Showcase of $1.60 enclosures and painting experiments - pics

[mojotron]

Well, I said I would post my painting experiments... This is my collection of designs that I have built - all of them are modded in some way...
These are some on the ones I have been working on..

I use electrical boxes for all my stuff... they are perfect for prototyping on the cheap - each costs $1.60... if you screw up the top - it's only $.50... so...


I used standard 4x4 electrical boxes.. I love these boxes because I can just screw the bottoms into a pedal board and move the tops around or replace it....

As part of my painting experiments, this is the Fat Boostered that I built and painted with backed enamel - note a few dings...

I thought that the backed enamel (sides are all black bed liner :wink: ) has average durability... very very glossy - this has about 5 coats of polyurethene over Plasti Kote

This is my Ge Boutique Fuzz - this was an experiment with an acitate (transperency) film over enamel using poly to hold it on (top and bottom).... I think it has this cool effect where the enamel is melted and kind of re-formed under the acetate... but it's not something someone would want to spend money for...


This is my Si Boutique Fuzz (basically built from the 1970 schematic... adding the bias knob like the '69) - this was an experiment that was simply Plasti Kote Metal Flake blue under a lacquer clear coat... Very durable... I really like the low-gloss as well - to get high gloss - just use some machine polish and buff and buff and buff and....


This next one is an AB box

This is enamel under a lacquer, Plasti Kote bumper chrome on the top and metalic base coat on the bottom... covered in a lacquer clear coat - you can hardly see the depth of this finish - but it looks really different...

On all of these I used soak-off laser decals and SOL salvent.... It was really tricky to work with lacquer, but the lines on the decals are not noticable..

On the enamel, you have all day to position the decals, but when dry the decals' edges are a lot more noticable.....

[Cabezahead]

Nice work.  Where'd you buy those enclosures - and do they do a good job of shieldin?

-CH

[MartyB]

Nicely done !

MartyB

[mojotron]

Nice work.  Where'd you buy those enclosures - and do they do a good job of shieldin?

-CH

Thanks... I got the electrical boxes at Home Depot.... and they are great for shielding....

[nuttmeg1]

I hate to say,"I told you so." but, "I told you so." They look KILLER!!!!

[Giaime]

How did they worked for shielding if they are made of plastic (at least here I can find things like these only in plastic)

[Doug_H]

Those look really nice. I like how you used the lids to mount everything on. You avoided the hassle of drilling through punchouts and etc and the jack location looks pretty convenient. Also, no lumpy-bumpy surface like on typical RACO's. Nice way to experiment with paint too.

Nice job!

Doug

[aaronkessman]

AND as mentioned on another thread, you simply screw the boxes into a wooden pedalboard through one of the holes in the RACO enclosure. man, with the jacks on top of the enclosures like you have, you could fit a zillion of these on a small pedalboard.

nice work.

[petemoore]

I like It !!!
 Those flattops take paint real nice !!!
 Also...you can 'see' the side of the circuit...no walls to hinder there...a Big + IMO ... as much as I like to work on and mod these things...perfect workability !!!
 I'm going to try this too...would have been a good thing to start using...early in the process...all mine are 'upside up'...I must have 12+ Racoed circuits.

[lethargytartare]

Must be looking at the wrong thing -- electrical junction boxes are never plastic (it'd be against code just about everywhere).  They're steel.  There are also aluminum exterior ones...go to any hardware store and look in the electrical department.

How did they worked for shielding if they are made of plastic (at least here I can find things like these only in plastic)

[nightingale]

not to hi-jack,
but how do you like the red fuzz?
i've had my eye on that one over @ GGG.
i am thinking of trying it with some GE diodes. i love the sound of GE clipping diodes.

those look real nice man, plus with the allready mentioned "no space needed for jacks between boxes".. i think this is going to become common practice among the RACO users.

[Paul Marossy]

electrical junction boxes are never plastic (it'd be against code just about everywhere). They're steel. There are also aluminum exterior ones...go to any hardware store and look in the electrical department.

