Evolution of Enclosures

[Chris Savage]

How I create enclosures these days is a bit of a mixed bag in that, I still do it the ways I used to, but am evolving to newer technology as well.



Back in the day I would buy a pre-fab enclosure suitable for my application. Then I would have to drill pilot holes for the various LEDs, buttons, switches, displays, keypads, etc.




Next, I would cut out the holes and debur them.




Next, I would clean the panels and add rub-on lettering, followed by clear-coat acrylic to seal everything.




Then, the various panel devices were installed.




In the case of some parts, such as the keypad and LCD, the mounting screws were visible outside the panels.




In this photo, you can see the bottom part of the enclosure with a piece of double-sided copper-clad board sitting on it. This is because, as you can see in the photo, there are mounting posts molded into the bottom of the enclosure. I would have to create my PCBs to conform to these existing mounting posts by putting the holes in the PCB and making sure they lined up with those mounting posts and that the board fit in the enclosure properly.


Eventually, I got a laser cutter with the purpose of cutting out my own custom enclosures and parts, as well as etching legends into the parts.



These panels, custom made at Parallax when I worked there, are a perfect example. This is one of the three (3) door project enclosures, using multiple layers to realize the front, rear and internal moving parts. This utilized cutouts and engraving.




This one is the original prototype door project.


I'm only just now getting to where I am 3D printing parts / enclosures. Since I frequently use LCDs in my projects, I started by 3D printing a panel designed to hold the display.

You cannot view this attachment.

I designed this in FreeCAD, then printed it. Looks good!


You cannot view this attachment.

The next step was to mount the LCD to the panel.


You cannot view this attachment.

Here's what it looks like from the front. Obviously, this is just the bezel section, but next I am going to expand this into the entire front panel, along with the holes for buttons and LEDs. Then I will create a rear panel, and finally, the enclosure itself, all 3D printed.

[granz]

Nice. These 3-D printers are incredible in what they can do. I'm still in the "modify an existing design" stage. I have designed one item (that keychain thing) but want to do more like what you are doing.

[Chris Savage]

I'm still in the "modify an existing design" stage.

It's interesting that you brought that up, because that should have been what I led with. Long before I could afford to buy new enclosures, I used to reclaim enclosures from old products.

You cannot view this attachment.

Here's a perfect example. This was a printer-port switch box from the early 90s. I repurposed it to build a home-brew modem. The rectangular cut-out is where I had a 40x2 LCD installed. The center hold at the bottom is where the rotary switch used to be. For my modem, I added two holes for a rotary encoder and two push-buttons. The bottom-left two holes were the power switch and power LED. I still have the box and had thought of repurposing it yet again.