Making a chassis for a new amplifier.

*****Use caution when handling sheet metal. It will cut you. *****

When I was a kid an old can was a treasure. They made them a little thicker and did not crinkle them. The cans are not as suitable as they once were but we can still find some metal if we look. Flashing is a good material for a small chassis. A pizza or cookie pan provides a good sized piece of metal. I needed a little chassis for an amp and thought a couple of pictures could be in order. I made an amp a few days ago using a 2" X 4" junction box cover as the face plate. It was a good size so a 4" chassis should be fine. I cut a piece of flashing about 6" X 6". No I didn't measure it was the biggest piece I could get from a piece of scrap.

This is the sheet and the tools used. the scissors are 5" and the duck billed pliers are 6". The pliers are 1/4" wide smooth jawed. I used the hinge as a square to do my layout. Nothing special here. A very quick and dirty job. You could take time to do a good layout and get a better product.

I just came about 1" off each corner and made 4 cuts to define the top of the chassis.

I used the jaw width of my pliers as a guide and folded the flaps in on all four corners. This cut edge is not smooth but the folded edge is. no worry of being cut with it.

I folded the four sides and then bent them up. As you can see the edges are smoother than a cut edge would be. You can also see a ripple in my bend. I will smooth it after folding the corners in. If you look you can see the corners sticking up a little taller than the edge facing you. In order to lock the corners I will unfold the ends of the edge facing you and tuck the corner into it. Then when I crush the seam it will lock the corner in place.

The finished product. After folding the corners in and locking everything in place I "ironed" the edges to smooth it out. I now have a 3-3/4" X 4" X 5/8" chassis. I buy the pizza pans at Dollar Tree. When they get used a few times I get them for the scrap bin. They are thick enough to make a good chassis.

This is the amp I plan to put on the chassis.
AF Amp
The handy box plate has two mounting holes so all I need are a couple of angle brackets. I made some last week I think will work.