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I hate painting on unfinished enclosures.  Always shows the imperfections of the surface below the paint.

Have you tried doing a wet sand before painting them? I use 400 grit and then move to 2000 grit and i end up with a super smooth enclosure. sometimes i don't even wanna paint it afterwards!

Of course.  This one was blocked sanded with 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000.  2000 grit is actually too much except for finial finishing.  You have to leave something for the paint to stick to.  After sanding, I hit it with scotch brite medium pads to give it a little more 'bite'.

  Problem isn't so much the finish on the enclosures but how some have such large pits and casting marks that painting is ok but if you put a decal or graphic on it, it leaves a nice, large space for air to collect.  Not a good thing for a graphic.  To correct that, you would have to poly fill, THEN sand to smooth the surface but it's far easier just to buy a polished enclosure.

 The one above was wet sanded after the final clear with 1500 and 2000, then buffed to a mirror shine.  If you look closely at the top left pot hole, you can see a pit that I would have had to fill if I wanted a perfect surface....but since this was a test template of sorts, didn't care.  

Thanks guys!

The graphics are done through a local sign making shop. They print using foil on Clear Vinyl Decal stock, cutting them out with a laser cutter. I mount them on the enclosures that are pre powder coated and machined, then clear coat the whole thing. They can print in any colour of foil available, but I just get them to use white and black. The reason I did it in the first place was to get white graphics without the mess of doing full face printed decals, and I don't even have a printer to begin with.

jacob

If you don't mind me asking, how much do they charge for that?

Nice work.  Good, clean wiring.

Fantastic work.  Unbelievable

Thanks.  Another I did up the other day.  Obviously got the visual que from Fastocker's build a few months back. 



I made this a 'test' enclosure to test the color mix I made on a unfinished (mostly) enclosure.  Worked out pretty good. I hate painting on unfinished enclosures.  Always shows the imperfections of the surface below the paint.

These look as good as any commercial pedal out there. Nicely done!

Thanks bro! I ordered a couple of sunkings from you the other day.  That will be my next MADBEAN project!

Is the trimpot you used from tayda??

naa, Cermet 50k's from SmallBear

..and actually its hard to tell but the lettering is hammered into the enclosure. It became a bit hard to read when i sprayed over it though, so gotta figure out another way to do that..

Why not re-hammer it again now that your finished painting it?  A good punch should do the trick.

  Nice job though.  I'm diggin the yellow one quite a bit!

  Nice work!

...and one more from yesterday. 

Should help you avoid radar detection.  

Good looking board!

Roll it around in some dirt and oil and leave it outside for six months....it's be really distressed then!

I was thinking about doing something along the lines of a fake relic to make the paint check.  Or drop it in hot salt water for a few days. 

looks great!

The distressed box is one of my favorites too.

I've never tried but given the nature of it, I'd bet it would chip like crazy. 

You can brush it on.  Just takes a few days for it to cure and it is usually smooth in appearance when your done.  If it's not perfectly flat, you could wet sand and buff if needed.