Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.
Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.
No, I do not have any endorsment from them, I am acually crossed off that they would only distribute within US and do not think to expand their sales to other countries like Oz (I do deserve some free samples for that ).
Last time I visited that site, there was an explicit note that they do not ship outside the US (but the www site was also offered in Spanish, for immigrants I guessed).
Now I checked, and there are two EU distributors indeed.
Yep 3v0, I do sense an opportunity here, but are there enough "nuts" in the Ozland? And, how long before the Chineese will offer this for a dime on a dollar?
Oh, I don't think there is any shortage of "nuts" in Ozland but, I can't comment on whether there may be sufficient of them that are into electronics experimentation.....
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Yep 3v0, I do sense an opportunity here, but are there enough "nuts" in the Ozland? And, how long before the Chineese will offer this for a dime on a dollar?
Personaly if I were where in Oz I would do it in a New York minute. Frank also has the DecalPro line and is constantly improving and inventing. I think he is the right sort of guy to be working with.
very lovely bunch of people. I am sorry I did abandon this thread for a while but it was +30 degs centigrade and the computer did gave way to other activities through out the day. Eversince I am back, I had to engage my limited skills of diplomacy on another thread.
I have learned that every newbie on the forum is exposed to .... (nevermind what). Most important, is - that I have also learned to hold my ground.
I need to do something similiar to what you did, except it will be nothing but a flat panel at specific length and width, and thinkness to hold common toggle switches. Where do I go to get precise measured aluminum (or even pc board) pieces? Or, is there a cutting technique you recommend?
PC board is extremely easy to cut, just score both sides and break it, then sand the edge, or use a saw table. Aluminum isn't that hard to cut at all, if you have any wood working tools you should be able to get metal cutting blades that will handle it easily. You're in the US so could always go to somplace like Lowes or Home Depot and have them cut some material to the size you request, there are a LOT of good materials perfectly suitable for enclosure's/facings available. There are some real nice composite materials around that are particularly easy to work with and are exceptionally strong.
I need to do something similiar to what you did, except it will be nothing but a flat panel at specific length and width, and thinkness to hold common toggle switches. Where do I go to get precise measured aluminum (or even pc board) pieces? Or, is there a cutting technique you recommend?
When I had access to the metal shop at work, G-jobs were pretty easy with the "right" tools and materials. When working at home, it takes a little more creative thinking and adaptation.
For making small boxes and panels, I usually use cold-rolled, galvanized steel sheet such as is used in the sheet metal trade for making ducts and flashing, etc. It's easy to cut with tin snips and bends and drills easily. There's usually a sheet metal shop around that you can get scrap pieces from. The metal is pretty flexible but, you can stiffen it up with some simple bends (see below).
As noted in the previous post, PC board stock works well as does plastic sheet material. Aluminum is nice if you have a good source and the right tools but, it can be a lot of work when you only have home hand tools. Plain epoxy or henolic material also works nicely if you have a source for it. Back in the old days, HAM radio guys often made panels from mason board but, they usually looked like crap because they usually used paint or Dymo lables on them.
I also recommend that anyone working with sheet metal get some angle iron (1" and 1.5" and the extruded stuff because it's more rigid than the formed steel angle) and cut (or get it cut) into various lengths (from about 1" to about 20" or so) and some C clamps to use for bending. You just clamp the metal between two pieces of the angle iron, with a flange protruding, using the C clamps and then use a hammer to bend the metal flange over. With a good selection of the steel angle iron and some planning, you can form some fairly sophisticated boxes and panels.
Beyond that advice I just recommend thought and experimentation. Good luck.
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