Stompbox Art

[Marcos - Munky]

Very cool boxes, Jack.

[Doug H]

Jack, Your boxes have a really "retro EH" look that I really like. Reminds me of the old ram's head stuff. Nice work!

Doug

[Thomas P.]

Maybe it would be better to cover the box with glue and then powder it with some stuff to achive the FOXX style. Afterwards you can prepare some thin alu with the t-shirt method...
I checked out the t-shirt thing for the first time yesterday for my Big Muff clone - great. I'll never use decals again :wink:

Regards,
tomboy

[moosapotamus]

I can't recall where I saw them, but someone had used echant to etch the top of their die-cast aluminum Hammond enclosures. Not sure what they used as a resist. You could probably use PnP if you wanted to go with a computer generated image. Latex paint might do the trick, too. After it drys, you could scratch your design/graphics into the top. Once it's etched deeply enough, just clean off the latex. Then, you could wipe some colored printing ink, or paint into the etched parts (wipe the surface clean with a rag, and the ink/paint will remain in the etched parts). A few coats of lacquer after it drys, and you might end up with somthing unique and cool looking. Might take some experimentation to get the technique 'down.'

~ Charlie

[troubledtom]

i've used finger nail polish to resist the acid.
            peace,
               - tom

[Greg Moss]

The lettering has me pretty stumped though. I have some stick-on letters that might stay for a while, especially with some super glue behind them. Anyone have some suggestions? Anyone else doing something really cool?!

There's an art supply store near my house that has some of those fuzzy iron-on letters. which enjoy some popularity in the early eighties.  I think sleater-Kinney used them on some of there newer shirts.

They come in a few different typefaces and colors, but I suspect the biggest limitation (npi) would be the lack of very small lettering.....

[ncc]

I started building pedals about a year ago. Of course they all had
the same hammond box look with masking tape to label the knobs/jacks.
Then I started to think about "the outside of the box" and designed
a few artwork for a friend. Tim Larwill found out about 'lazertran' and
we bought some to experiment with. I started imagine all kind of
possibilities for full color pedals. The process is not easy but when
it works, it can be very cool. I also bought some t-shirt transfer as
suggested by Charlie but haven't opened the package yet.

Here are a few samples of the stuff I am experimenting with.



A few more concept images are available here:
http://www.magma.ca/~nccyr/stompboxes.htm
ncc

P.S. Updated Wed. Aug 20: I used this post to test the edit feature Aron mentioned in the "About this Forum" entry.

[Rory]

I got some of those sticky letters and they worked pretty well, except I'm a naturally messy person so they're not at all spaced evenly or level, but I can work on that.  As far as keeping them on, a few coats of clear coat worked very well also.  I also had a really cool accident.  I bought some spray on adhesive that I was thinking about using my fabric on.  Well, I sprayed it on the bottom (the lid) of my painted box and thought it looked pretty cool.  I let it dry and then sprayed two coats of clear coat over it and voila!, non-skid bottoms!  You have to make sure that the adhesive is pretty uneven.

[Chris R]

*NM*

[Mike Burgundy]

I had a go at this a couple of days ago (befor the blaster worm took hold of my computer, blast!) but the resist I used wasn't strong enough. It apparently thakes a LONG time to etch a significant dent in there - even though it fizzes and gets hot all on it's own.
Any tips?

[Dan N]

I tried Charlies iron on idea. Pretty fun!

[sfr]

Rory -

Well, I'd basically do it like upholstery for the best look - rather than glue the fabric on, sew a tight-fitting slip cover sort of thing for the pedal.  I did this to a few amps and cabs a few years ago, (we had some very, uh, colourful amps, but looking back now, it seriously looks like a truckload of stereotyped 70's pimps had a car accident with the Marshall deliever truck) and it worked great, although have the corners and handles on the outside sort of helped hold things in place, so with a pedal YMMV.
Depending on the size, you could applique the letters.  Also, the iron ons like people said might work, but I've never had much luck with them w/p stictching to reinforce things.  If yr going over light coloured fabric, you could use fabric marker, or a batik (dye + resist) method, although that would have to be done before you sewed the cover.  

Also, what is this t-shirt bit people are talking about?  I guess I missed that post.  (I've been lurking for a while now)  Well, I'll go back and search for it, but a quick refresher might be nice.

[sfr]

I don't know why I hadn't mentioned this before, but something that might apply to a lot of what's been mentioned here is screen printing.  I do a bit of it at home, mostly prints of my art, and some stuff like t-shirts and patches, and some handbills flyers and CD/record packaging, and it's pretty versatile, even if it is aimed more at higher production numbers than just a single unit.  It'd probably be the best way to label a fabric exterior for a pedal, and I've used it to label metal stompboxes, and even as resist instead of PnP Blue on circuit boards as an experiment once.    

I also wonder how well it would work for the etching thing people were talking about . . . What was being used to etch the aluminum?  Was it a paint on resist and then soak in a bath method?  In the past, I've used a slightly creamy (consistency like thick artists acrylic paint) etchant via a screen printing method to make frosted/etched glass or plexi mirrors - I imagine with a suitable etchant a similar method might work well for stompboxes.

Like I said, I do other screen printing projects, so when I make a screen, say, for a few shirts, I often times leave some extra area if I'm planning on doing a pedal, and put that design on the same screen - if you were doing just pedals, it might be a bit time-consuming for just one, but it's a fun activity.

[Marcos - Munky]

Hey Dan, your box looks very cool. What effect is this?

[gez]

Nice work Dan!  How do you get the stuff to go round the top edge of the box?

[Dan N]

Hi guys,

The effect is an Ugly Face by Tim Escobedo.

I cut the transfer a tad too large and ironed a little over the edges. One spot tore when I did this, but it seems to be O.K. Man, the box got really hot!

Thanks to Tim and Charlie!

Dan

[moosapotamus]

I tried Charlies iron on idea. Pretty fun!

That looks great!

Yeah, the box do get hot. :shock:

~ Charlie