Enclosure Expedition

During our endless idea shootouts it kept coming back that we want to design a modular system people can vibe with. This would be extendable, more versatile with cost-effective and easy to get materials (think: open-source).

Here's a deeper dive into the thinking about just one single part of the new HOG Moduleur enclosure design:

Well, starting was kind of easy. After a very short time it became apparent that what we're looking for are standard extruded aluminium profiles. (aluminum over the pond) Amongst these profiles the most usable ones were T-slot profiles, fulfilling the following goals:

• Low or No Manufacturing Cost: Stick to standard, off-the-shelf T-slot profiles. These are mass-produced and much cheaper than custom extrusions. Lots of manufacturers make standard-compatible profiles everywhere.
• Low-Cost Cutting: Cutting profiles to length is usually a cheap service from suppliers, but you can also do it yourself with a miter saw and a metal-cutting blade (you have to be very precise though, so good tools are needed).
• Readily Available Components: The best way to reduce costs and ensure easy assembly is to use standard T-nuts, brackets, and other accessories. These are fairly inexpensive and easy to find from multiple vendors.

We also had a requirement too

• The profile system must allow for 10mm or at most 20mm widths, wider seems too much lost space and more expensive too.

Let's look at some standards (Won't go into a very wide selection to save your brain, there's a LOT of profiles out there)

From these ones it is apparent that BOSCH and ITEM are the top contenders. So we ordered a bunch of cuts from both, in 20x40 and 10x40 sizes to compare.

Once they arrived we tried, compared, contemplated and decided we'll go with BOSCH ✨ (you can always trust German engineering after all)

Let's make it black tho...

You might have already spotted in our earlier endeavours that aesthetics play a central role at Shmøergh.

These profiles come hard anodized by default, so the next step was to try if you can anodize anodized aluminium. We had no idea. (I mean looked it up on the interwebs, but you gotta try it, right?)

We brought two pieces to our usual paint shop. (which is a quirky place with the widest business profile ever - they make carriages, do galvanizing, painting AND sell pet food, yeah you heard right, this is one company)

The mysterious person only referred to as "the master" by their crew (I'm not joking) took the challenge and made it black as f*ck. I do respect a job well done.

...and now here we are, one part, ready to go.

Such an adventure.