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Billet Aluminum Relay Box


Austenp405

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In the process of rewiring my car, I decided that anything worth doing is worth doing to complete and utter overkill, so I made a billet aluminum box for my relays. 

 

Squaring the billet.

i-b3WXSVX-M.jpg

 

Milling out the pocket.

i-9sg7hHW-M.jpg

 

Mounting posts for the 4 relays, countersunk and threaded from the back, plus the cutout in the bottom for wiring.

i-KG4G9mV-L.jpg

 

The only thing left to do is CNC engrave the cover.

i-KKCS6ZX-M.jpg

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Dang it! No RELAX box.

 

Are you at all concerned with constructing the housing out of a conductive material?  Might not be an issue, just asking.

 

To put it in perspective, consider your house wiring.  It's required to to put your switches and outlets in a conductive box for safety, so faults are grounded.

Edited by SleeperZ
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To put it in perspective, consider your house wiring.  It's required to to put your switches and outlets in a conductive box for safety, so faults are grounded.

I don't think that is true where I live.  Pretty much all of the gang boxes in my house are plastic.  Besides, that is for personnel safety, you don't have to worry about that with a 12vdc circuit.  That relay box looks amazing though. 

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It's only recently that plastic boxes are used, and the frame of the receptacle still has to be grounded.  My point was metal boxes are not only ok, but advantageous.  It's a given (good design practice) that the circuits inside are protected with fuses or breakers.

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I worked as an "engineer" (glorified draftsman) for a company that designed and fabbed industrial electrical enclosures. All metal. Some of them were brushed stainless, no coatings, and all of them had grounding stud welded in. As long as your electrical system does not have frayed wires, random splices and all around garbled crap I think you would be fine :) 

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I am an Instrumentation and Electrical inspector and I approve this relay box, provided the proper grounding methods are being used.

lol......

Lol, doesn't get much more clear than that. As another layer of protection I'll be using these connectors so the terminals are encapsulated:

http://www.waytekwire.com/item/75281/MINI-RELAY-CONNECTOR/

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I didnt expect to spark such a debate. Hah. This is not a 120v system and there is NO ground. What is refereed to as "ground" in automotive wiring is the negative. Any hot wire that touches that will short. However, this is true for the whole damn chassis. Great work, make sure you post pics of the finished product. 

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