The awesome pedal PAINTING thread

[Karmasound]

Hi there,

This thread is about preferred techniques and methods for box painting.
Plus you can show off your art work

What do you like to use?
Airbrush
Paint cans
computer graphix
brush + cans
decals
you name it

Share some ideas

[nils]

I usually paint my boxes in a nice bright color, print the graphics on a clear label (full face decal), stick it on and finish with a clear coat.

The result:

[forbin80]

what type of paint was used there?

[PB Wilson]

Wow nils, that looks great! Very professional.

For my projects, I've usually cleaned the enclosure, sprayed it with primer and topped that with spray paint from the hardware store. I haven't baked any of my pedals (my wife wouldn't like it too much) and some have suffered from chipping. It's probably a combination of not baking and too much paint. I've been topcoating with Future floor finish (thanks Jack for the info) and it looks pretty good. Sure smells better than spray on clear coat. For lettering, I usually use dry transfer letters under the clear coat and it turns out pretty well.

[ryanscissorhands]

And what did you do the graphics with? Because that it SWEET, man. That's the kind of stuff that inspires me to do this stuff--make nice looking pedals that noone else has.

Although there is also a lot to be said for "I made it in my basement"-looking pedals. But as for the professional-looking pedals, this is the stuff.

[kojjum]

I do mine the same way as nils.

Artwork is done in Adobe Illustrator, printed on a clear decal film in a office color laser copier. In my case a Canon CLC 3200. Did a overlay to my moddes DS-1 as well. Printed that one on white film. Not clearcoated on the image.

Passive A/B and A/B/Y:




Boss DS-1 with FuzzCentral mods:


//jens

[Karmasound]

Do you have to have a laser printer to do those? Would ink jet work?

[kojjum]

It can be done with both laser and inkjet printers. Just make sure that you use fil for that particular printer. With inkjet decales you have to use a clearcoat that don't resolve the ink. As you can see on my A/B box my clar did resolve the yellow toner a bit. Will try another clear on the following boxes.

/jens

[nils]

I used the el cheapo spray cans available at your favorite home improvement store, white in this case as I wanted a colored label, no primer, no fuzz. Chips easily, but great for a "on the road" look if you throw it down your stairs a few times :-). I've done the gfx with Micrografx Windows Draw 5 and printed them with my inkjet (Epson Stylus Color 660).

[nils]

kojjum, your boxed look awesome. I'm not very creative when it comes to designing the face, thumbs up to you (but at least my controls go to 12   *g*)

[BDuguay]

Nice work folks!
What a timely topic. Just this past weekend, I was preparing to box up another Easyvibe when I noticed a paint chip on the box. Further investigation ended up making the chip bigger so back to the paint booth(garage). It's frustrating that almost everything about d.i.y. pedal making seems easy to me except for 'finishing' the box. A thread like this should yield a wealth of ideas to make this part of the job a little more satisfying and a lot less labour intensive.
Thanks again Karmasound!

[kojjum]

kojjum, your boxed look awesome. I'm not very creative when it comes to designing the face, thumbs up to you (but at least my controls go to 12   *g*)

Thanx for you kind words. I don't consider myself beeing crative but I work a lot in Illustrator with both graphix and later on PCB's.

To paint my boxes I usualy use spraycans. In the summer I use a professional spraygun driven by air. My garage, wich I use as paint box, is unisolated and swedish winters makes it to cold to paint in (0 to +5°C). Therefore i use spraycans and paint in the warehouse of the company i work for. I usually and the box wit 120 and 240 grit, apply 2-3 coats of a sandable primer, 2-3 coats of the color, wet sand with 1200, 1500 and 2000 grit, apply the decal and add 2-4 coats of clear.

Here's a link to some earlier boxes.

//jens

[BramcoteLorne]

wow they all look so pretty.

maybe one day mine will look like that....

I have a related question:

kojjum where do you get your knobs from? you know the fender jazz looking ones? I've been after some of those for ages, I thought I was going to have to take apart my bass to get some....  :roll:  

I'm going to get my mate to have a go at painting a design onto my next box - she's a brill artist, then spray some varnish or something onto it and see how it looks.


dave.

[kojjum]

BramcoteLorne: All parts to my projects comes from ELFA. Best part supplier in Sweden. Don't have everything but most of the stuff to build basic effects. The knobs are really cheap...only about 14 SEK wich is approx 2 USD.

//jens

[Jehle]

kojjum, your boxed look awesome. I'm not very creative when it comes to designing the face, thumbs up to you (but at least my controls go to 12   *g*)

Here's a link to some earlier boxes.

//jens

Those are great looking!  I can only hope that my first finish attempt looks that good.

BTW, I would love to have one of your boxes just for the for the "SMAK" knob.   :lol:

<edit>

You made your own SansAmp?!?!  :shock:



That's BEAUTIFUL!

[ezanker]

All your boxes look great!  Mine are definitely less professional looking.

Here's my MayQueen:


And here's my Ruby:


Both use dark T-Shirt transfer printed on my inkjet printer.  The graphics were put together in Photoshop at 300dpi.  The MayQueen picture is supposed to look like Brian May's "Red Special" guitar, and I tried to give the Ruby a Fender Tweed look.  

On the MayQueen I could not find any hi-res pictures of the Red Special, so I photographed some oak furniture at home and then applied the red tint.

On the Ruby I either Ironed for too long or at too hot a temperature causing the leathery peeling effect (which I actually like the look of ).  The clearcoat got messed up around the on/off switch when I tightened it.

Erik

[MartyMart]

ezanker, I LOVE the "May Queen" ( just about to build one ) and the "Tweed" look is FAB too !
Good work  

Here's my "Script Logo Dyna Comp" homage...
http://www.pbase.com/martymart/image/38598761
http://www.pbase.com/martymart/image/38598764

And "Blue Clipper"
http://www.pbase.com/martymart/image/37313255

PS: Try the "Water slide Decals" they work quite well with an inkjet printer and no ironing !!

Marty.

[ezanker]

Thanks Marty!
I'm going to try the decals next because I'd like to paint the boxes as well.  I really like the Blue Clipper; that's a great color.
Erik

[MartyB]

The decals are really cool.  If you get the transparent kind, you'll need to take into consideration the background colors which show through.  They do sell white decal paper as well. which is opaque.  I love your artwork!

MartyB

[Dragonfly]

here are a few of mine....the last few are done with truck bed liner ! the first one is still waiting for its guts  :shock: