Any tips for fitting a populated board into an enclosure?

[Guybrush]

Hi all.

Just wondering if anyone had any tips on making the job of fitting a finished board into an enclosure a bit easier?

I've now finished two builds and found that once I have come to screwing the back-plate on, I struggle to get the board in comfortably.  The main problem is electrolytic caps sticking up too much.  I've had to resort to bending them at odd angles to cram them in and I'm sure that's not the best approach! Is there anyway to avoid this? 

Cheers!

[jubal81]

If you check out Bean's Baby Board build guide, he talks about ordering the really small components. It doesn't sound like much, but 5mm difference in height is huge.

when I order from Mouser, I search within 25v, then the value I need. Once you apply those limits, you can choose sizes.

[Guybrush]

Ahh thanks!  I'll have a look now.

[Haberdasher]

I would make an order from farnell for electrolytic caps and search for low profile ones.  You can sort them to the values you need one at a time and then sort them again by height and width.  that way you don't have to be stuck trying to cram & bend 11mm caps all the time.  If you hunt around for a while you can find them in the minuature packages for most values although you may struggle to find 100u.

Either that or start building in 125b enclosures, which are really nice.  They are quite a bit deeper but really not much more of a footprint than 1590b.

[midwayfair]

Hi all.

Just wondering if anyone had any tips on making the job of fitting a finished board into an enclosure a bit easier?

I've now finished two builds and found that once I have come to screwing the back-plate on, I struggle to get the board in comfortably.  The main problem is electrolytic caps sticking up too much.  I've had to resort to bending them at odd angles to cram them in and I'm sure that's not the best approach! Is there anyway to avoid this? 

Cheers!

A few things that might help:

1) Looking at your builds, you solder things up so that the bottom of the board is facing up. Instead, wire pots under the PCB. This makes it a little easier to cut them to just enough length that you can comfortably rotate the pots into position without the wiring sitting between the pots and the board, and prevents the wire's tension from pushing the board up.

2) If you aren't already, use 24guage wire. It's more flexible and makes it a little easier to seat the board.

3) If you put your components face up and use covered pots, you won't usually have to worry about the top needing to press the board down a little (like from wire tension -- obviously this is a different story if the board is actually too tall!).

4) Some builds have components sticking up a lot (like germanium transistors in sockets) and are simply difficult to fit in a 1590B. Consider using the 125B for those, which is a little taller. Of course some of us are pretty bull-headed about fitting something in a certain sized enclosure and will subject a circuit to some major contortions to make it happen!

5) Consider switching to shorter components in some builds. Panasonic has a line of shorter electrolytics that are very reasonably priced at Mouser -- the 47uF are 10c each and only 7mm tall, for instance. And 9mm pots are really short if you are feeling spendy.

[slimtriggers]

This is cheating, but I've been doing an LED border on all my 1590b builds.  I like the way it looks, and it gives me an extra 2.5mm to work with.  When a component sticks up, I simply drill a hole in the lexan for clearance. 

Works great, but it's a lot of extra filing, cutting, drilling, etc to make the lexan plate.  Would definitely be easier to order smaller caps   I have found that using a jig saw with a 36 tpi blade makes it go a lot quicker, though.

[GermanCdn]

I've generally gone to the philosophy of building the pedal in one size enclosure up, i.e if it's for a 1590A, I build it in a B, 1590B into a 125, etc.  From a cost perspective it's pretty neutral, there's not a huge difference in price in those enclosures, and from a pedal board perspective, there's not a big difference either.

The reason I did this is to standardize parts (not having to buy low profile electros and 9 mm pots), and because it makes the end build a lot cleaner, and you don't have interference issues with the jacks as well.

125 are probably the easiest enclosures to build in, due to the added height of the enclosure.  I use solid wire so I can pull the board right up to the pots and secure them in place.

I am also going to start making wiring template (2 pot, three pot, four pot, etc) out of 1/4" hardboard so I can fit up the pots in advance of drilling the enclosure and therefore reduce any unnecessary extra wire length.

That being said, I just got two 1032 enclosures in today, which I am going to try and put 5 circuits in each.  It will either be a massive success or an epic failure, we'll have to see.

[Om_Audio]

Oh, solid wire, why didn't I ever think of that. Is it easier to work with and solder? What gauge do you use?
C

[alanp]

Solid wire needs a bit more care in that you can only work it so much -- just like when you break a tab off a coke can, or twist a paperclip too much, solid wire can snap.

It does have the distinct advantage of staying where you put it, though.

[GermanCdn]

I use the 22 ga stuff from Tayda, and I only use it for wiring up pots to hold them in place.  For all wires to the switches and jacks, I use stranded stuff as you can tuck it away better. 

[Guybrush]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. It's all greatly appreciated.

Hopefully my next build will be a bit neater!