My latest creation

[C Bradley]

I finished my latest pedal:



It's a NPN fuzz face with 2N2222 transistors. The enclosure is a 4" PVC drain cap with a 4" round electrical junction box cover for the bottom.  

[8 track]

Cool! I like it.
Is it noisy in the plastic enclosure? Rf and whatnot?

[aaronkessman]

how did you attach the cover to the bottom of the cap?

[C Bradley]

It's not very noisy. I put a 10k resistor before the input cap, and that keeps a lot of RF noise down.

Attaching the bottom to the cap is done by using wooden blocks super-glued into the cap. Wood screws go through two holes drilled in the cover and into the wood blocks. Lowe's Home Improvement sells 3/8" square stock in 3' lengths, which I cut into pieces about 1/2" long and glue inside the caps. That's also how I secure the PCB.  :wink:

[8 track]

You got any "Gut" shots so's we can see your handywork?

[C Bradley]

You got any "Gut" shots so's we can see your handywork?

Not yet. I'll take one when I get home after work tonight. I still don't have a battery clip in there. Any DIY ideas on that? I was thinking about a simple strap type clamp to hold in in place.

[Paul Marossy]

Nice work. How does paint hold up on the PVC? Do you use Testors model enamel or something?

[8 track]

I take a little foam square, cut a battery sized groove in it, a hole for the wires, then glue in the foam.
When you put the lid on, it holds the battery against the foam. Kind of like the way Morley does with their wah pedals. Good Luck.

[Arn C.]

Hey, that looks a bit like mine....



Peace!
Arn C.

[8 track]

Cool! What kind of enclosures are those???

[Arn C.]

Empty plastic chewing tobacco cans "KODIAK"

Arn C.

[8 track]

Empty plastic chewing tobacco cans "KODIAK"

Arn C.

Waddaya think of this?

[Arn C.]

Real Cooooooool !!!

Peace!
Arn C.

[C Bradley]

Here's a shot of the insides. This isn't the fuzz, but it looks almost identical. I used the same technique and the same Radio Shack PCB for the circuit. This is an opamp distortion kind of like a Distortion +, but no clipping diodes.



Sorry for the crappy picture. I took it with my cheap digital camera. A Polaroid and a scanner would be better.  :roll: If you look close, you can see the wooden lugs glued to the sides for mounting the bottom plate. The plate is to the left, bottom down. I put rubber feet on the bottom so it doesn't slide. The PCB is mounted with two screws into wooden lugs glued to the side of the cap. The pots are the big 26mm Alpha pots and they're mounted below the PCB. The DPDT switch is the $5 Alpha switch Small Bear sells.

The paint is Plastic Enamel by Valspar, sold at Lowe's. It's supposed to bond to plastic, and it seems to stick pretty good. I need to get some orange or some other color though; can't have all my pedals "landscape green".  :lol:

The Altoids box is awesome!    What kind of circuit is inside? No footswitch?

[8 track]

Nice work!
It's a Ruby amp. Check out my other post "Smallest Ruby Amp" I made one about a third that size.

Btw, go by your local auto paint supply store (like FinishMaster) and get you some spray bomb plastic primer (like they use for hard interior panels or bumper covers). Mar-hyde or SEM will be good brand names to look for.
Since the pvc isn't very flexable, you should be able to topcoat it with anything you want.    

Best Regards, Jeff