Here is the "junction box". It is the housing for our foot switch assemblies for switching functions on guitar and bass amps. They are designed to sit on the floor and literally be stomped on all night.
Unfortunately, the largest one we have easily available will only support 3 panels unless modified heavily. (We have "4 bangers", but they don't come round as scrap very often) We chuck these things in the recycling all day long for cosmetic reasons, so instead of bribing our metal shop to add more holes to support more jacks, I will just "add on" more boxes and daisy chain them together if needed. Right now, 3 suits my system.
This is what they normally look like:
Click to view attachmentHere is how it's is gutted and converted
Click to view attachmentI don't feel a need to paint over the functions. I know what they do, and they are powder coated, so you don't get a much more robust surface than that.
Here is the inside.
Click to view attachmentThe screws you see are simply filler to cover up the square holes intended for the LEDs from the electronics of the switch when it is actually made into a foot switch. The larger holes that the jacks are mounted in are for push switches.
The jacks are rated for high current outputs of power amplifiers, and in this application, they will never see the type of current they are capable of. They are also corrosion resistant.
I also have them normaled through one jack, as you can see, rather than daisy chaining them together. This will prevent one jack down the line from bringing the next ones in line down in the unlikely event of a failure. If the jack and connection on the noramled jack fail, well, all bets are off.. Anyway, this is a common technique used in speaker cabinets using multiple speakers. If one goes down, you still have 3 (or more) working ones.
This "box" can sit on the ground under the panels and be protected from water reasonably. I can also put in dummy plugs to prevent water from going down the jack holes if I am not using a panel in it.
