Enclosure measurements

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reptinate

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Hey,
I'm building some enclosures, and I'm just curious about something. For the people here that have built their own. Do you make it so the inside measurement is what you want, or the outside? So if you want to build a 1200 long one, do you build it so the inside of the enclosure will be 1200 long, or so the overall end to end length will be 1200. Same with height and depth. Hope that makes sense. Sorry if it's a stupid question, I'm just not sure which way to do it.

Thanks
 
Measure where it's going to be put and build the external dimensions to suit.

Normally external measurements are what people quote.
 
Depends... If your fitting it into a spot, measure outside. If you scored yourself a free bit of glass and want to measure it to fit, measure inside. My golden rule of DIY is measure, mark, measure, think about how it's all going to fit together... Measure THEN cut. ;)
 
It doesn't really matter which way you measure it unless you're measuring to put it somewhere (as stated above) people usually use 16mm Melamine to build so really there's only 32mm (3.2cm) of difference.
 
I would go by the outside so then you know it's right on measurement you want eg. 4ft = 1200mm, 5ft = 1500mm etc.. Seems easier to do it that way.
 
The beauty of building it yourself is that you can do it, anyway you like and if you not happy with it then you either change it or build another one. I've lost count how many I've built
 
Like everyone said measure to the spot its going if ya got plenty of room measure from the internal it really depends also on how your building it
 
Also - It would pay to look at what sizes are available in the materials you want to use. It might make a big difference to the price.. Alot of materials come 1200 (or 1220 sometimes) long. So by doing this you can save time cutting and money buying a piece the next size up (often jumps to 1500) for a few mm.. :)
 
The old 'How long is a piece of string?' question. :lol:

The measurements are a 'guide' to my way of thinking. I wanted a 3ft enclosure with sufficient depth and some of the tv cabinets I looked at were only 700 or so wide and 400 deep which I felt was to small as I wanted at least 500 so that the rock wall didn't ake it claustrophobic... anything more than 500 was a bonus.

The rest of what I would have said about where the enclosure is going etc has already been said. Other than at the end of the day is 10-15mm wall thickness going to make any reall difference to your description of an enclosure when you describe it to someone?
 
Thanks for the help people. Much appreciated :)

Just a quick question about the screws. I got 8g 40mm chipboard screws. Is that size fine, or are they too big for 16mm boards? And is any silicon okay to use?
 
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40mm is fine, just make sure you drill & drive them straight so they don't come out at the sides. Also, make sure your chipboard is HMR (moisture resistant) - it has a greenish tinge. The common size from Bunnings is 1220x2420, so if you're after a 1200 enclosure with multiples of 600 for the sides, you have a bit extra as a safety measure. The narrower melamine sheets sold by Bunnings (395 & 595 wide from memory) as shelving is not HMR, and will disintegrate if it gets wet for any length of time (water bowl spills etc) - it's just not worth using this material because it's crap.

Jamie
 
I made mine out of 16mm melamine and used 8g 45 mm screws as said jst make sure you drill first coz it will chip also what I did was make sure I put my screws 8 mm in so there centre it will crack the melamine if you put them to much either side of that
 
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