How Vaping was the best thing that ever happened to my pedal designs!

[rring]

So I don't get the whole vaping thing...but while looking for stomp box enclosures I ran across solid aluminum machined Hammond type boxes...on ebay from alpinetech...apparently there are DIY vape devices/power supplies that people make  and they like to use these boxes...why? because you can anodize them and make them cool colors...I think? Anyway you cannot anodize die cast boxes because the aluminum is doped too heavily with other ingredients and they badly discolor. So I got some and figured out how to do home anodizing which is really easy, clean and water based. Now I etch my pedals, do inlay and then anodize them. Check it out; I use plain RIT fabric dye from the grocery store...if I make a mistake; the anodizing can be easily stripped with a lye solution and redone. Check out the pictures below: One is of my pedal board with all the 1590a type pedals, I actually use to play out...the other shows a raw box and after anodizing.

 
I cannot state enthusiastically enough how nice these boxes are and how awesome they look when you anodize them. The process is much easier than painting!

[EBK]

Don't forget about the wooden boxes the DIY vaping people also use.  Those make great pedals too.


(I don't get the whole vaping thing either.)

[rring]

That is hilarious!

[Slowpoke101]

Any chance that you could describe how to do your anodizing process?
Very interested in this.

[thermionix]

Any chance that you could describe how to do your anodizing process?
Very interested in this.

+1, those boxes look great!

[swever]

I've been trying to get into anodizing, but all the info I found made it look like an overly complicated and not really diy friendly process. Since you mention it's much easier than painting, I am very curious to learn how you do it and try it myelf asap.

[rring]

So you can get everything you need from amazon...As I said you have to get machined aluminum cases not the standard cast type hammond enclosures.

The basic process is you use your piece to anodized as the  anode(+) connection and then use a dilute acid bath as your negative connection...
You electrify for about 30 minutes, rinse off the piece...then dip it in a warm dye bath(I just use RIT cloth dye from the grocery store). Finally, you boil in plain water to seal the dye.

I need to give more detail on these steps...which I will do in following posts...check out you tube that's what I used to get started. I will get some pictures of my setup and post more info.

[rring]

materials you need: Amazon links shown here(can probably get better deals if you look)

A constant current power supply that can provide 30 volts and at least 5 amps( I use a ten amp because I do some really large pieces)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071RNT1CD/ref=sspa_dk_detail_6?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B071RNT1CD&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=a54d13fc-b8a1-4ce8-b285-d77489a09cf6&pf_rd_r=7VXJJJ6742YNK9HMMJ4D&pd_rd_wg=XuJE1&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&pd_rd_w=k0O53&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pd_rd_r=df67e15b-aa07-11e8-b96a-75051c3f57a5

sodium bisulfate(makes weak sulfuric acid solution) pool chemical to change PH
https://www.amazon.com/Cinderella-Minus-Swimming-Balancer-Pounds/dp/B06XSKVGGQ/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1535380465&sr=8-7&keywords=ph+down+for+pools

Titanium wire:
https://www.amazon.com/TEMCo-Titanium-Gauge-Surgical-Resistance/dp/B01AV6PSRC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1535380667&sr=8-2&keywords=titanium+wire

a five gallon bucket or container big enough for your material

a piece of lead sheet: You can get a smaller piece than this but this works well for a five gallon bucket
https://www.amazon.com/Sheet-Lead-12-Rotometals/dp/B00IS5EEZ6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1535380808&sr=8-3&keywords=lead+sheet

distilled water to make your electrolyte

little air pump(optional) (just ensures the electrolyte moves around and particles do not stick on material)
https://www.amazon.com/Pawfly-MA-60-Aquarium-gallon-Accessories/dp/B073DWVX5P/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1535381410&sr=8-4&keywords=small+aquarium+air++pump

here is my setup bucket, you hang the material from the aluminum rod with a piece of titanium wire into the solution..I used 5 pounds of sodium bisulfate for 5 gallons of water...more or less not super critical. You connect the negative connection to the lead cathode. You connect the positive connection to the aluminum rod at the top, then the titanium wire brings the potential down to the material to be anodized. You set the current on your power supply to about 2-4 amps depending on the size of your box( 4 amps per square foot or so)




You can obviously make a smaller setup if you are only going to do stomp box enclosures.

you also need lye drain cleaner to make a lye solution to clean your parts and or remove anodizing.
I dip my parts into a lye bath for a minute or so then clean with a sos pad and rinse( wearing rubber gloves) before I put into the anodizing bath. If I am stripping anodizing off it takes a little longer but not much. The part has to be absolutely clean or you will get finger print marks etc. Anything you don't want anodized can be taped off or put a resist on. You don't have to use a lye bath but I do because it works so well to ensure even anodizing (I'm lazy and sloppy).

What is cool is you can get pre-anodized boxes as well as bare metal. If you want you can make a resist on the top of an anodized box and then use lye solution to strip down to metal and do a quick labeling that way if you like. I get the anodized boxes now, then put my resist on(laser printer)  do a lye etch to get to metal then use ferric chloride to continue the etch for my inlay. I do this because the anodized metal does not react with the ferric chloride allowing me to do perfect etching every time. Then I will strip and re-anodize if I don't like the original color. All of my pictures show anodizing and dying that I did.. not pre-anodized colors.... just to clarify.

More info:
when connecting the titanium wire it must have a tight pressure fit into a hole(or other pressure connection) so that the electrical connection resists being anodize which would disconnect the part.
I typically run a 1590a type box at 3 amps for 40 minutes...then without handling the box with you fingers, rinse it off well...you then soak in a 140 deg F dye bath for 5-30 minutes depending on how deep a color you want...finally place piece in boiling water for 20 minutes to seal. This works because it creates oxide hydrates which swell up closing the porosity of the oxide layer. If you screw it up just soak in a lye bath and scrub a little bit...the anodizing will come off...otherwise the anodizing is impervious to just about everything!

[duck_arse]

wow. wow wow wow, wow!

[amz-fx]

Great find! Thanks for sharing.

A couple of minutes searching on Ebay turned up a source with enclosures milled out of solid billets of copper or brass. Nice!

https://www.ebay.com/str/dripp3d

regards, Jack

[EBK]

A couple of minutes searching on Ebay turned up a source with enclosures milled out of solid billets of copper or brass. Nice!

https://www.ebay.com/str/dripp3d

Brass!  I want one! ($38.50 for a 1590B-like enclosure, but still!)

I still don't get the vaping thing, but I like their shiny objects!  (They also use cool switches and bezels in their builds.)

[moid]

The copper ones are also fabulous and very pimp Way too expensive though.

[patrick398]

They do look great but i am struggling to find any for under £15. Maybe they're cheaper in the states? Hopefully this new market for aluminium enclosures will drive down the price in time. I stopped smoking and started vaping a couple of years ago. Breathing in solder fumes, aluminium dust, and tobacco smoke...something had to go, and it certainly wasn't going to be the first two

[pauloh22]

That looks really nice!

All the CNC vape enclosures I've seen are held together with magnets. If you aren't using velcro on the bottom will that work for a pedal?

[rring]

I don't use the magnets. the enclosures still have threaded holes...so you just have to drill out two screw holes in the lid(base plate) and use screws. If I used batteries I might try the magnets, they come with the box but you have to glue them in.