Hello people

[ajs]

Hi

My name is Andrew from Preston.

I'm mostly a hobbyist and to be honest I wouldn't call myself an avid woodworker. I do enjoy it but it's mostly a means to an end, in my case principally enclosures for electrical and electronic projects. I'll attach a few photos of the wood elements of a couple of recent-ish projects.

The first was a relatively substantial construction by my standards and is a UV exposure unit - essentially a specialist lightbox for the fabrication of printed circuit boards. The second is a deliberately cheap and cheerful case for a power supply. I was actually quite pleased with the latter since I determined that it didn't warrant too much expenditure in time or resources but it still ended up looking great and the way it was built depends on reasonably precise construction if it is to have any integrity at all - yes, those  are screws into the edges of 9mm ply.

I do have a couple of "proper" woodworking projects on the agenda though. I plan on making a pair of trestles both for practical use and to refine my morticing with some newish Narex chisels and also an armchair side table simply because I can't find on the right size.

I certainly have no illusions of being a master craftsman. I'd love to develop my skills but I find myself constricted my time and especially space. One of my motivations for joining this community is that I see from the forums that there is an understanding of such real world limitations instead of simply pretending everyone has access to a dedicated woodworking shop with more machines you could shake a stick at. That, and I'm also the new owner of a Diamond scroll saw. I see there is knowledge about these machines on here and I'll raise a few queries separately in due course.

 

[Bingy man]

Hello Andrew , welcome to the group , I’m just up the m6 in Wolverhampton.?nice tidy work , I’m a little puzzled as to your use of screws and so many - was this due to future access to this box or just your personal choice. ( I’m not knocking your work ) just curious

 

[ajs]

Hi Bingy Man

I assume you're talking about the power supply there. In large part it was governed by my assessment of what the project was worth. When I priced up a commercial enclosure it was something daft like £30 and of course would still need the cut outs forming. I figured that project didn't justify the expense. A quids worth of ply and perhaps the same in hardware and finishing materials does the job but that same value assessment applies to the time involved as well - I didn't want to spend tens of hours on this. Simple screw construction fitted the bill. Yes, access to the interior is needed but removable front and back panels satisfy that.

I knocked that together in a couple of hours for the actual structure. Finishing was five minutes a time for the next few evenings rubbing down with wire wool and slapping on another coat of Danish oil.

As for how many partly for robustness - this is mains electricity after all - but largely for cosmetics. The design needed a screw towards the end of each of the side and front/back panels which by necessity puts two screws in each corner fairly close together. It's then a matter of judging the spacing between the rest so the design looks reasonably balanced.

Yes it is overengineered and it's never going fool anyone that it is high class carpentry but personally I don't mind a certain "industrial" aesthetic and "honesty" in design - instead of trying to hide how something is put together make a feature of it. Of course it does depend on accuracy of spacing and alignment otherwise it just screams at you.

A couple of the screws are actually little more than cosmetic in reality. The bulk are 3x25mm or 3x30mm screws from memory, but the odd one around the vents and/or power connector is only 16mm. With the self drilling point and going through 9mm ply that doesn't give much length left to bite into the second panel, but it does keep the pattern of screw heads going.

 

[TRITON]

Hello there too

 

[Bingy man]

Hi Bingy Man

I assume you're talking about the power supply there. In large part it was governed by my assessment of what the project was worth. When I priced up a commercial enclosure it was something daft like £30 and of course would still need the cut outs forming. I figured that project didn't justify the expense. A quids worth of ply and perhaps the same in hardware and finishing materials does the job but that same value assessment applies to the time involved as well - I didn't want to spend tens of hours on this. Simple screw construction fitted the bill. Yes, access to the interior is needed but removable front and back panels satisfy that.

I knocked that together in a couple of hours for the actual structure. Finishing was five minutes a time for the next few evenings rubbing down with wire wool and slapping on another coat of Danish oil.

As for how many partly for robustness - this is mains electricity after all - but largely for cosmetics. The design needed a screw towards the end of each of the side and front/back panels which by necessity puts two screws in each corner fairly close together. It's then a matter of judging the spacing between the rest so the design looks reasonably balanced.

Yes it is overengineered and it's never going fool anyone that it is high class carpentry but personally I don't mind a certain "industrial" aesthetic and "honesty" in design - instead of trying to hide how something is put together make a feature of it. Of course it does depend on accuracy of spacing and alignment otherwise it just screams at you.

A couple of the screws are actually little more than cosmetic in reality. The bulk are 3x25mm or 3x30mm screws from memory, but the odd one around the vents and/or power connector is only 16mm. With the self drilling point and going through 9mm ply that doesn't give much length left to bite into the second panel, but it does keep the pattern of screw heads going.

Fair play to you , I too often go down the over engineered route and get what your saying, as for high class carpentry I’d go with functional and practical every time - fitting a kitchen atm and along with 2 live cables waiting to electrocute someone ( almost myself) I also found this rats nest of cables ( also live and feeding to lights and 2 extractors and a illuminated bathroom mirror Take care