It depends on where you are,I guess. I have plastic boxes in my house and you can get steel or plastic ones at the local Lowe's hardware store.

Anyhow, those are pretty cool looking for Raco type enclosures! Using just the lids and some kind of large enclosure, you could make a modular pedal board. That's kind of a cool concept (to me)...  

[mojotron]

Must be looking at the wrong thing -- electrical junction boxes are never plastic (it'd be against code just about everywhere).  They're steel.  There are also aluminum exterior ones...go to any hardware store and look in the electrical department.

How did they worked for shielding if they are made of plastic (at least here I can find things like these only in plastic)

Yes they are the regular steel junction boxes. I give them 1 or 2 coats of the black bedliner paint - don't even need primer on the bases... I forgot who gave me that tip, but like just about all of the stuff I've done with stompboxes - I OWE EVERYONE A BIG THANKS FOR ALL OF THE HELP....    

I've been the king of wierd questions (both with finish and circuit questions...) and I have had a lot of patient replies from verterans as well as new people on this forum. Using these boxes like this has allowed me to quickly box-up and even srew them to a wood 2x6 and go to some gigs... I hope this is contributing to everyone - especially those that gave me some great advice/ideas!!

I've put out some prototypes of some of my more original/inovative circuit work in Hammond 1590-BB and 1590-DD boxes, but about 2 months ago I decided that I would stop using the Hammonds until I learned to paint these things correctly - mostly so I could start selling these things for more than just my time and parts in Hammonds....

[Paul Marossy]

about 2 months ago I decide that I would stop using the Hammonds until I learned to paint these things correctly

Yeah, they can be tricky to paint!  :x

[mojotron]

I hate to say,"I told you so." but, "I told you so." They look KILLER!!!!

Thanks! I did put some work into these - and thanks to everyone’s help I have had some major breakthroughs in figuring out this painting thing as well as making PCBs on a quality/scale/pace that is compatible to production.

I put a few ideas that everyone gave me here together with some ideas of my own for the experiment enclosures...

My final conclusion is:

Heat the enclosure for 15 minutes, let it cool to about  90 degrees, 1-2 coats self-etching primer, 2 hours later put down 1-2 coats Plasti Kote (walmart) lacquer Metal Flake, apply decals with SOL, then put down 1-2 coats of Plasti Kote clear lacquer - letting it dry for about 2 hours between all coats. It's really durable, there are very few signs (non in the case of 2 clear coats) where the decals were applied, and it looks great.

This is my conclusion: I think with this method I could now easily do 10 - 15 Hammonds at a time with a 1 day turn around and total time invested in man-hours is less than 1 - maybe more like 3 if I wanted a gloss finish. And I will only need some heat lamps in the winter for bringing the ambient temp up to about 80 degrees. The only issue with scaling this method to doing 10+ at a time is the space involved.

I have a lot more experimenting to do still.. but I could go forward now with this method...

Also, I am building is a spray booth where I can flip down some 75W flood lamps for moderate heating... so I will be able to paint and bake (well.. with the lacquer I just have to keep the temp up around 80 degrees..). So, when I do get around to trying to paint Hammonds in a few weeks and make some money at this - I can approach painting like I do the circuits and now making PCBs as well as more of an operational issue instead of each one being a separate engineering exercise.

[mojotron]

I'm going to try this too....

As a safety note for anyone new/inexperienced or that might not realize the danger involved: Get some c-clamps and drill them out while clamped to (or just screwed into) something like a 2x12 or 5/8" plywood.

I have one of the bottoms screwed to a section of 2x12 and I use it just for drilling - I also put one in a vice to hold it as well sometimes. I also use a punch to set the holes while sitting on my wood workbench, then I screw all of them out with a uni-bit.

