TLDR: How do i take a digital plan and draw it out in the real word?
What is a Comfortable amount of HP? 50cm, 60cm or 70cm.
Are the any secret methods to use for keeping accurate?
So my gf and i finally got to go and have a lil adventure around B&Q and grab some supplies (sheet wood, bars, glue, primer and screws [also a hacksaw to chop the wood bar so it would fit in the car]) came to a nice 60 quid.
Pretty cheap and ill have spare wood to possibly make a smaller case aswell. which is nice.
Now that i have my supplies, im a bit scared/unsure about the first steps when it come to drawing up my plans. Even though ive made a plan in blender, bringing the plans into reality from digital… worries me lol
Mostly its the sides since i am using (essentially) 4 different formats Kosmo, Euro, 1U and my 3d printed panels 13cm. I need to make sure the angles all work/line up.
Do you think 50cm is enough space or should i go for 60 or 70cm of HP?
Heres an image of whats in my mind, A slim case that will sit nicely on my bookshelf. the panels are recessed into the case to protect the knobs and switches and there’s a nice space for the BS pro underneath.
Im just looking for wise words and confidence. since i have limited sheet and next to no skill with wood working. I want to make sure i make the best use of it and that things are square and true.
But the most important thing to me: do not rely on measuring things, especially when they are that large. Try to cut everything using the other pieces as references.
I’d say when in doubt, widen it. For Kosmo, 50 cm isn’t very wide. Most of the LMNC modules are 10 cm so that’s only five of them. For eurorack that’s about 100 HP which is probably enough for 15 or so modules. So it kind of depends on where your emphasis is, but if you’re going to do more than a bare minimum of Kosmo, go wider.
Are you using extruded rails? It looks like it from the drawing. I use Vector rails; I bought a package of four nominally 60 inch rails, which was much cheaper per inch than any other option I’ve seen. They actually were 61 inches. I cut them in half and made my cases 30.5" (77.5 cm) inside width. If I’d made it narrower it would’ve resulted in wasted rail pieces.
Literally a hacksaw? You know hacksaws are for metal, not wood, right? What tools do you have? Table saw, miter saw, circular saw? The concave corner isn’t easy, probably requires hand sawing and a fair bit of sanding to clean it up.
I used pocket hole joinery to put my cases together and it worked out well.
Against what? Falling over forwards? Not likely, I’d think, with that good wide base you have, but you could consider screwing the case down if you’re worried about that. I’m not a fan of recessing the panels, at least not by that much – it makes it hard to manipulate knobs and mounting screws that are near the top and sides. Look at a Moog modular, the panels are recessed only a few mm.
That was my thought, id have enough for a VCO, EnvGen, ADSR, VCLFO and another couple bits.
I can always make another case to go on top when i fill out the Kosmo row, but still want a useful Kosmo row to start with.
60cm should give me enough… Do i really think ill fill the 70cm of Euro (i dont plan on buying many ‘actual’ modules) I suppose i can just fill it with mult’s and attenuators lol
I planned on printing my own rails but it would take an age to print off the 6-8 rails at 70cm. but im just going to use wood rail for now and i can always upgrade later
and yes i did use a hacksaw… but it was cheap and i left it in the shopping trolly after i used it. literally just needed to get the bar in the car lol
As for tools, i have very little. drill, impact drill, handsaws, flush cutting saws, a few types of squares, clamps… quite alot of clamps. I also picked up some of these corner clamps to help me keep things square while i drive in screws. i’m going to see what my dad’s got to spare. i for sure need to pick up a jig saw and a sander
This i like the idea of, seems a lot stronger than just driving in between the layers of ply. i have been meaning to print of a pocket hole jig. but my printer needs some maintenance so ill likely just buy one instead XD
Oh and I recessed it just to keep things safe, i have assholes… i mean cats… i doubt they will resist them colourful wiggly worms we call patch cables.
i do have a plan of adding some things like lights and cable holders so itd be nice to have some where easy to clip bits like that to the case. I might even create a removeable cable storage box (using the negative space of the side) so i dont want to be knocking knobs about =D
The box will also act as a dust covering. a nice added bonus.
