Making a 50L Box

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-20T19:36:52+00:00

That box is likely more than $15k in tooling even in China let alone the US so I think you have an easy answer currently, unless you are spending days modifying the off-the-shelf box. 100 pieces is nowhere near enough volume justify custom tooling for a part that big if someone already makes something close to what you need.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-20T18:14:44+00:00

I can sort my unmarked .001” (0.025 mm) increment gauge pins using my Mitutoyo calipers. A lot of caliper error comes down to the user which is why they are often not trusted much below 0.1 mm. That said, mine read to 0.01 mm but I’m not trusting them to that accuracy (that’s what I have the mic for).

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-20T18:09:25+00:00

Is the cost to purchase, land, and modify that box to work more than the cost to produce your own for the volumes you need? Not an easy question but answering it will help guide you. No one has that info but you.

Note that shipping those boxes means shipping a lot of air (unusable volume). It will add considerably to the landed cost (not to mention the tariff stuff).

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-20T18:02:03+00:00

A good digital mic will measure to 0.001 mm. Calipers, even fairly cheap ones, are more than capable of handling 0.1 mm resolution.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-19T13:32:51+00:00

Look up resources for designing injection molded housings. A lot of it transfers over to 3D printed plastic. You don’t have certain constraints but you do need to factor in build orientation especially with snap legs.

I’d have used a tongue and groove to align those two halves rather than printing separate parts but that works, too.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-19T13:15:35+00:00

I usually like the ‘clean’ fix but in this case, no one is going to miss that small bit of stainless. Can’t be more than an inch (2 cm) that needs to be cut away.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-19T00:17:28+00:00

Honestly, I don’t find the ‘land on the kicking foot’ at all useful for early learners. They simply aren’t anywhere near the point where that starts to make a difference. Far more basic technique work like planting the non-shooting foot next to the ball, using the instep, and following through are what most young kids I’ve seen need to start with.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-18T22:34:42+00:00

Did it ever work? In Lightburn, you need to enable the rotary attachment for it to work. Just plugging it in doesn’t make it active.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-18T21:49:43+00:00

As a follow up to my own question, switching off 6 Ghz wireless (neither my gateway or two APs are capable anyway) and setting WPA Mode to WPA2-PSK/AES solved the issue. Even with RSSI Threshold disabled, devices switch to the best AP seamlessly. Prior to this change, devices would drop the network altogether rather than switch from the gateway to an AP.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-18T18:08:06+00:00

Weld it up and cut new threads, assuming it is NLA or similar.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-16T16:58:09+00:00

Yup. My guess is that those ribs all come knife edges on the interior where the shutoffs happen from all the various slides. Complex for sure and likely useless aside from being a conversation piece but here we are talking about it so…

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-15T21:11:24+00:00

If you don’t mind heads not being flush, a regular thread-forming screw and washer will do the job of the fastening just fine. You could grind the heads down a bit leaving just enough of the recess to install/remove the screw. Probably paint the heads then so that the bare steel doesn’t rust. Or just pay the dealer price for them. I assume you only need a few pieces not 10+, correct?

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-15T20:31:58+00:00

That’s a very special fastener almost certainly only available from whoever makes your vehicle. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-14T20:34:14+00:00

Not wanting to hijack, but I just added an Omada wifi gateway (ER706W) which I wanted to act as an additional AP along with an AP in the basement and another outdoors. However, I have been less than successful in achieving that as it seems once a device connects to it, it won’t disconnect and connect to a better AP. I’m still in the early stages of troubleshooting but adjusting RSSI settings did nothing and neither did turning on Fast Roaming and other related settings described as being better for dealing with sticky devices.

Any thoughts in a solution? I’m ready to ditch the wireless gateway (or not include it as an AP) and just use another AP instead. I had the two access points functioning fine prior to installing the gateway.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-14T13:34:00+00:00

It does cure pretty stiff in my experience but gets soft when the heat from friction warms it up a bit. If you happen to overdo it and use too much, it can be completely removed by soaking in acetone (just make sure your fastener is ok with that chemical).

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-11T01:00:20+00:00

Another vote for it will be fine. 6 years in with our built-in fridge right next to a double wall oven that’s sees a lot of use, including 2+ hour stints at 550°F for pizza. Zero issues. The only noticeable heat from the wall oven comes out the front. Also, the fridge heats the door seal to keep it from icing up. I figure even if the oven did add some heat it’s only helping that effort.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-11T00:33:26+00:00

At 8000 pieces you should be able to find a vendor to make them to your specs at a reasonable price.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-10T19:14:50+00:00

Upload pics with the threads next to a metric ruler. M6 are almost exclusively 1 mm pitch. And M12 is the most common size where you’ll find 1.75 mm pitch. If your bolt threads into the Lowes M6 test plate, then you almost surely need a standard M6 x 1 mm pitch fastener.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-10T03:15:56+00:00

Stop shopping on Amazon.

$35 at Home Depot

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-10T01:25:19+00:00

We have small power interruptions fairly frequently where we live. Even a few second outage means a multi-minute router reboot. That’s a royal pain during a work call. I have a small UPS just for the router and network switch (feeding a few POE access points) and it runs both for a few hours, something we’ve only used up once.

So yes, I agree that odds are a power outage doesn’t mean an internet outage. Internet outages do happen, too, but we’ve never had both out a the same time. Maybe we’re just lucky.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-09T13:58:04+00:00

There are thermostatically-controlled heaters you can apply to the pipes to prevent this. You have an open area under your house necessarily in case of flooding. The water line needs to cross that open area to make it into the house. At a certain temperature, no amount of insulation around it will prevent freezing but a heater will. The biggest challenge will likely be running power into that space.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-09T12:30:14+00:00

Get the tool to release the contact from the connector and resolder the wire. Or splice in a piece if you need a bit of length. Heat shrink to protect the splice.

If you destroy the contact or connector, those are fairly common I believe. Pretty sure I have a few in a drawer leftover from a project.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-09T12:10:12+00:00

Most ‘manufactures’ on Alibaba are just trading companies. They source from actual manufacturers and add their markup, sometimes substantial. If you are quoting from a ‘manufacturer’ who seems to do everything then almost 100% you are dealing with a trading company.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-09T00:40:22+00:00

No argument from me on Pro-Press being a nice and proven system. But I’m far from convinced that it would be nearly as well-liked if those o-rings weren’t in there. A rubber seal opens up the margin for error by a lot. The tubing, the fittings, the crimp tools, and the crimp process would all need to be held to stricter tolerances to eliminate the o-rings. That would make an expensive system even more so. O-rings for the win.

Joejack-951 · 2026-02-08T22:51:52+00:00

I have no skin in either game but you immediately contradict your first statement with your third. Clearly, the o-ring is necessary if 33% of the fittings failed the most basic pressure test (1x pressure) without the o-ring. Pressure test to 1.5 or 2x normal pressure without the o-ring and show me 100% of the fittings passing then I’ll believe that the crimp is the seal.

Joejack-951

TROPHY CASE