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So, I am trying to fit three little 16mm pots on a B sized enclosure. I was going to go with the upside down triangle layout, but the trouble is, I am completely incompetent at measuring things out properly.

Does anyone have any measurements or tips or anything else that may help?


Any help is appreciated.


Also, I feel very stupid now.

Use the indicators on your knobs to mark center lines and use a ruler to map it all out.

Well, didn't notice that indicator thing before. Helped a lot.

Thanks, bro.

I also use painter's tape (the blue stuff) on the enclosure. That way, I can mark it all to hell if need be and not worry about the sharpie marks showing through light-colored paint.

I use that blue painters tape on finished enclosures. Acetone will clean Sharpie off a raw one just fine.

Acetone works pretty well, but sometimes I can still see it through certain paints. It's hard to get rid of sharpie sometimes. So I just use tape.

Eyeball it. That's what I do.

But, if you have to be a pansy about it...

General Guitar Gadgets has some paper templates on their site you can print out.

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-dig ... 47257.html

Those are great for finding center lines. Mark the center at two different points, and use a ruler to mark the line. Alternatively (read: Better), mark the center once and use a square to mark the line.

You can find the center with just a ruler too, obviously. It's just a little harder to do because of the radius on the enclosure.

From there, just evenly space the pots however you want them.

I lay everything out in photoshop. Imo it is alot easier if you work in metric instead of inches. I can never figure out what half of 1 13/32" is but 36mm/2 is 18mm, it is just easier to work with metric.


I use one of these it is great for measuring, and doing conversions. It is also great for copying measurements from one side to the other. for example if your input jack is 60mm down from the top you can use the gauge on the ruler to set the depth and copy it to the output side.

I draw my lines in pencil and once I am done I layout all the parts on top of the box to make sure they all fit.

eniacmike wrote:I lay everything out in photoshop. Imo it is alot easier if you work in metric instead of inches. I can never figure out what half of 1 13/32" is but 36mm/2 is 18mm, it is just easier to work with metric.

Totally agree! Metric owns when it comes to figuring out measurement sizes and such. I'm trying more and more to use metric for everything, but some things are hard to get used to, like speed, long distances, and especially temperature. But that's just because I'm used to American Standard. Metric is imminently more sensible and logical.

The last thing I want to do when I'm marking up an enclosure is to find least common multiples, common denominators, and reducing fractions so I can tell what is bigger or smaller. Lame.

Yea, it makes me think of all the times in school that I said, "When will I ever need to know this?!"

So kind of random, but has anyone noticed that shellac brings sharpie back? I used one on an enclosure a while back, then eventually sanded it off after I got everything drilled. When I hit it with the shellac all the markings came back. it was nuts.

I have a ruler that goes down to 64ths of an inch and has the slide thingy. I have my shit down!

McSpunckle wrote:Eyeball it. That's what I do.

But, if you have to be a pansy about it...

General Guitar Gadgets has some paper templates on their site you can print out.

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-dig ... 47257.html

Those are great for finding center lines. Mark the center at two different points, and use a ruler to mark the line. Alternatively (read: Better), mark the center once and use a square to mark the line.

You can find the center with just a ruler too, obviously. It's just a little harder to do because of the radius on the enclosure.

From there, just evenly space the pots however you want them.

I'm going to have to check out those GGG papers. I also should have propably tried using my caliper.

eniacmike wrote:I lay everything out in photoshop. Imo it is alot easier if you work in metric instead of inches. I can never figure out what half of 1 13/32" is but 36mm/2 is 18mm, it is just easier to work with metric.

I use one of these it is great for measuring, and doing conversions. It is also great for copying measurements from one side to the other. for example if your input jack is 60mm down from the top you can use the gauge on the ruler to set the depth and copy it to the output side.

I draw my lines in pencil and once I am done I layout all the parts on top of the box to make sure they all fit.

I tried it in Photoshop, yet couldn't really tell where to put the components and their size and things. Probably should do some pre-measuring and retry that method next time.

I also agree on the metric thing, I have always hated the American standard system for anything smaller than a mile, it just seems clumsy to me. Stupid fractions.


Thanks for the help all. I am done with it now, The stomp switch is pretty off center, but meh.