Electronics Forum / Basics / December 2006

I usually use standoffs. These are little hexagonal tubes with threaded ends
on them, and you can drill holes in the case, screw them onto the inside
panel and screw the PC board onto the top of the standoff.

If you are designing your PCB then you often design it to fit the
pre-installed mounting posts for the case you want to use. If you don't
use them then you can cut them off.

Usually you'd use "stand-offs", they come in all sorts of shapes and
sizes. Some have self adhesive bottom on them so you don't have to
drill holes. You can make your own out of a long screw and several nuts
if you want. For quick and dirty stuff it's not uncommon to stick the
board down with hot melt glue.

Dave :)

http://www.google.com/images?q=keystone+standoffs
http://www.google.com/images?q=richco+standoff+-clip+-lok+-lock+-saddle

Feed "standoff" into the search bar here: http://digikey.com
"Spacer" will also work.

Hi, Bjarne.  The first thing you want to do with an enclosure
manufacturer is look at the docs.  Your webpage shows links to drawings
in both .pdf and .dwg formats.  Open them up, and take a look.

I haven't used this manufacturer's product, but here's a few offhand
observations.  It seems the PULT100 product doesn't have any PCB
mounting standoff provision.  Now if you can, the easiest way to do it
might be to just drill a few holes for extra purchased standoffs on the
cover, and mount your PCB there.  If you need access to the inside of
the cover, or if you've got a display assembly, you'll have to drill
your standoff holes on the inside bottom of the case.  If you're
adventurous, try making the width of your PCB equal to the distance
between the slots, which will allow a slide-in "works-in-a-drawer"
setup.  That can be cool, and occasionally helps if your design can be
made modular.  If you're really bold, you might want to consider making
a separate backplane to help with interconnects.  The PCB guides can be
very helpful there.  The PULT300 is like the 100, but it also has
built-in standoffs inside the box, too.

Your comment is kind of funny, because of all the issues involved in
getting the PCB into the enclosure, the holes themselves are usually
the only consistently easy one.  You'll want to just design the proper
hole spacing onto the CAD board, and you're done.  The drawings show
the precise X and Y dimensions of the holes.  The problem is usually
the rest of the assembly.  You'll eventually get a sense for thinking
in 3-D.  Unfortunately, a lot of this is just a matter of experience
and getting burned.

Good luck
Chris

Cases like those have a metal plate that generally
goes on the bottom. Install your switches, lights,
displays, etc. on the plastic top and sides. When
you arrange them, be SURE to leave room to fit your
pcb inside. You don't want to smoke your board
because some piece of metal touches the AC power
switch terminals when the baseplate is screwed on...

Leave open space in your pcb design for mounting
hardware. Make your pcb to the size you need, then
drill holes where you made space (on the pcb). Then
you put the pcb on the metal plate, mark through
the holes with a felt pen and drill the metal plate.
Use nuts, bolts and spacers to hold the pcb just
off the metal plate.

Alternatively, you can try to fashion metal brackets
that run from the premade sockets to the holes on
your board.

Another less elegant method would be to buy adhesive
velcro strips to stick the pcb wherever it fits.
*Don't* try this with ESD-sensitive devices...

HTH

thanks for the replies.  I think I know what to do now.