Painting Hammond Boxes For z.vex Effect look

[alchemist]

Hey,

This might be a tired question and its been about a year and a 1/2 since I've been on this forum, so this has probabley been discussed in detail.

However Here it goes:

I have a blank (not painted) Hammond box What do I have to do to prep it, for painting to get a z-vex type of effect. Is there a way of painting an effect box that does not require it to be baked in a toaster oven? is there a chemical solution I must subject the aluminum Chassis to?

Once the initial coat of paint is on (dried), Where do I find Paints that will stick to Aluminum and not chip off, that can be applied with a very fine brush, so that I can do small picture designs on the now dried undercoat of paint?

And finally What clear spray Laquer would Protect the final Paint design from abuse typical of stomp pedals take every night on stage?


Brand names of paints or products and location of products For this design is greately appreciated, Nuthin' looks nicer than your own designs


Josh9hanson@yahoo.com

[smashinator]

Prime the metal with something compatible with lacquer paints., otherwise paint won't stick.  

Find a laquer paint, they don't need to be baked.

Use a laquer clearcoat.

Alternately, prime the metal, then use One-Shot enamels.  They don't need to be baked, and are hard as nails.  At least, that's what I've read.  Your results may vary.  One-shot is easy to find, most "real" art-stores have it.  It's also abundantly available on the web.

One shot doesn't need to be clearcoated.  In fact, don't clear coat it, unless you like that "bubbly, wrinkly crap" look.

[cd]

Z himself explained it.  Search using the terms "auto" and "paint" under username "zachary vex".

[dadude]

ZVex does explane it:

"the steps are very complex...drilling with jigs to mark the holes, final hole drilling, cleaning, degreasing, chemical etch, two-part automotive epoxy primer, one or more coats of automotive 2-part epoxy color, hand-painting with enamels, baking, then clear-coating with automotive 2-part epoxy clear, and more baking. a series of 60 pedals can be started every day or so, and it takes about 4 days to go through the process"


If you don't have a spray gun and a compressor you are going to run into a problem as this stuff is sold in 1/2 and gallon cans.

If you are going to use enamels don't use a lacquer clear coat on an enamel. The solvents will eat the finish. Use a water based clear coat. Also make sure that the paint is totally dry before you clear coat it or it too will eat your finish as they do put a very small amount of solvents in water based clear coats to help them dry.

The best way to do it is to put a very light "mist" on for your first clear coat. That way the solvents in the water based clear coat are barely there. Let that dry. Then you can go on with thicker coats and not have to worry about it gumming up your enamel finish.

One thing that is really cool,   (and I know I'm going to get flamed for this  :roll: ) is to use enamel paints made for use on metal that do not require primering. I use them all the time and they dry faster and they can be very durable in some cases better than ones that require primers. Most of the time the ones that do will cost more as well. But they really cut down on dry time.

[zachary vex]

in all the years i've been doing this, i've never found any method of painting aluminum enclosures that didn't chip under even light use until we started using the compressor/airgun system with the 2-part epoxy automotive paints.  you might just want to pony up the dough to have an automotive repainting person handle it.  painting aluminum enclosures and really making it stick well with that very glossy look is, well, in a word, hard.

[dadude]

Zach is right about the auto primer and paint method.

What I should have clarified is if you are not using a spray gun and compressor or doing a powder coating process you can get decent results for your own pedals using enamel based spray can paints. They will chip to some extent. But you still can have fun doing a do it yourself project.

[alchemist]

Thanks everyone for the tips on painting, I searched the archives and found what I was looking for.


For those really enamoured with Art for effect boxes, I would look at artists from the 60's (POP ART) or even dadaism or surrealism (IE. Dali), I think art for these boxes could be taken well... FAR OUT  ( a cubist fuzz pedal, what about a futurist design.

sorry, this is what happens if you parents were abstract artists :?  :?

[dadude]

That could be very cool! I've been wanting to do some stuff like that as well. Check out the swirl paint effects method on the GEO site. Real cool stuff there.

PEACE It's back by popular demand...

[Clipped]

Has anybody tried Auto Air by Createx? This stuff is a water based paint (you'll need an airbrush or gun though). They have some awesome colors and the paint seems to stick very well. If you use it, throw out everything you know about painting - It goes on in VERY thin coats and covers well. Once that dries, clear coat it and it looks great. You have to see the paints in person - they have some great metallics, pearls, flake, etc.

We painted this guitar with it (Pearl white body, purple pearl and purple candy flames.  http://www.retunedmusic.com/ The back "pinstriping" was done with a PC vinyl cutter and the headstock with Inkjet water slide decals. Everything was clear coated, including the outlining of the flames, which WAS One Shot. I think the key, as Zach mentioned is a REALLY light dusting of clear for the first coat or two and be sure the underlying paint is dry.
The picture of the guitar doesn't do it justice at all, the colors are great.

All of these things could translate to stompboxes very well. The paint is pretty cheap. A 4oz bottle of pearl is around 6-7 bucks, but you can reduce it a ton and still get good coverage. We did the body of the guitar and some tests with less than a 4oz bottle. These are automotive grade paints.

Here's the link for Auto Air if anybody wants to check it out. If it sticks to a Funny Car going 324MPH, it should do pretty good on a stompbox!

http://www.autoaircolors.com

Have fun -
Ron

Kinda sounded like an advertisement, but it wasn't  :lol:  I just found they work pretty well.

[zachary vex]

great link!  that's really interesting.  i'd never heard of water-based auto paint before.  thanks!

[Peter Snowberg]

Cool!

Thanks very much!!!

We're under a bit more regulatory overhead in California.... The idea of water based is really nice.

[Clipped]

Keep in mind it is a base coat though, you'll always have to clear it. It looks really rough, but as soon as you clear it, it looks smooth. Nice thing is after you shoot it, hit it with a hair dryer and it dries.

If you're at all interested, I'd recommend getting the free guides off the webpage to see the particulars in using it.

Peter, here's a place in CA - http://www.coastairbrush.com

A couple of others:

http://www.airbrush-depot.com
http://www.bearair.com

Ron

[ethrbunny]

three words:

rust o leum

works great. no primer. no baking. lots of colors. designed to stick to metal and be used by clueless people (me).



EDIT: then I use paint pens for the labeling (sp). With a little practice (on the inside of the box) you can get a great look that is pretty bombproof.

[Peter Snowberg]

Thanks for the link Ron!