[TowerTalk] ACCESS BOX

[Jim Lux]

At 02:15 PM 11/27/2006, Les Kalmus wrote:
>Roger,
>
>Thanks for all the great info on your web page.
>Where did you find that aluminum plate for the house entry box?

If you're using standard JIC or NEMA boxes (like the ones from 
Hoffman), you can get either steel or aluminum plates that are 
already cut to fit and drilled with the right holes as a standard 
item.  Last time I priced it (about a year ago), the cost to get the 
ready made aluminum plate was less than $10 different from getting a 
piece of aluminum sheared to the right size, and then I'd still have 
to drill the holes.

The readymade plates look like a raised edge jelly roll or sheet 
pan(except the rolled edge faces the back of the box), so they are
a) quite stiff, while using less sheet metal.
b) can sit on a flat surface and still clear the bolts and screw 
heads you used to attach stuff to the plate.
c) have the right shape and mounting points so that you can mount it 
while the box is vertical without needing 3 hands.

This is one of those things where people who use thousands of these 
things a year have got the product pretty well dialed in.  There's 
enough clearance to get the darn thing through the opening.  There's 
conduit and cable attachments for the boxes that don't stick out too 
much inside (so you can get the mounting plate in), etc.

Jim, W6RMK