the advantages of using these steel enclosures for independant DIY projects.

If there's a size of enclosure that a lot of people want that isn't available, if enough people want it, it could be made out of aluminum.  Maybe Steve at smallbear would be interested in having them made. 

[PenPen]

Ok. I just have never been all that fond of those boxes. They look too much like MXR pedals, and I've never been a fan of that style. I LIKE the EH style sloped enclosures, and the heavy cubeish Rat2 box. I'd much rather buy those than the 1590 series.

[LyleCaldwell]

Well, how many pedals do you make in a year?  If all your pedals would fit in the same size enclosure, and you will always have the same number of jacks, you could have some made like I did, and then you'd just have to drill into the top for switches and knobs (relatively easy to drill the top - it's the back panel that's murder).  Yeah, you'd be up against the same $1500-2000 initial cost, but per pedal they would be cheaper than Hammonds, and you could have them already powedercoated any color you like.  No one else would have them. 

It's an option.

[PenPen]

EDIT: I should mention that I'm not a commercial effects maker, so I couldn't justify the cost. I do one offs by request for local musicians, but I'm not a business man.

It depends. I have taken to breadboarding most circuits and taking them apart because I never had the boxes for all of them. But now that I've done my experimentation, and learned enough to start boxing up and showing off my circuits, I'm looking at something like 10 boxes for the next year. Maybe I missed in the thread where you got these from, did you just go through a local shop? What would these be under in the phone book, machine shops?

Even still, I think my wife would kill me if I spent $1500 up front even if I actually ended up using all of them. I don't really need them that badly. I'm still searching for a source of cheap sheet metal or stud reinforcements, the hardware stores I've checked doesn't have it.

[LyleCaldwell]

Yeah, I just called around different machine shops until I found one that does everything from making the boxes to powdercoating and silkscreening.  I lucked out - the company I'm using also makes enclosures and panels for Soundcraft.  This box is totally custom - started with a blank slate.

If it makes you feel better, for my other projects I use Hammonds like almost everyone else.