Matt's Rambling's.... Screws or no screws on Faceplates?

As you know each and every mod I build is fully bespoke, This means that its built to each individual customers specifications.
There are of course some limitations such as machining and tooling that i use- this can limit certain shapes and designs e.g I do not have 5 axis cnc etc.. just a manual mill and hand tools etc..
The other factor is space- No i cannot fit 2 x 21700 batteries a DNA250C and a squonk bottle inside a match box!

This leads me onto Faceplates :-) A Lot of mod design incorporate a faceplate, its main purpose is to allow me access inside the mod to fit the electronics.
It is very hard but not impossible to fit a regulated board inside a mod without a faceplate.
The faceplate itself can be made from metal such as stainless steel or from the same material as the mod e.g wood and resin.
There are two main ways i use to hold the Faceplate onto the mod. 1- screws and 2-magnets. There is a third way but i do not like doing it, which is glue, Gluing on the Faceplate makes removing it should there be a problem almost impossible so lets not go there :-)
This brings us back to screws and magnets. Screws are by far the most secure way to hold on a faceplate however some people do not like to see visible screws so this is why magnets can be used instead.

Magnets are great for a clean look however a couple of points to make regarding there use.
because of design and space we cannot really use anything larger that a 4mm magnet and we use N52 grade magnets so there is no problem with the pulling power and is certainly more than enough to securely hold on a faceplate. The biggest problem with magnets is that they have to be epoxy glued into the mod and faceplate and with such a small surface area (4mm) they can occasionally come unstuck and need re gluing Although this is rare)

Faceplates i make that are held on with magnets on things like regulated mods rarely do not require that the faceplate to be constantly removed so even though it can its best just to leave in place.
Some designs such as regulated mods with hidden controls under a false faceplate will require the constant remove of the faceplate. Care sould be taken to when doing so.

Some other designs i have made such as the little mechanical tube style mods have a stainless steel faceplate held on with 4 small screws, I used screws in this application because under the faceplate is the silver contact strip which has a bend in it that makes it push up to the underside of the faceplate, this is what gives the tension and makes the fire button work and also feel amazing in use.
If we had used magnets in the situation there would have been a risk that the tension of the silver strip would constantly be trying to push the faceplate off.

So to summarize both screws and magnets are used depending on application and design, and usually it is something that can be specified by the customer.
My default will be to use magnets where i can and reserve screws for designs that require a stronger fixing solution.

Peace Matt.