Pictures!

[Cozybuilder]

Pelle-
You have a good eye! The box is trimmed on the side and boss to fit the pots- it takes about 2 minutes with the dremel. The boss by the 9V jack takes a little more time, but its easy.

The jacks are indeed modified, the photo is in-progress for the next build:

1) Bend the tab for the tip connection up, sometimes they break, even if heated first, so thats first
2) Trim the bottom- I use a cutoff wheel in a dremel- 30 seconds
3) Not shown, but grind the tip conductor between the insulator plates down so that it can't short out on the box
4) Trim the tip tab so it fits in the box nicely, and drill a new hole. Look closely at the component shot earlier, you'll see it
5) Leave the ground tab on the out jack, remove it from the in jack

[Groovenut]

Damn Cozy that's some layout magic there! I suppose as long as there's air it's fair 

Love your builds!

[Perrow]

Pelle-
You have a good eye!

Well, I've sort of been there, I know what it looks like 

Though I didn't really have to do all those crazy things (just a few others).

[Cozybuilder]

Yes, I've been a fan of your work for quite some time. You did a nice job on your Superfly, something like that is on my build list. And your curved lead PCB layouts are fantastic.

[Beo]

Here's my meatball/meatsphere/meatstick, using Taylor's PCB. Still trying to figure out how to use this thing, but it sure makes some cool sounds.

Getting better etches these days, but still not as clean on the toner transfer as I'd like.

[hylandren]

An amazing build.
Please forgive my ignorance as I am a novice builder, but on the exterior shot there is an LED right next to the stomp switch, but I don't see one on the gut shot. I assume it was added after the gutshot was taken, but I'm wondering how you got the LED in there with the tip connector of the output jack already occupying that space.....
Again, an amazing build.

[Cozybuilder]

@ Hylandren
Thank you.
This photo was taken to verify component placement. There is 0.35" of space between the output tip connector and the box side, plenty of room for the LED. To measure the location, its half the available (0.35/2) + the sidewall thickness (0.075") = 0.25" from the edge (measure outside). Then half the distance from the screw boss to the footswitch if you want to center the LED in the rectangle available. In these micro builds, its simply a matter of accurate measuring and drilling (and filling the hole with JB Weld when its off and re-drilling.) When I am trying new components or a new idea, the first placement doesn't always work out, so I get to try something else. For this build it was new pots, and I wound up repositioning them 3 times before I was happy.

[trad3mark]

Finally getting back to building. This one was a bit of a rush job, so the wiring is a tad messy. That being said, I've 2 more of these lined up, so they'll be much neater!

This is my 27//54 tube boost/preamp. It's based on a 12AU7 with a Nixie SMPS. The three controls and two footswitches work like a Super Duper 2-in-1, but fully cranked, it's not quite at the heavy metal stage. With this one, it's my first venture into stenciling. I used my 3d printer to do the stencils, but they ended up bleeding a tiny bit because the side facing down/into the pedal was a bit rough. The guy I built it for really went for that though, saying it made it look more authentic, so I guess it's not so bad. Still, there's some bits to be improved on, particularly with the wiring. It was my first go at using padboard instead of stripboard, and although I do like it, it ended up being a learning curve as far as the best way to link traces. In the end, I was most comfortable with just connecting them with lines of solder, which I don't think is the worst solution. Any tips on using padboard would be really appreciated. My next 2 of these will have to wait till about mid-may, as I have professional exams at the start of may.

[davent]

Came out really nice!

With stencils, if you spray clear or the under-colour first after applying the stencil, that should seal the stencil edges and the roughness so when you apply the contrasting stencil colour it can't bleed under, gives you nice crisply defined edges if that's what you're aiming for.

Perfboard?... run!

dave

[trad3mark]

Well the way I layered the paint was 2 x white primer, 1 x metallic red, 1 x black stencils, 1 x clear coat sealer. the little bit of bleed is kinda growing on me. It's a bit raw or something? I'm keen to try using 2 or 3 stencils and layering them, but that'll have to wait.

I found the padboard to be more convenient for fitting everything on in a tight space, but yeah, it's very unforgiving by comparison to stripboard haha! Still, it's all good progress in my books!

[bloxstompboxes]

Finished my Little Angel Mini Chorus. This effect is subtle. Noisy as hell too. Pretty much unusable with clean tone. May have to try some other PT2399s I have or a different supplier. It's also my first color laser printer decal. Our inkjet was hit by a storm the other day and I managed to sell the wife on a color laser printer. The check light is a little off.

[peterg]

Eric

Nice looking build. You should be able to clean up the noise. I build one and it's pretty quiet.

[Jdansti]

Nice job, Eric!  Check to see if the input jack is well grounded. Maybe it doesn't have good contact with the enclosure. Try a temporary jumper from the jack to ground.

[bloxstompboxes]

Yeah, I'll get to looking at in a bit and let you know what it was. I don't think it's the chip either. I used the same supplier for my rebote 3 and it's as quiet as can be with 3 of them in there.

[bloxstompboxes]

Something's definitely not right. Added another gnd. Not the cause, of course, but I found that I had a 470k on my layout in place of the 100k resistor to GND on the output. Replaced that and reflowed all the joints on the board and jacks... no difference. Passes clean signal fine but the effect is terribly noisy. It is there though. At noon on depth, I can here pulsing and the noise when my guitar is quiet. The pulsing is almost the same level as the guitar itself. Pulsing seems to lessen when I play. I'll have to check my layout when I get some time.

[darron]

Sorry for the SUPER long photo. Hope people don't mind. Showing off what you can do with one of Mac Walker's wedge enclosures IE here:   http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=97548.msg998155#msg998155


Development process:

[Luke51411]

Nice one Darron! I never thought of dremeling a pot to use as a pseudo trim pot, I like it!

[darron]

Nice one Darron! I never thought of dremeling a pot to use as a pseudo trim pot, I like it!

Nothing as precise as a Dremel. Hack saw and a belt sander lol. Thanks
Somebody asked me to make a control that was adjustable by guitar pick.

[noobamp]

per usual, beautiful build with exceptional wiring!

[bloxstompboxes]

Checked everything again twice. Went over my layout vs the schematic and couldn't find a thing. I was also getting a pop when hitting the switch. Finally tried a LM358 and all of a sudden there were "little" angels singing! Hmph. The NE5532 was defective. Oh well, lol. She works now. Still a little noise but no where near the awful racket there was before.

May try another NE5532. Found some hidden away.

Edit: Hmmm. So it seems my NE5532s are either defective or they are a bad choice for this circuit. I tried a JRC4558 and had about the same or better result as the LM358. I got all of the above from tayda except the LM358 which was from TI. Anyone else experience this?