my low budget flood enclosure

[urbanimports02]

here are some shots of my $40 flood enclosure. only thing i would/will change about it would be going full height on the sides and thus raising the back. currently the sides are equal to the back splash shield, and the front is 12" higher so i can easily lean into the enclosure without ducking, and access the motor door for tool changes. this works plenty well for coolant splashing, but some chips make it over the sides when i blow things off. i will also put a top over each side to help with this. i will also bolt the front legs to the front of the front splash shield instead of the sides and then cut the upper part of the front splash shield down to the bottom of the factory flap/door, and do a sliding door with lexan. right now i use a flap of the marine vinyl with a magnet bolted to the upper corner to hold it closed, and out of the way when opened. works great for such low budget, but a sliding rigid door will be much nicer. the frame is 1" steel square tube, and the vinyl(4yds @$6.80/yd at tap plastics) is marine/auto "window" vinyl commonly used for boat canvas enclosures(where i got the idea as i am a cabin cruiser/boat guy) and convertible tops. 3yds were cut in half length wise one half for each side, and the 4th yd used for the door. it is held on with 20 office depot 1" capacity paper binder clips($4.99 a dozen) they are holding super strong. the frame is painted with hammered finish rustoleum. this enclosure took a couple hours to design/build and cost about $40 not including steel($10-$12 for 20' last i checked) as i had it laying around, but includes stainless hardware for bolting it on, a magnet for the door, vinyl, clips and paint. i further improved the cooling system by trashing the collector deal that bolts to the under side of the bottom tray. i replaced it with an aluminum plate with a 4 bolt flange 2" pipe thread adapter and pvc pipe dumping straight into a large ss mesh food strainer in the lid of the coolant tank below. this catches chips as the coolant drains and never clogs, i just dump it every morning after the chips have drained all night. i also took the sight glass off the tank thus creating a leak and dropped the whole assembly into a larger rubbermaid box. walla, more capacity. anyway, enjoy!