[sdiy] Cheap rack enclosures with option for custom front panel

[mrmike]

FPE will mill/engrave your panel. You can buy an appropriate 1U case and send them the front panel to mod to your design. It's not significantly cheaper than having them supply the metal, but you can get exactly what you want.
Clickmrmike 


Sent from my spark arrestor. 

-------- Original message --------
From: rsdio at audiobanshee.com 
Date: 6/15/17  21:30  (GMT-06:00) 
To: synth-diy mailing list <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> 
Subject: [sdiy] Cheap rack enclosures with option for custom front panel 

Hi folks,

I'm working on both modular circuits and other audio circuits. For the modular circuits, it's easy enough to design for a certain HP width, and then draw the face plate in Front Panel Express. I'm seeing prices from $20 to $50. Expensive, but manageable.

However, I also have some audio circuits (a breakout for my SynthAccess guitar so I can patch into my computer balanced  audio interface) that are a bit too big for modular units. So, I thought it should be simple to find an enclosure that allows for a custom front panel, but with a standard back, top, bottom, and sides.

First of all, I couldn't find anyone selling rack enclosures without a front panel. Some of those folks offered the option of customization, but it was difficult to find pricing information at the first several hits, so I thought I'd ask here for advice.

Second of all, I finally noticed that Front Panel Express offer full rack enclosure designs. That seemed like a good idea, at first, since I already know their software. But the bad news is that the front panel alone is over $75, and that's without getting fancy. I haven't even priced the rest of the panels because I fear that the whole thing will cost more than my assembled circuit prototypes.

Anyway, I'm here to ask what people recommend. It's seems like such a common need that some company would already be providing cheap rack enclosures with the option to drill your own face plate or just order the 5-sided box without a front and get that part from some place like Front Panel Express.

Any advice appreciated,

Brian

p.s. I'm looking at 1U height. Unfortunately, my current circuit is too wide for a half-rack, but no where near full rack width. There's a bit of wasted space on the front. Perhaps the only reason that FPE is so much more expensive is that full width plates cost more than the smaller 4HP and 8HP modular plates. I'm clearly not a mechanical expert...


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