Project Housing

When you finish with a project and want some sort of enclosure for it, what do you guys do?

I often see people house them in altoid tins or wood boxes or something of that nature depending on the size or purpose of the product, but is there nothing custom that can be done? Something like creating a 3D model of something you want and having it produced by some company with a plastic mold machine?

If so, what are the software and companies that people like?

Tools for plastic boxes are very expensive. $10,000 or so.

There are lots of standard rectangular boxes available, and that is what most one-offs that need boxes use.

You could make your own vacuum forming machine. I've never done it myself but it can be done pretty cheaply from what I've read.

make your own vacuum forming machine - Google Search
Make a good, cheap, upgradeable sheet plastic vacuum former

krjhitch said:

When you finish with a project and want some sort of enclosure for it, what do you guys do?

I often see people house them in altoid tins or wood boxes or something of that nature depending on the size or purpose of the product, but is there nothing custom that can be done? Something like creating a 3D model of something you want and having it produced by some company with a plastic mold machine?

If so, what are the software and companies that people like?

Click to expand...

hi,
Look at this link, enough enclosures to cover most projects.
Just click the check boxes to refine your search.
Enclosures | Farnell United Kingdom

To a degree it makes sense to build the project to fit a specific ready made box. Much cheaper then making the box fit the project.

Project boxes are expensive. I have a big pile of them, because whenever I'm at a rummage sale or whatever, I will buy anything that looks like it might be good for a project. Once, I found a lot of small strudy aluminum boxes and purchased them immediately. Still haven't used them though. I guess buying something you may or may not use is expensive too, eh?

If you can get thin sheets of tin, the tools to work with them aren't very expensive, and with a little practice, you'll be able to make your own decent enclosures.

I had a quick look on ebay. There are lots of dental vacuum forming machines which probably won't be much good because they're too small.

I came across a cheap one but it requires a vacuum cleaner and an oven so it might be overpriced for what it is.

**broken link removed**

Honestly I usually use the black ABS plastic boxes from RS...