control box / enclosures - some tips for anyone considering it

[diatonic]

I discovered a shop in my town that sells industrial controls, dropped by yesterday and found out that a guy I went to high-school with works there... and his family owns it. Anyhow, they have punches for pretty much everything. I'm taking my panel over after work and we're going to punch the remaining holes I need to do in my panel.

Not that this helps you, but maybe you could look for a local shop that does industrial controls and may be willing to help a brewer out. They even have a square punch the size of my PID (which I cut out with a dremel cut-off wheel).

 

[Cliff897]

0.125" thick? >??~?~?~~?
What was it made for Nuclear blast survival?
I can see 0.0625" (1/16") but eighth inch is wildly heavy.

Are you sure it's 1/8"??

To cut 1/8", I'd resort to a slow speed reciprocating power saw like a Bosch hand held jigsaw loaded with a steel cutting fine tooth blade and I'd use oil on the cut lots of oil. Of course you have to pre-drill the cut outs with a drill the size of the blade to get the cut started.

I just checked their site:
http://www.hubbell-wiegmann.com/2004/pdf2004/DN412C.pdf
It's 14 gauge which is pretty damn thick: 0.074"

 

[Walker]

0.125" thick? >??~?~?~~?
What was it made for Nuclear blast survival?
I can see 0.0625" (1/16") but eighth inch is wildly heavy.

Are you sure it's 1/8"??

To cut 1/8", I'd resort to a slow speed reciprocating power saw like a Bosch hand held jigsaw loaded with a steel cutting fine tooth blade and I'd use oil on the cut lots of oil. Of course you have to pre-drill the cut outs with a drill the size of the blade to get the cut started.

I just checked their site:
http://www.hubbell-wiegmann.com/2004/pdf2004/DN412C.pdf
It's 14 gauge which is pretty damn thick: 0.074"

I'll take a picture and post it. I tried to snap a picture of the thickness of the stuff but flash of the camera washed the image out and you could not see anything.

It might be a little less than 1/8", but it's definitely more than 1/16"".

edit: I missed your update about checking their website. It certainly looks thicher than 0.074" to me, but maybe I am wrong.

 

[Walker]

BTW: Cliff... that box you linked to does not look like mine. I do see that most of the Weigmann stuff is 14 gauge, but they also have 12 gauge boxes (0.109").

I'll measure carefully tonight if it isn't stamped or stickered right on the box itself.

 

[Walker]

Mine looks like this one:
http://www.hubbell-wiegmann.com/2004/pdf2004/D4.pdf

which might be good news. According to the document above, the door is thinner gauge (16) than the body (14).

Also, I am wondering if perhaps what I measured was the inside panel and not a piece of the body. There is a chance that the panel is thicker than the body, I guess.

 

[Fletch]

Greenlee makes punches for just about anything, including 1/16 adn 1/32 DIN - which covers most PIDs. Unfortunately, they're several hundred bucks. Omega sells the 1/16 for $475, and says it's good for up to 14 ga steel.

 

[Walker]

Greenlee makes punches for just about anything, including 1/16 adn 1/32 DIN - which covers most PIDs. Unfortunately, they're several hundred bucks. Omega sells the 1/16 for $475, and says it's good for up to 14 ga steel.

Ummmm..... thanks for the info, but I don't really consider something that costs more than the rest of HERMS system to be a good solution for cutting a hole in the box.

 

[Fletch]

Me niether, I was just giving an example of how much they were. Diatom had the right approach - seek out a shop that can do it. Or do like you're doing. I did a panel with a 1/32 DIN PID, just drilled, jig sawed and dremeled, like you.

 

[Walker]

10-4.

This thread kind of got going in a different direction than I had intended. This was meant as a heads up to folks getting ready to build something like HERMS or RIMS and inform them that they need to think through the cutting and drilling and installation of parts that lay ahead to help make the proper choices for their parts.

It kind of turned into a thread covering solutions for my problem, being that we are all generall good at problem solving and helpful folks. Good info and I'm glad to listen to all the advice.

 

[wirewiggler]

Harbor Freight sells knockout punches that are inexspensive, they are made in China so inspect the threads carefully before leaving store (my first set was unusable). That being said you would make your life a lot easier if you cut a large opening out of the face and overlaid it with an aluminum panel. It machines with most wood tools and if you want to get fancy you can have it anodized cheaply. My 2 cents.

Bill

 

[Walker]

I'll measure carefully tonight if it isn't stamped or stickered right on the box itself.

I tried to get a picture of a piece of the steel up against a ruler, but could not get a good shot.

At any rate, I measured the thickness and it is a tad over 2.5mm. According to this table (http://www.mesteel.com/info/carbon/thickness.htm), that puts my box at 12 gauge. It's not 1/8", but it's pretty ******* thick.

 

[Walker]

Today is a glorious day.

I finally moved on to cutting the front panel after finishing the cutting I had to do on the inside panel and rear of the box.

The steel used for the front door of this m*therf*cker is SIGNIFICANTLY thinner than the rest of the box. I'm finishing this baby tonight.....