Wooden enclosure drilling question

[Luke51411]

I have a wooden box that originally held pictures that I want to put a ruby amp in. The walls are pretty thick. I'd need to thin the wall where the pots switches and jacks go. Is there any workaround to accomplish this? I've drilled larger diameter holes partway through walls before but I don't think there is enough access on this box. The only thought I had is to cut out the hole for the speaker and put the pots on the reverse side or place them on the lid which is a picture frame. I'd rather have them on the same side as the speaker if possible within reason.

[GibsonGM]

I only see 3 choices, man....
1) do like you have done before, if you can (drill partway thru, large diameter, and finish with correct bit size),
2)do this to the top, or
3) cut out a rectangular area and use a metal plate on the inside that the pots etc. can sit in...

If I were bent on having the stuff on the side, I'd go for 3.  If you cut the hole neatly, you could have a pretty nice looking plate in there, like they did in the old days.

[Maik]

Take a forstner-drill ca 30mm and drill the wood to ca 6mm thickness.
Take a piece off wood and fasten it at the "look"-side with 2 clamps.
Then take a normal wood-drill and drill through.
Forstner drill  http://www.suges.de/CVS-Forstnerbohrer
normal wood drill  http://www.hawema-stralsund.de/sortiment/handwerkzeuge/holzbohrer/index.html

[Jdansti]

You guys type faster than I do!  Here are my thoughts.

For jacks and switches, use a forstner bit from the front to make nice clean edges to countersink the parts.



If you have paddle bits, you could experiment on scrap wood to see if you can get a clean hole.

If you countersink pots from the front, just make sure you use the ones with long enough shafts that you can cut down to size so the knobs ride above the wood.

[davent]

A faceplate to hold the pots/jacks and cover holes in the box, big enough for the parts to pass through.

A few manufacturers have jacks with very long bushings that would handle the box thickness easy. You could mount the pots inside the box and connect the pot shaft to a brass rod (with bushing) so the brass rod extends through the box, shaft extender.

[Luke51411]

Thanks! A lot of good ideas here that I didn't even think about!   
I like the cutout and plate idea. I have access to some small pieces of scrap aluminum and a sheet metal shop at my work. I might see what I can fabricate.

[Luke51411]

Now that I have some options to think about I need to ask a more important question. How can I incorporate the dominoes into an effect?

[PRR]

> How can I incorporate the dominoes into an effect?

Go ask Derek. I think he'll know.

[Jdansti]

^ LOL!  

Gotta hand it to you, PRR!  I couldn't come up with a good pun for that one!

But 'before you accuse me' it was 'after midnight'...

I know, lame and late!   

[duck_arse]

For jacks and switches, use a forstner bit from the front to make nice clean edges to countersink the parts.

forstner bit? it seeming to me that there is a real tool for every imagined job (and a hammer), but you need to know the name of the thing first.

+1 on rear mounting a plate, quickest and easiest imo. if you've got some deep-skirted knobs, like maybe the harmon/kardon ones behind me, you could recess them into the wood, with "just the tip" showing. as for dominoes, maybe replacement rockers for rocker switches, or glued to the top of some schadow type push buttons? fine if you've got some switches in yr design ....

[Luke51411]

I have my ruby amp almost finished! It sounds good but it seems noticeably quieter and less crunchy at full gain than when I had it on the breadboard. Could this jus be from boxing it up? Am I imagining things? It still sounds good and is a useable volume it just seems less loud... I'm trying to figure out if I need to troubleshoot or am going crazy from sniffing solder fumes? I used the standard schematic from runoff groove and added a shorting headphone jack to kill the speaker when using headphones. I also used beavis audio grit mod from the noisy cricket. The only thing I could think of is if the buffer stage is shorted or wired incorrectly and is getting bypassed. Would that cause a loss in volume? Oh, I also used a 2n5457 instead of an mpf102 but that had remained constant frm the bread boarding stage. I guess if all else fails ill breadboard another one and compare them. Anyways...
Here are a couple pics of the build.