mounting board to enclosure

Frequent question about boxes and accessories: painting, etching, clearcoating, lettering, glueing, and so on.
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mojoh
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Post by mojoh »

how is everyone mounting their circuit (vero) boards to the enclosure?
i know the BYOC uses the sticky tabs on through holes on the pcb but im after other suggestions?

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RnFR
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Post by RnFR »

i use either standoffs, or that hardcore double sided sticky foam with the red backing. that shit is tough to get off!
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frequencycentral
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Post by frequencycentral »

I really dislike loose boards, foam and sticky pads.

Method #1: My favourite way is to have the pots on the board which solves a lot of problems if the circuit allows for it space-wise:

Image

Method #2: Recently I did a circuit where I mounted the board using very think solid core to the +ve of the DC sockets and the grounds of the in/out jacks - so dual purpose:

Image

Method #3: Using stand-offs and bolts is nice too, if you don't mind seeing bolts on your pedals:

Image

Method #4: This next method is a bit of a hassle, but worth it. The photo below has two boards, one is pot mounted as in method #1. For the second board with the tubes on I filed two slots onto the inner sides of the enclosure and sized the board to slide snugly into the slots:

Image

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Post by Dr Tony Balls »

since I use solid-core wire and almost all of my stuff is small boards, i just kinda place it wherever i want it in the enclosure with some foam underneath and wire it up. by the time im done wiring the solid core is doing enough to hold it in place that I dont worry about it.

I was trying to use JB weld for standoffs originally, but i kept having problems there where the epoxy would somehow get in the threads and make the whole arrangement not work, or i'd mess up the spacing or whatever. Add to that i was also trying to use epoxy to mount battery clips, which SUCKED BALLS. Every time you pop a battery in one of those it flexed and the epoxy broke loose. Now, i usuallly just wedge the battery in the enclosure with foam or whatever. And if i'm using a box beg enough that wedging isnt gonna happen, I bought a pop-riveter from the local hardware store and i just rivet the clip to the bottom of the box.

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Post by earthtonesaudio »

frequencycentral wrote:Method #2: Recently I did a circuit where I mounted the board using very think solid core to the +ve of the DC sockets and the grounds of the in/out jacks - so dual purpose:
Genius.
rocklander wrote:hairsplitting and semantics aren't exactly the same thing though.. we may need two contests for that.

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Post by pz »

Method #5
Using almost everything to hold the pcb: pots, jacks, footswitch:
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Post by frequencycentral »

^
^
^

#5 = very sexy! 8)

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Post by RnFR »

Dr Tony Balls wrote:since I use solid-core wire and almost all of my stuff is small boards, i just kinda place it wherever i want it in the enclosure with some foam underneath and wire it up. by the time im done wiring the solid core is doing enough to hold it in place that I dont worry about it.

I was trying to use JB weld for standoffs originally, but i kept having problems there where the epoxy would somehow get in the threads and make the whole arrangement not work, or i'd mess up the spacing or whatever. Add to that i was also trying to use epoxy to mount battery clips, which SUCKED BALLS. Every time you pop a battery in one of those it flexed and the epoxy broke loose. Now, i usuallly just wedge the battery in the enclosure with foam or whatever. And if i'm using a box beg enough that wedging isnt gonna happen, I bought a pop-riveter from the local hardware store and i just rivet the clip to the bottom of the box.

rivets are way cooler than that sticky foam, but i've been using it for battery clips and it works great. it flexes so the clip can open and close without it popping off, and it is extremely strong. i haven't had one come off yet. that being said, i do like the idea of rivets- they remind me of that old WWII era quality.
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Post by modman »

That's some good looking stuff and in this case good looks are not deceiving. Really, soldering up a noise circuits is easy, almost anybody could learn it in a day, but building a reliable stompbox unit is something else.

So many times in the beginning I ended up with some scruffy piece of perf - now how the f$ck am I going to box that up. Now anything I do, is with pcb mounted pots.

Maybe we should have more talk about (non-electronic) building techniques.
Please, support freestompboxes.org on Patreon for just 1 pcb per year! Or donate directly through PayPal

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Post by Swervedriver »

I read somewhere that Devi Ever used to mount her PCB with electrical tape. Does anyone have any pics of that? I'd like to give it a try. She said in a post elsewhere that she never had any problems or returns due to PCBs coming loose.

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Post by RnFR »

she doesn't mount it. she just wraps it in e-tape and throws it in the box. not the best way to go, if you ask me. the one i have is now broken and sitting in a drawer because the cheap stranded wire broke from flexing too much. i may get around to fixing it some day. :roll:
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Post by menlow »

This is a great topic for some of us newbie types... I've got a project I'm getting ready to start that doesn't have holes in the corners for standoffs... Any ideas on how to get around this?

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kdmay
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Post by kdmay »

Crickey - I asked the same question a few weeks ago and didn't get a reaction like this!! Did I post in the wrong section?!

https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8473

Some greats ideas. I particularly like Method # 4....

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Post by Dr Tony Balls »

I still stand by my solid-core wiring. Lately i've even used really short leads on my pot wiring and stood the board up almost as if they were PCB mounted pots.

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Post by maudibe »

Rapid do a pcb mounting strip... its self adesive and provides a 'groove' for your board to slide into. I have just bought a strip and intend to try it on my next build; saves filing a groove into the enclosure.

heres the link:

http://www.rapidonline.com/sku/Tools-Fa ... 16/34-0918

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Post by earthtonesaudio »

Output jack + bent sheet metal with some holes drilled:
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rocklander wrote:hairsplitting and semantics aren't exactly the same thing though.. we may need two contests for that.

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