Heheh, thank you.
I definately have the "Oh, I can make that" attitude. But it does get me into trouble sometimes, because confidence should never replace ability. There have been things over the years I've made that... well... resulted in a useless mass of materials which I ended up buying new anyway. Sometimes the DIY aspect is significantly more costly than just buying the item in the first place.
Like for example, the jack-box I made for the vocal booth, cost me about $70 to make including the powder coating materials, the jacks, the thin aluminum, etc. Not very pricy in and of itself, except to make the perfectly rectangle box, and hand machine out the opening for the face plate, was very time consuming. I probably have about 150 hours into the jackplate box by itself. Why?
I spent 30 minutes each way driving to/from the metal supplier. I spent 2 hours there picking through their scrap to find materials I liked that were close enough in size to minimize my cutting needs. That's 3 hours right there and I haven't made anything yet!
Then cutting out the hole in the extrusion was more complicated than I thought. The first one I just cut the rectangular hole with an air saw, but unfortunately it wasn't straight. Does it matter? no. Did it annoy me? Yes. So I made another 30 minute each way trip to the metal supplier and got another piece. Then I spent 6 hours making a router jig out of steel, slapped in a carbide bit into the router instead of a wood bit, then routed/ground out the opening to be a nice rectangle. Picture a dremel on steroids. So while it only took 15 minutes to make the rectangular hole, I wasted six hours making the "system" in order to make the hole. I probably could have bought a router table for $100, then clamp on wooden stops, and slide the extrusion over the router (facing up) and had it done quicker, but nooooooo. So now I have this weird metal contraption to cut up and toss back into the scrap pile LMAO.
I could have primed this with aluminum-suitable primer in about a minute (or two), then painted it twice with a spray can (2-4 minutes). No, I had to set up my five igloos and spend several hours going through the powder coating process, mixing chemicals and spending a good hour scrubbing the two pieces inside and out with a toothbrush. And I got some lye on the floor, and I stained my fingers a little bit, and my garage smells like a chemical plant now. And I ticked my wife off baking it in the oven, and the kitchen smelled like a chemical plant for a day until I was bright enough to open the windows. The TRS jacks were easy - drill holes. The XLR jacks required three holes. Two very small diameter holes for the self-tapping screws, and one big hole for the body. Not a big deal, but its difficult to free-form drill these holes correctly and consistantly. So, I had to measure one of the XLR jacks with a micrometer, document the three centerpoints, then make a template in Visio, then print that out, and spray-glue it to the surface of the aluminum, then centerpunch carefully all the center points of the 24 holes. Then drill them out without scratching the aluminum plate. And it's thin, so it has a tendency to warp a little from the drilling heat, so one has to go painfully slow (125 rpm). Then drill out the jack body holes with a hole saw. Then hand-deburr the jack holes, and zap through a self tapping screw into each of the mounting holes to thread them, then toss that screw and use new ones when it's done, painted/powdercoated, etc.
The sad thing is you can buy something equally flimsy on e-bay for about $40 plus $10 shipping. $50, it's shipped tio your door, and I could have saved a lot of time and energy.
I like making things for some reason, and often it backfires. Trust me, I never show pictures of 'bad things' LMAO
Love the corner bracket for shear bracing. Mahvelous dahling! 
OR anodize?
)