Why Hammond style?

[iainpunk]

I noticed that a lot of members are primarily using Hammond (or similar style) enclosures like this:



I personally used hammond knock-offs, tins, wooden boxes (with shielding on the inside) and some random enclosures from other products as enclosures. The thing i found is that the hammond style (a box with one side as a lid which screws on) are the most annoying ones to put the pedal in to, and the best luck i have had was with boxes which have more pieces, so when opened up, everything is more easily accessible, like this:



Why are the hammond-style boxes so popular?

[stallik]

Because they are so easily available everywhere, they are relatively cheap, come in a range of sizes while retaining a common look, are acceptably solid under foot, easy to finish or supplied painted, simple to drill and modify are some of my guesses.

Most builders can cope with fitting everything into the enclosure including the seemingly impossible builds in the 1590a community.

Different enclosures can and often do look .... Well, different and attractive but personally, I like what I'm used to. Perhaps that's the main reason?

[vigilante397]

Because they are so easily available everywhere, they are relatively cheap, come in a range of sizes while retaining a common look, are acceptably solid under foot, easy to finish or supplied painted, simple to drill and modify

Nailed it.

[EBK]

Most builders can cope with fitting everything into the enclosure including the seemingly impossible builds in the 1590a community.

There's a certain building-a-ship-in-a-bottle satisfaction to stuffing these things.

[stallik]

Yes Eric, I stupidly gained confidence seeing some of those builds and thought I could do it. Then I tried stuffing a 1 knob sho into one and realised they are actually tardis boxes suitable only for those with magic wands or possessed of Jedi abilities

[iainpunk]

Most builders can cope with fitting everything into the enclosure including the seemingly impossible builds in the 1590a community.

There's a certain building-a-ship-in-a-bottle satisfaction to stuffing these things.

Yeah, i never understood the whole 1590a craze. I prefer bigger boxes, both for building and buying/using pedals.

Because they are so easily available everywhere, they are relatively cheap, come in a range of sizes while retaining a common look, are acceptably solid under foot, easy to finish or supplied painted, simple to drill and modify

Nailed it.

My local electronics store has them, but they're really expensive (1590b -ish box for €18[≈$20,60]) and most of them have mounting tabs on the sides of the box (very ugly)

I think ill order some of these from China:



They also come in gold and aluminium

[Ben N]

I've noticed those more than once on Aliexpress, too. Take care that the size is right (some of those are quite small, and you can't tell from the photos) and be sure to report back on your results.

[anotherjim]

I actually like the diecast box. The only problem I have is I wish the larger ones were not all so high. Wider and/or longer I sometimes need, but I seldom want anything higher than 40mm.

[iainpunk]

Yeah, they are supposed to be 100x76x35mm, so 16mm wider, 4mm taller and 12mm shorter than a 1590b, so its not too different

Yeah ill report back when the boxes are in i and I've had my first build with one.

[amptramp]

The problem with folded sheet metal boxes is they usually don't have enough stiffness to allow you to stomp a switch without any noticeable deflection of the box.  The cast boxes are much stiffer.

As for 1590A boxes, they usually have jacks on each side which means you need enough space between the 1590A and the next pedal to fit the right-angle jacks.  You could use larger boxes with the jacks on the top edge (where the DC jack also comes in) and put larger boxes together to take the same space on the pedalboard.

[thermionix]

One question with something like this, where do you mount the jacks?  It's hard to tell if there's room on the sides of the top/bottom pieces.  Having things mounted to different pieces of the enclosure, so that when you open it it's like an accordian held together by a bunch of wires...well, that doesn't appeal to me personally.  I repaired an extruded-case pedal once, where everything slid in from the sides, and it was a royal pain in the ass.  Drilling steel also sucks.

[Mark Hammer]

Cast aluminum boxes are quite easy to machine, compared to steel chassis.
The 1590A craze picked up in conjunction with three other trends: 1) the increasing use of power bricks for pedalboards, allowing room normally reserved for batteries to be left out, 2) the increasing need to have more effects on a pedalboard without requiring dramatically more room, and 3) the widespread availability of inexpensive 9mm pots that could provide workable controls in a very small footprint.

I've built a number of things into 1590A boxes, most of them perfboard, and I dislike the format immensely.  I would liken it more to banging your head against a wall, than to building a ship in a bottle; it feels so good when it stops.

[thermionix]

A very fortunate coincidence for me; I don't want to build any 1590A pedals, and I don't want to own any 1590A pedals.  Works out great!

[Joncaster]

I have a TC flashback mini that actually put me off the smaller boxes. Kept on stepping on the knobs and changing things (so I used the editor to disengage the knob functions). So now I like big boxes with no knobs haha.

Another thing with 'hammond' boxes is that they seem to vary in alloy consistency (or at least the ones I get locally).
The last 1590B I drilled was like butter. Which didn't help when I wasnt taking my time enough, and my holes wandered. I managed to drill almost every hole off mark (center punched, pilot holes, step bit). Had to file down the lid lip to get the battery to fit cause the footswitch had shifted down a touch. Easy to file though.
I almost turfed the box, but it's for a green ringer, so I figure some chaos is allowed.

I wish the cast wasn't so blotchy though. Extruded and sheet alu is so much nicer to sand.

[bluebunny]

I think ill order some of these from China:

I've done a couple of these extruded aluminium boxes, but they're a complete b!tch to drill, compared to the buttery-soft diecast stuff.  I guess if you have a pillar drill and solid clamping, it's less horrific, but I hand-drill.      YMMV.

[lars-musik]

I've built a number of things into 1590A boxes, most of them perfboard, and I dislike the format immensely.  I would liken it more to banging your head against a wall, than to building a ship in a bottle; it feels so good when it stops.

It is somewhat like smoking: You know it is unjustifiable, unhealthy and simply stupid  - and yet....
I managed to stop smoking more than a decade ago but after a short 1590B (and even BB) interlude I am back to the bottle ships.

[vigilante397]

after a short 1590B (and even BB) interlude I am back to the bottle ships.

And we all enjoy seeing your bottle ships

[iainpunk]

One question with something like this, where do you mount the jacks?  It's hard to tell if there's room on the sides of the top/bottom pieces.  Having things mounted to different pieces of the enclosure, so that when you open it it's like an accordian held together by a bunch of wires...well, that doesn't appeal to me personally.  I repaired an extruded-case pedal once, where everything slid in from the sides, and it was a royal pain in the ass.  Drilling steel also sucks.

Well,,, i just mount the jacks on the top, i prefer that in general over side mounted jacks.
The enclosure is extruded aluminium, not folded steel tho.

[Mark Hammer]

I've been slowly getting a Roland AP-7 Jetphaser clone ready to mount inside an extruded aluminum chassis that was once the housing for an old Hayes or US Robotics modem.  I had to machine side panels for it, but that wasn't too hard.  That said, the inside of such boxes often have rails for mounting boards that get in the way of drilling jack holes on the rear skirt.  So this one will have jacks mounted on the side panels.

[thermionix]

The enclosure is extruded aluminium, not folded steel tho.

Yeah I know, I was just back to the general "why Hamond style?" question, and Amptramp above me had mentioned folded sheet metal boxes.  I'm not always the best communicator.