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heat sink and enclosure
I came up with a simple enclosure that will work very well and can be fabricated by anybody with a drill, a jig saw and a simple metal bending tool.
I am working on plans for a simple bench mounted sheet metal bending tool that anybody could build for a couple bucks to do the job on their own that i will share with everybody here when I have it perfected.
For a small production run of a dozen the material cost would be $20 for the box and lid plus $15 to $20 for the heat sink base.
A simple box housing secured to the heat sink with a separate lid seemed to make the most sense and was the least expensive and quickest way to put it together.
The housing could be fit with a cooling fan easily and access to the internal components would be as easy as pulling a couple screws to remove the lid. None of the wiring would have to be touched to check it out inside.
The lids could be very simple if you were going to tuck the unit out of sight or they could be machined and/or engraved to make them look nice if you want to place it somewhere visible. A nice ball milled lid with the ecomodder logo or something of your choosing could easily be done with the number of people on here with CNC milling machines.
With one person doing a dozen units it could be produced in 20 minutes or less for the basic enclosure with simple lid. Add in 10 to 20 minutes on a CNC milling machine for a cool lid. Five minutes of finishing and it could have a nice brushed aluminum finish and a heat loss friendly black paint job.
I will finish up the plans and put together a materials list as soon as I can get a few spare minutes to work on it.
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