[sdiy] Wood panels?

[Darren Reid]

"patchell" <patchell at silcom.com> sez:

>     Well, I am sure it would be worthwhile maybe to experiment, but my
> initial reaction is no.  The problem with wood is that it crushes.
Keeping
> the controls and jacks tight on metal panels is hard enough.
<snip>
>     Also, most jacks and pots are made for a certain thickness of panel.
> Wood that thin will not be very strong (1/16" or 3/32, or 1/8).  I am
> pretty sure I use 1/8 inch aluminum (sorry for the spelling, I am from the
> US :-) ), and I know you cannot go much thicker than that.

Hmm. My wood panel pieces are 1/4". I checked my pots, and that's the total
length of the threaded portion, so you're right: 1/8" is about as far as I
can go. Now, I could easily countersink the HW, but that leaves only 1/8"
for crushing...it's getting uncomfortable, for sure. Theo's idea of a false
front and metal backer seems pretty good right about then...

Of course, the boys in the machine shop at work will gladly do all sorts of
strange and wonderful things to metal for me; I just like the look of wood,
and it would be fairly easy to do nice graphics on too. I can do my own
woodworking, but I'll have to have help for the metal stuff. I was thinking
of using different types of wood for different modules, which would be very
interesting.

Ah well, I have a while to ponder this. My modular is going to take a bit to
get rolling. I'll prototype the wood thing on my simple midi knob box, and
see how that goes.

-Darren


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