Enclosure drilling with a square lip for a LCD acrylic cover lens?

[joulupukki]

Does anyone know if there’s a company that does everything that Tayda does for pedal enclosures (drilling and painting) that would also be able to cut a lip in the top of an enclosure so that I could drop in an acrylic cover lens?

I’m working on a new pedal (current plan is to provide it as a DIY kit) that uses an LCD screen but I want to have the LCD screen be protected and also not require the use of permanently modifying the LCD with optically clear glue or tape to affix the cover lens. There may be a small amount of light refraction in the small air gap, but in some preliminary tests I think it still performs well.

If I could get a black painted enclosure after all the cuts were made, it’d be just a matter of using a few small dabs of superglue or other adhesive to hold the cover lens in. I just don’t know where I might be able to economically source this type of thing. Any ideas?

 

[Erik S]

Wall thickness on enclosures is pretty thin, and probably not that consistent. I think there also might be enough height variation to cause problems.

Tayda can do square holes I think. If you could put a step on the edge of your plastic and glue mount from inside, that could get you there.

You could also get that done with a plastic glue-up instead of machining the plastic.. Two full pieces (one larger) to form the lip, or a full piece and some tabs, or a ring.

 

[joulupukki]

Wall thickness on enclosures is pretty thin, and probably not that consistent. I think there also might be enough height variation to cause problems.

Good point, darn. Monoprice’s Stage Right tuner does this so I wondered if it could be sourced from somewhere easily enough.

Tayda can do square holes I think. If you could put a step on the edge of your plastic and glue mount from inside, that could get you there.

Yes, Tayda does square holes. I have a prototype in front of me. We were thinking of putting the step edge on the plastic too but that’s a bit more work for every kit compared with a normal standard piece of plexiglass.

You could also get that done with a plastic glue-up instead of machining the plastic.. Two full pieces (one larger) to form the lip, or a full piece and some tabs, or a ring.

Do you know of any commercial products that do this that I might take a look at? I’m not sure I fully understand what you mean. Maybe something 3D printed that houses the cover lens? The look I’m going for is a flush mount cover lens with the top of the enclosure (or very slightly below the top of the enclosure).

 

[Robert]

LCSC does acrylic panels with transparent windows, not sure about the MOQ or setup costs though.

Front Panel | LCSC Electronics

Customize front panels at LCSC Electronics: acrylic & PET, multiple colors, UV printing, ultra-low prices, no MOQ, fast delivery, and user-friendly editing software.

www.lcsc.com

 

[joulupukki]

LCSC does acrylic panels with transparent windows, not sure about the MOQ or setup costs though.

Front Panel | LCSC Electronics

Customize front panels at LCSC Electronics: acrylic & PET, multiple colors, UV printing, ultra-low prices, no MOQ, fast delivery, and user-friendly editing software.

www.lcsc.com

Right, I’ve seen acrylic panels with transparent windows. The trick there is still how would you cleanly mount something like that in a standard guitar pedal enclosure so the see-through acrylic part is nearly flush with the top side of the enclosure?

 

[Paradox916]

You can try and hit Spencer up at amplify fun, he might be able to help, he can do CNC work, he would be available to tell you if the idea is feasible.. emails don’t cost nothing but a few minutes.

 

[Feral Feline]

3D-PRINTED SANDWICH
A backing frame that goes inside the enclosure
the Acrylic Window
Frame on the exterior that locks in window.

The frames can then be siliconed/glued/screwed together (or click-locked if your 3-D print design is up to it).