Coming back to DIYing, have a few questions

[booshirayray]

Hi everyone. Almost a decade ago now I made some DIY pedals. Since then, I haven't had the time to take on projects, being busy with work and now grad school, but I've felt the itch too long so I'm diving back in! I also didn't know about these forums back then.

I have all of the main tools and components I need, as I do work with electronics in school. I'm planning a few builds (Blue Box, Rat, Super Hard On, Phase 90), but have a few questions.

1. What's the preferred way to attach wire to etched PCBs and perf/stripboard? Pre-tinning, going through the side opposite the copper pad, then soldering on the pad? Or just directly on the pad?
2. Has there been any changes in decoration? Are there any ways to just print out pedal decoration and labeling?

Really that's it, and I'm excited to be back making pedals again (it was really boring working on an atmega-based board for a while), and finding a community for it!

[Tony Forestiere]

Hi and Hi. Start with some eye candy of this: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?board=40.0 for enclosure finishing and internal views showing how well crafted a DIY pedal can be made.

*edit* Forgot to add some recommended reading : http://www.geofex.com/effxfaq/fxfaq.htm
Welcome and have fun.

[tubegeek]

Welcome!

You will often see the terms "solder side" and "component side" used for single-sided boards. (Vero, perf, also.)

Components are placed on the component side, soldered to the copper on the solder side. Then trim off the excess lead length, if you aren't doing a perf layout. For perf, you usually use the component legs to connect the pads and so don't cut them until you are sure you don't want them.

[Jdansti]

>2. Has there been any changes in decoration? Are there any ways to just print out pedal decoration and labeling?

Welcome to the forum!

There are a lot of techniques being used by folks on the forum. Swirly paint, toner transfer, print to photo paper and glue, clear coating, powder coating, pour-on epoxy coating, etching, Sharpie, etc., etc...  Go here for 1188 pages of examples of many different techniques!
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=36392.0

If you just want to print something and attach it to the box, for me, the easiest is to design your graphics using a software package. I do all of mine on an iPhone app called ArtStudio.  Include little X's where your pots and switches go.  Print onto plain paper first to adjust the scaling until you get it right before going to photo paper.  Print a plain paper copy to use as a template to drill your holes. Print onto photo paper. Cut it out and glue it to your box. Some people use sticky-back photo paper.

Of course, before you glue the graphic, you'll probably want to sand your box. Folks have different techniques for this too. I like to use a belt sander with 60 grit paper and sand the sides in the horizontal direction to make give the metal a brushed appearance. I sand the top a little before I glue the graphic to clean it and give the glue something to bite into.

After the graphic has been glued on, I apply about 8 light coats of spray on clear varnish to all sides of the box.

Anyway, this is just one of hundreds of ways to do it. There are a bunch of tutorials on the forum you might want to check out.

Transparency: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=77001.0

Water Slide Decals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XldVuRI41EY

Photo Transfer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7DFuJt3mvw

Toner Transfer: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=100381.0

Swirly Paint: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=101355.0

Reverse Etch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uQc2nMyHqM

Flame Top/Sun Burst: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=99113.0

Powder Coating: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=71244.0

Multicolored Etching: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=80962.0

[aron]

Nice post John!

[Jdansti]

Thanks. One of these days I'm going to get around to trying some of these other techniques. 

[booshirayray]

Thanks for the post, John! Though it seems there are a lot more options these days, but that's a good thing!  It looks like things have changed since I last started building.

[Jdansti]

Yep, we've come a long way from the old Dymo days!