Hey Gang I bought a couple cases for my first 5 prototypes and I struggled horribly with putting in attractive openings for my low voltage and line voltage relay connections. Using a dremel I was still not able to make it look ‘really good’.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to make good looking connections to a pre-built case? Any ‘finishing tips’ to make it look a bit more pro?
They make really tiny routers I believe. You can get some really nice finishes with routers/mills.
Other suggestions would be to use panel mount connectors. Threaded components which are built to be inserted into a panel. The hole they go into can be pretty ragged and you’ll never see it
Thanks for the suggestion on connectors. Can you link me an example? Keeping in mind very small plastic box. Looks awesome just has my hideous openings lol
Lots of folks are 3D printing prototype enclosures these days–if you search the forum a number of folks have done that for Spark projects.
For prototype plastic boxes, I have used an exacto knife blade bolted a soldering iron as a hot knife to cut openings in plastic cases–it leaves a cleaner but sometimes rolled up edge. You have to experiment to find the right speed to melt through.
For small scale production, I have used a local machinist and got him to mill them on a milling maching. Later I bought a milling machine and have done it myself. You have to experiment a bit since the plastic wants to weld itself to the cutter if you go too fast. Sometimes using a special bit with different cutting angle designed for plastic works better. I got my tabletop milling machine from Little Machine Shop but there are lots of suppliers including old machinery.
Last time I had to do a production runs of a few thousand plastic boxes, I got the box maker to machine them for me. I also got them nickel sprayed on the inside for RFI shielding but it depends on your antenna configuration.