Building my Kal inspired control panel

I started working on my control panel recently and I thought I would post pics as I move forward. I have already learned much working on this.

I began to cut the holes for the front. I used different carbon drill bits and a drill press to make the starter holes. I have a friend that does electrical work and he is going to loan me his punch to make the 22mm round cutouts.

I then started the rectangular and square holes. I began with a Dremel and after breaking three mandrels, I decided to use a jigsaw and metal blade (as Kal already recommended) which worked much better!

I bought the enclosure from ebrewsupply because they still had the enclosures with only one lock on the side (instead of two commonly found on eBay).

I still have to cut out the 22mm holes but there's plenty of time for that.

Moving on to the heatsink....

I thought I would begin the holes for the SSRs and heatsink also, then make sure it is a good fit. It all worked out really good (and easy) this time.

Hopefully I can get all these holes cut soon so I can move on to the paint. For now (based on price) I plan on getting the enclosure powder coated and possibly having the heatsink anodized a black color. I am still debating on making the heatsink black or leaving it look more industrial and keeping it bare aluminum.

Rangrr


How did your system come out?

He just started building it.

Chazbeer said:

Rangrr


How did your system come out?

Click to expand...

I need to get the bottom holes done then I will be moving on to painting and the setup. I am finding that the hole cutting and planning takes quite a bunch of time. I have 99% of the components for the exterior and inside so I am hoping for this to go faster after the painting process.

I am still debating anodizing the heatsink....

I will continue to post pics along the way.

I got the 22mm holes cut out using a Greenlee 1/2" cunduit punch. It worked great! I would highly recommend this method if you either can afford to buy or have a friend that works for electrical or utility companies and you can borrow one.

I also posted a pic of the ground post on the door of my enclosure from ebrewsupply.com after all the holes are cut. This enclosure is nice because there is no cable plate that has to JB welded, there is only one lock on the center of the panel, and the ground post is already in a spot where it doesn't have to be relocated. And no, I do not work for ebrewsupply. I am just impressed with their product.

Well, this control panel took quite a bit longer than I planned (both cost and time) but it is all done and working! So here's some pics.



I mounted the panel with an articulating flat panel TV mount that is rated to hold more weight than the panel. I also used regulated switching power supplies instead of the doorbell transformers and adjustable DC power supplies.

Now time to build the rest...

Here's a few more of the inside (sorry for some fuzziness, took with phone):