Bill what do you use to punch you holes? I prefer rear mounting connectors, but the punches I have used don't leave as nice of a hole as I would like, so I end up front mounting like your pictures. Do, you fine the same results, or is it just your preference to front mount?
Greenlee tools offers
hand operated punches that require a
pilot hole to get the draw
bolt through, then you tighten-them up with a wrench (and you need a small
pilot hole to get the large
pilot hole to center-up correctly). If you are really fancy, they have
electric and hydraulic tools that draws the punch through the metal. The punches have tick marks at every 90 degrees around the body, so if you score the metal on the back side for guidelines, you can center them up pretty accurately.
CNC is really the best way. Clean and precise. Most plate fabricators will
send you a sample of their work so you can see their finish quality. Not all fabricators provide the same thing - particularly in the engraving (surface
laser etched, bare metal milled / engraved, or paint-filled milled / engraved, or back engraved or printed if on a
clear substrate - they all look different in the low light conditions we work in backstage). If you
send them a sketch or other drawing, be sure to get a shop drawing back from them for approval
before you release it for manufacturing - typos in letters, misjustified text, incorrect fonts, incorrect font sizes, incorrect connectors, and misaligned connectors are all common issues. A note on font size: Make the lettering large enough you can read it in the dark. Yes, you can engrave 1/16" tall letters - but a 1/4" tall letter is much easier to read with a flashlight. Personal preference:
Label all connectors ABOVE the connector - this way when there is a
plug in the
jack, or your
hand is on the
connector, you can still see what
channel it is.
The panel
face finish can vary to:
satin, textured, and gloss powder coating; anodized aluminum, brushed aluminum, brass, bronze, buffed metal,
clear laminated - they all look different. Some panel manufacturers will do custom colors - this is handy if you are placing a
connector panel on a wall where it will be visible to the audience -
a white plate on a black wall won't do! Personal preference
: Use white plates with black lettering inside floor pockets - much easier to read. Pet peeve:
Black panels backstage on walls where the audience will never see them (yes, plates on the upstage wall should typically be black, but on the downstage wall - no one will see this and a white panels is much easier to find and read).
There are 'gotchas' in laying-out the screw-holes for many connectors, too. You usually can't trust the catalog data for the
connector drawings - for some reason they always round-off the decimals and fractions because they want the drawings easy to read - so the true dimensions are different than the published dimensions (
personally, I think the marketing guys don't think the customers are smart enough to read and understand the detailed correct dimensions, so they think they are doing us a favor by 'simplifying' the information - a few thousandths of an inch may not seem like much, but it can really affect how easily parts go together.).
Neutrik has numerous hole patterns that are not the same,
yet look alike at first glance. Use the wrong one and the
connector will mount with a slight rotation and look funny.
I recommend that you secure the connectors with screws and nuts, rather than pop-rivets or threading them into the plate. The pop-rivets are unreliable and a real pain to drill-out if you need to replace a
connector, and the metal in the panels is rarely hard enough or thick enough to allow a
machine screw to get a good bite. If you are concerned about the screws / nuts coming loose due to vibration in transport (everything shakes apart in a truck!), then place a dab of thread locking agent on them as you assemble the plate.
Ultimate Audio Control Panel:
