It happens to everyone: Too many tiles and not enough tile rows.
Here’s a standalone Eurorack 1U Tile case for up to 12 tiles made exclusively out of hardboard and a handful of M3 nuts. File for laser cutting is here: http://github.com/THX2112/1U-Eurorack-Tile-Case
The “rails” are cut right into the top, consisting of three almost identical pieces of 3mm thick hardboard.
An M3 nut is held captive by a hexagonal cutout between the two other pieces with only a 3.2mm hole so the nut can’t fall out.
In the middle rails, only the upper right and lower left mounting points are used to maintain strength. This means mounting the tiles using only two bolts. The proved more than enough to keep the tiles mounted firmly.
The three pieces are glued and clamped.
It’s difficult to overturn a nut. I generally tighten until firm, and then an extra quarter turn to pull the panel tight.
Notice how one edge of the nut is showing. It’s okay to expose your nuts here.
The top is glued to the base. A hinge or lasercut t-slots can also be used, but with the bottom cutouts it’s not necessary.
Longer M3 screws need to be used. These are 12mm and are just poking through. 8mm work too. 6mm is just a tad too short.
This is an earlier 4×2 prototype.
The bottom has holes for mounting this 1.5A power supply, and a couple of these tile tail adapters. Here I used a 10-pin power distributor (glued in place for now), and one tile tail adapter.
Painted with black wrinkle paint. Hardboard absorbs paint so requires many coats and/or a primer/sealer.
Even with way-too-long power leads it’s easy to get inside and route cables where needed.
The bottom cutouts can easily be modified to suit whatever power supply you have lying around. I have a salvaged +12/-12 switching power supply to put in another case.
A quick little jam to celebrate!
All tiles (including the power-hungry tube overdrive) consume 700mA from the +12V rail (-12V is much less). The 1A power supply easily handled this.
Repository: http://github.com/THX2112/1U-Eurorack-Tile-Case