SOMEONE delivered a neat little sample of the Retex/Box Eurobox range to us, so we took it apart and had a look at it to see what was going on.
The box in question was quite an expensive little box: a little under a tenner for the one pictured here. Its construction and engineering is, however, intended to lift it into a professional class of presentation, which justifies the extra luxury of the price.
The sides of the box are PVC-coated steel (in a charming shade of periwinkle blue, for those of you with black and white sets), with face panels of brushed aluminum. Inside, the box is held together with aluminum extrusions which are slotted to support PCBs either vertically or horizontally but not, alas, both at the same time.
Observation of the product line brochure leads me to believe that the PCB-carrying function of the extrusions is a by-product of their function as a frame for the box, rather than its first concern, as many of the larger console-type boxes have slots facing a slotless face.
Faces
The top and bottom faces of the box are covered by a layer of peel-off plastic.
Holes, etc., can be marked out on the plastic and drilled or center-punched (note: a center punch is a little luxury, but a very useful little luxury if you case-up any number of projects and like to see the front-panels with a straight, professional-looking layout) before removing the plastic, helping to protect the metal finish from scratching during the operation. In any case, the brushed aluminum finish is easy to drill accurately as well as being smart-looking.
The box is opened up by removing the cross-head screws. The screws aren't self-tapped--they all screw into nuts set into the extruded frame. All the sides and faces have their own screws, so each panel has to be removed separately (or alternatively, won't fall to pieces in your hand as soon as the first panel is removed).
The steel sides have tidily rounded corners with no sharp edges, and the case has rubber feet, so it won't scratch the surface it stands on. All in all, it's very protection-conscious, part of the professional image. It wouldn't be out of place on a business desk.
Consoles
This junior box is shaped like a mini-console and would do for anything needing a meter, or an LED or LCD display, being conveniently angled for reading.
The Eurobox range is, however, very large, with up-market computer consoles at its top end.
Not a box to strap under the bonnet of your car, this. Definitely more smart-dressed than a plain diecast box, it might be the choice if you were building a timer, for instance, which would be on general display. That would be worth the extra for the nice finish. It's also very robust, for anything needing extra protection. The Eurobox range, and other cases by Retex, are stocked by Bradley Marshall Ltd., 325 Edgware Road, London W2 1BN.
Also see: THE 1985 READERS SURVEY -- You wrote the forms, we read them.