The point that I want to make is that the tops are harder to hold down then something with sides on it .... like a Hammond.... My advice is to never try to hold the tops while drilling - just screw them down securely to something. Since these are made of steel - drilling is a little tougher than aluminum...
If you try to hold these while you drill, or do not secure them, you could easily loose a finger/hand if the thing kicks back. :shock: .

So - for anyone trying this - it works great, but remember to do it safely - you will actually do a better job with 10 fingers than 8 or 9.  

[mojotron]

not to hi-jack,
but how do you like the red fuzz?
i've had my eye on that one over @ GGG.....

The Red Fuzz is kind of a mix of a reverse engineered '69 and the GGG Boutique Fuzz - Ge + ground. I use an NTE102 for Q1, NTE102A for Q2, a 100K volume pot and a .02uf output cap... It is my favorite box I have ever used.... it's a fantastic dirty boost for a strat using the neck pickup. I think this is a must build for anyone that uses a Start...  

Be forwarned though.... and this is the downside of this build... you will need to get at least 5 of each of the transistors so you can find 2 that you like.  :x

[Doug_H]

As a safety note for anyone new/inexperienced or that might not realize the danger involved: Get some c-clamps and drill them out while clamped to (or just screwed into) something like a 2x12 or 5/8" plywood.

I have one of the bottoms screwed to a section of 2x12 and I use it just for drilling - I also put one in a vice to hold it as well sometimes. I also use a punch to set the holes while sitting on my wood workbench, then I screw all of them out with a uni-bit.

The point that I want to make is that the tops are harder to hold down then something with sides on it .... like a Hammond.... My advice is to never try to hold the tops while drilling - just screw them down securely to something. Since these are made of steel - drilling is a little tougher than aluminum...
If you try to hold these while you drill, or do not secure them, you could easily loose a finger/hand if the thing kicks back. :shock: .

So - for anyone trying this - it works great, but remember to do it safely - you will actually do a better job with 10 fingers than 8 or 9.  

I use my drill press on the slowest speed and a lot of 3-in-1 oil on the bit. And yes, always clamp your work! With proper clamping and drilling you can drill through punch-outs too. I have been a proponent of using these boxes for years for doing protos and one-offs for yourself.  They are tougher to drill than aluminum, but are inexpensive and sturdy.

So Mojotron, are you planning on building commercial products using RACO boxes? Or are you just using them for a test-bed for trying out painting ideas? I like them for building for myself. But for commercial stuff I would prefer aluminum, for the ease of working with it, smaller size, etc...

Thanks for sharing all your hard work with us. Getting a durable finish with paint can be such a hassle. I'm sure you saved some people a lot of time by posting your painting results.

Doug

[Giaime]

Excuse me... but any junction box sold here in Italy is plastic... getting steel things is HARD! And they're pricey.

[mojotron]

...So Mojotron, are you planning on building commercial products using RACO boxes? Or are you just using them for a test-bed for trying out painting ideas? I like them for building for myself. But for commercial stuff I would prefer aluminum, for the ease of working with it, smaller size, etc...

I have been using them for enclosures for circuit work mostly... You never know how many knobs you'll need for any given project from week to week - at least if you develop these things in the way I do... Everything I have sold has been in a Hammond Al enclosure - a lot of my prototypes I have given to people to try out have been in unpainted boxes like this.... I resisted the idea of doing much with the enclosure paint job for a long time because I'm an engineer not an artist.... But as I started marketing my ideas - it became clear that to sell stomp boxes well they have to have a decent pro paint job.... So although I will sell stuff in Hammonds - I thought I would put production of pedals on hold and start painting experiments on the stuff I already built and have been using on my own pedal board (which is a 2x6). I think I am just about ready to start building things to be sold in Hammonds again - now with much better paint jobs and greatly improved PCBs.

Thanks for sharing all your hard work with us. Getting a durable finish with paint can be such a hassle. I'm sure you saved some people a lot of time by posting your painting results.

Doug

I hope so.... I want to contribute in any way I can.  

I have some circuit work I want to post in time as well, but I need to workout some issues with sound shaping first...