Cool enclosure Jigs

[Robert]

It's not a bad design, but as the owner of a 3d-printer myself, I think that charging $30 is a pretty ruthless shill..

I'd pay $30 to never have to cut out a paper template again.

Printing one or two is a breeze, but man, when I have to print a new batch of frames for the templates here it literally takes me WEEKS of nearly non-stop printing to get decent quantity.... not counting the ones that get trashed because of issues. Maybe if I had a farm of printers...

Those have quite a bit more plastic than the frames so I'd imagine it takes longer. (or maybe my printer is just slow)

If I can get the design scaling straightened out so that I can trust a fabricator to do it then I'd drop the price a bit.

 

[dawson]

I'd pay $30 to never have to cut out a paper template again.

Printing one or two is a breeze, but man, when I have to print a new batch of frames for the templates here it literally takes me WEEKS of nearly non-stop printing to get decent quantity.... not counting the ones that get trashed because of issues. Maybe if I had a farm of printers...

Those have quite a bit more plastic than the frames so I'd imagine it takes longer. (or maybe my printer is just slow)

If I can get the design scaling straightened out so that I can trust a fabricator to do it then I'd drop the price a bit.

The sudden appearance of such brazen attempts at naked capitalism in this place that is otherwise filled with generosity was jarring- and even though the draft you all read was heavily abridged of unsavoriness, I overreacted with the words I chose and regret being so critical of that fella'.

I etch my drill marks along with my artwork and I often tweak the switch/knob layout, so a jig won't really work for me anyhow, but if I were shopping for one, the PPCB one seems sleeker and more sturdy, plus it's cheaper.. hold on, let me wipe this brown off of my nose .. okay, and it does 2 different sizes of enclosures.

A fabricator to lower the price and alleviate you of the toils seems like a great idea.

 

[Robert]

Oh I wasn't arguing, it's expensive. The ones here are too, more than I'd like.

I was only saying, man, them things take hours to print.

I agree, when I do UV prints I've always printed the drill template right onto the enclosure so I never needed a jig either, aside for the top jacks.
Prototypes are a different story.

More importantly (or troubling) though, is that some of the newest designs stray from the old standard somewhat, so the templates won't work for them. There have always been one or two that weren't compatible, but that number is growing.

 

[HamishR]

I use a very simple system which works just fine for me, given the low volume I need. I'll either mark the positions for the holes with a pencil or put some white masking tape on the enclosure and mark onto that. With my pedals 99% of the time I'm drilling two hole 15mm from the top of the enclosure and one or two 20mm below that. The footswitch is usually 15mm from the lower edge. I use a good quality rule to measure and a set square to make sure everything is square. I hold the enclosure lid against the side of the enclosure to press the square against - npt fancy but it works for me!

I clamp a straight piece of wood to act as a fence to the base of the drill press:



I have a piece of 25mm ply that I have cur a strip at exactly 25mm to act as a spacer. So I set up the clamped piece for the lower holes (40mm from the top of the enclosure) and often drill the lower holes first. This time I drilled the top holes first by using the spacer, which is simply pressed up against the fence. All I need to do is concentrate on getting the lateral measurement right, which is easy as I can just slide the piece along the fence.

Here is how using the spacer looks:



The spacer is the slightly darker timber. I can just flip the enclosure around to do the footswitch. I use the same basic setup for the jack holes on the top edge of the enclosure.

I have found this method to be more than accurate enough for me. If I need different spacings I can easily cut different thicknesses of spacers. I thought about doing something clever to help the sideways spacing but find I don't need it.

 

[andare]

I interacted with that person on Reddit. They asked how their jig could be improved and I suggested they be marked with the distances between the holes. They've added holes for PedalPCB projects.

They made a video where they use the jig with the center punch then take it off and use the step but directly.
It's sturdy 3d printed material apparently.

I was thinking of buying the 125b templates that Our Great Leader sells but they are not referenced in the build docs so I decided printing the drill templates would serve me right. I have purchased the top jacks template however. Works really well.

As for upgrading to a drill press...it's really expensive and huge. I build in my 20 square meter living room/bedroom /music room...

 

[Robert]

Andy Keech actually contacted me last week asking for permission to list them as being compatible with PedalPCB projects.

He didn't have to do that, and I appreciated the gesture. I didn't see a problem with that, options are always a good thing.


As for the PedalPCB templates, the Top Jack Template is the most helpful since it can be used on pretty much any project. Even when I use a printed paper template I use the Top Jack template just because it's easier than trying to get all sides lined up with the paper.

The enclosure face templates are still very helpful and I use them all the time for prototypes, but we're getting more and more control layouts that they aren't compatible with. The answer to that though, is eventually some additional aluminum inserts to work with different layouts.