Enclosures!!!

Time to go into the Vault and look for a new project case.
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- Music by Fran Blanche -

[hotpuppy]

AH, the good old days when you could actually buy stuff locally. Of course back then I dreamed of building all those magazine projects but after pricing all the components in the Radio Shack catalog and discovering that it cost $50-80 for parts, the dream dies. The $5 allowance didn't go far. At least I still have some of the magazines.

[fepatton]

Archer stuff always brings back memories! In my high school electronics class (‘80 or so), we had an industrial sheet metal brake and a supply of aluminum sheet. Our teacher encouraged us to make our own cases for our projects. I still have a variable power supply that I made in class in the case I made!

[lordmuntague]

It occurs to me watching this that Enclosures is the only item missing from Tim Hunkin's superb "Secret Life of Components". Brilliant stuff Fran!

[urglegurgle]

So tantalising. Looking forward to seeing a finished modular clock with interesting displays.

[ricardodc]

I'm really impressed by the fact that you can find anything in that mass of storage containers....lol...good luck finding that 1/4" thingie....all my best...R

[bigbadwolf]

Finding good quality or aesthetically pleasing project cases was once easy, but now has become a long term never ending hunt to find and grab when you see something suitable.

Even sometimes requiring purchase of products to strip and canabilise for their enclosures.

[andersvandegevel]

You need to feed that leather jacket; there's a fine line between "distressed" and "disintegrating", and it crosses over real fast!

[rycatESS]

When I was little I had a bunch of empty boxes, and they were made for holding photographic slides. They were a nice shade of baby blue, and they made great project cases! One of them that I still have is a telephone recording adapter, you can plug the handset cord of any telephone into it, and it has an RCA line out for connection to an audio recorder or computer.

[heathwellsNZ]

That Bjornarp case would make a fantastic mini ORAC computer from Blakes-7 !

[YerUnclePhil]

Any container for food or candies etc. gets a moment of consideration before recycling. Also, I like it when I have consumer products, where the the case is suitable for another project. Particularly where cosmetics isn't a concern.

[AndrewBorrill]

Great to hear you mention Tandy, here in the UK, Tandy went out of business around the year 2000 after the business remnants were bought by Carphone Warehouse. It was one of the few stores where you could buy electronic components. No highstreet stores left selling electronic components these days, all now online!

[beamer.electronics]

Just a thought: Here in the UK, I've used unsoiled takeaway boxes for projects, and they're good and easy to work. Touch of recycling, example - my Barometer project. All the best.

[terrymatvichuk]

Bud Boxes were the go to back in the day

[richardbrobeck]

You can never have enough project cases !

[toyotaboyhatman]

oooh archer radio shack project cases. As a kid I'd build video game switchers to switch composite display between video game systems.. either they didn't exist yet, or I was a cheap kid (and my dad was a ham radio operator) so I already had toggle switches and access to a soldering iron. Of course as an adult I can just design my own custom sized metal enclosure in solidworks, create a flat pattern and bend it up on a vise.. Or if I don't have any heat issues I can just 3d print an enclosure.

[UpLateGeek]

Coincidentally, I'm working on a clock project right now! I managed to get some genuine soviet-era VFDs which I decided to make into a "period-correct" clock, which uses only 4000 series chips (although it does use a 32, 768Hz crystal, but I'm not sure how period-correct that is). I've sourced a combination of carbon composition resistors, genuine vintage Corning RL07S resistors, and modern versions of the RN55/RN60 resistors (CMF55/CMF60), axial capacitors, etc. But for the case, I think I'll go with wood and tinted acrylic. I also stumbled upon some bakelite sheets on aliexpress, which I thought would be perfect for the base. I even managed to source ceramic versions of the 4000 series chips, so if you don't look too close at the date stamps, it'll hopefully look like it fell out of a time warp from the 1970s.

[luminousfractal]

for electronics enclosures i tend to use rubbermaid heavy duty clip lid food containers, they have all the sizes, eady to drill etc, waterpoof.
do like a nice solid fiber box though.

wife though: "why do you need that"

me: "le sigh"

[BitNaptime]

A handheld experimenter's cabinet! Will wonders never cease.

[luminousfractal]

glass cloche's look good for small projects. adss a bit of oldskool class

[kenmore]

Every case she looks at, Fran sees a clock lol!