Honestly its more of a ‘you might use/need this in the future’ thing
A jig saw would be useful especially for the inside corners, but long straight cuts are easier with a circular saw. Clamp a piece of wood to act as a fence if you have to do those with a jig saw.
If you have limited tools and want to make a straight cut on wood, a guide is your friend. You can make a straight cut with a jigsaw using a guide. Often just a piece of particularly straight wood or metal is ideal. Just clamp it to the wood along your cut line. Noting you’ll need to move it away from the cutline the distance of your jigsaw (or whatever tool you have access to) distance of the edge of its foot/guide plate to the cutting blade. Kinda how a track saw works. Like this:
Also wood is super forgiving as a work medium, even if you don’t cut something straight, or mess something up, you can brodge it to make it look decent.
Thanks dude =) Ive got a bunch of cardboard boxes im gonna build a dummy case with and test things before i fully commit, gives me a little practice drawing the plans too (i highly doubt my ability to draw a truely square 90 at the moment) haha
This will be nice and easy to do ive got a metal meter ruler and a bunch of spare wood bars which should do the job.
im sure i can plane/sand it down if its all wibbly or add some Tslot edges (like arcade cabinets) with dads router =D
Ive just been designing another case to go ontop that is Kosmo only. 2 rows of 60cm (total of 18 10cm Kosmo should futureproof me) and i realise i dont really know how much space to leave behind the Panels for the PCBs and power cables / hubs
The depth of the Kosmo rows sides are 15cm, and theres an inch’ish recess (12.5cm space remaining) and the depth of the back board + recess (1cm) (11.5cm Remaining)
So i guess what im pondering is how THICC is the THICCest PCB sandwich?
The DIY and Euro rows should be plenty deep enough already i think =)
My understanding is that all of the LMNC modules have PCBs parallel to the front panel and none is deeper than the jacks, which are about 2.5 cm plus clearance for wiring. Non LMNC Kosmo modules are another story. I have some scratch builds and some konversions that have PCBs perpendicular to the front panel. Some will not fit in the upper row of my first case where the depth is about 7 cm. My second case has 16 cm depth everywhere, except near the power supply and bus board where there’s about 12 cm depth for the lower 3 cm or so of the module. Yeah, don’t forget to take the power supply into account!
I had assumed that would be the method sam stuck with. I’ll be grand since im using Kristian (MiaW) PSU v2.0 which is a little skinny guy. Im building my own 10pin Bus boards too.
Thank you guys… the tips and pointers. i think i might be mentally ready to start making this a reality =)
Okay so step one of the real world build has begun.
I planned it out on scrap card and worked out how all the angles will fit.
Then worked it out on pattern paper in a proper size, cut it out and checked how best to arrange it on the sheet wood.
Thankfully ill have enough for the case and a little left over to make the side cheeks of a tiny 40-50cm 2 row (euro/3d and a 1U). So out of 1 case design has come 3 cases. Haha!
‘Measuring things is for mathematicians and crazy people’… also poor/frugal/CBA going back the diy place people =D
What thickness wood should i get for my rails?
I picked some up but ive had second thoughts, for good reason… 15mmx25mm takes up too much space on the 1U row >.<
My thoughts are 6mm could work, but wont be strong. but 10mm still feels like it might be too much.
Im looking forward to seeing this come together finally!!
My bro said I should record it and do a video, im tempted. Should i do my first talking video on youtube after… 13 years on it? I have noticed my subs are falling off… May be its time to =P
I’ve finally started to scribe on some wewd.
It looks pretty square, I took the lesser walked path of mathematician or crazy person. Measured things and used a protractor… fully geeking out on the sketch =)
Going to sketch the rest up tonight and chop it tomorrow hopefully.
I’ll need all the help i can get (re:fences/straight lines) I’m for sure not a mathematician… guess that leaves me as a crazy person
I also realised i might be able to get away with using the outer perimeter ‘scraps’ as my rails out of that, since its 20mm deep by 12mm tall. I dont know, will have to see the state of them after ive made some cuts tomorrow XD
