Cheap DIY front panels from UK DIY store!!!

Tone's Top Tip for July

Whilst wandering around my local Homebase DIY store I noticed a rack of metal and plastic extrusions. In there was a range of 2mm thick aluminium clear anodised strip in 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm and 30mm widths i.e. approximately 2HP, 3HP, 4HP, 5HP and 6HP respectively (note that the online links wrongly refer to it as flat tube and not all widths are listed online). The strips are 1m long and cost between £4.50 and £8.00 each. They have a similar finish to Doepfer front panels but with a slight vertical graining. Here's a pic of 6HP and 4HP strips.

If you are OK at cutting and drilling they are a cheap solution to narrow DIY panels. Good dimension info here. I guess they are available in most large DIY stores so it's worth having a look next time you are there.

New generic front panels for DIY kits

I now have stock of a range of 4HP and 8HP front panels to suit the Synovatron DIY Prototyping Kits. These can be purchased with the kits as an option or separately. 

The 8HP panel suits DIY Kit 1 and has two variants, one to suit a column of jacks (8.2mm holes) and a column of pots (7.5mm holes). The other variant has 3mm pilot holes to give you the flexibility to mix and match front panel components by drilling out to suit jacks, pots or switches, or left as is for 3mm LEDs.

The 4HP panel suits DIY Kit 3 and also has two variants, one to suit jack sockets (8.2mm holes) and the other with just 3mm pilot holes so they can easily be modified to larger diameters for jacks or switches or left as is for LEDs.

The panels are made from 2mm aluminium and have a brushed, clear anodised finish.  The mounting holes (slots) are suitable for both Doepfer and Analogue Systems hole pitches.

These panels make the kits more complete and I will also offer a set of knobs in DIY Kit 1 to finish it off.

Kit 1 options: The soft-touch knobs can be ordered in white, grey, red, orange, yellow, green or blue.

Prices range from £5.99 to £8.99 if ordered separately, a bit cheaper if ordered with a kit. The knobs are £1.25 for 5 if ordered with a kit.

The panels will also include a set of M3x6 screws and plain washers.

Update:

Here's a 8HP pilot hole panel that I drilled out for a customer so he could mount a mult on the left and an OSC303 on the right (Note: he bought the OSC303 as a kit without front panel and jacks. There's no point in trying to do this if you have one DinSyncs's excellent clear blue panels). The jacks were drilled out to 8mm, the pot to 7.5mm and the switch to 6mm. Looks pretty sexy!

Tone's top tips:  

(1) Cover the panel in masking tape so the swarf doesn't scratch the front finish. 

(2) start with smaller drill sizes and work up to the final size else you may end up with odd shaped holes.

(3) Deburr holes on both sides with a countersink bit.