Recent Adventures in Envirotex [now with pics]

[mrclean77]

(For my feeble mind) Imgur > Flickr 

Iron Maiden(s): customer specifically wanted to nail the tone from Strange World and wanted to go with an Iron Maiden theme; after some back-n-forth, he asked to make it two, the other being for his son; they're fans of slightly different eras, but we still decided to go with what I kept calling the 'father-and-son-broken-heart-necklace' design with the debut album artwork being split across the two units; Nom-Noms under the hood here, super bummed I didn't snag another board for myself, but will fix it soon, to my ears the switch on/off is very little difference and will likely make mine with no switch

Clean Op Aisle 20: clean boost; I already have one of these, but decided to make myself another as the guinea pig for the E-tex since the father/son units were to be my first experience w E-Tex [more below]; circuit is an op-amp clean boost and my first pcb layout, the name may not stick, but comes from it providing 20dB of boost

Ultra Chorus: Pork Barrel; another one for me and another repeat; I have really been preferring 125B's lately and the PB I already have is laser-etched on a 1590B with a silver vein powder coat finish; while the graphic is cool, it's kinda hard to see; I've been wanting build myself something with an ACO theme for a while, so here we go

Envirotex Notes: followed Juan and Cleggy's tutorial, complete w hidden LEDs (cool and removes the pressure to hit that 1/8" hole precisely); I poured both Eddies and the labyrinth with the same mix; the Eddies had some bubbles due to either being poured a few minutes too late or b/c I freaked out thinking I put too much on the labyrinth; went fairly liberal with the Ultra Chorus and I think that was the main issue, there's gotta be enough to have sufficient weight pushing the bubbles out; future builds I will probably do a fresh mix for each pedal, even if that means more waste, I really think the stuff wants to be mixed then poured IMMEDIATELY

[Rockhorst]

I see nothing

[Luke51411]

So much awesome in this post!

[Martan]

These look great!

Nice job.

[287m]

finally, we can see
Awesome!

[matmosphere]

Very nice. Those guts are clean!!

Something that might help with the envirotex. Wait a minute or two after you pour and look for bubbles, as they come up if you gently blow on the surface you can usually work them out. They'll continue to form for about 20-30 minutes so I make sure to check it frequently.

[pickdropper]

That Iron Maiden split personality pedal set is AWESOME.

[mrclean77]

Thanks for the comments, folks!

Something that might help with the envirotex. Wait a minute or two after you pour and look for bubbles, as they come up if you gently blow on the surface you can usually work them out. They'll continue to form for about 20-30 minutes so I make sure to check it frequently.

On the Ultra Chorus, I did that on the initial wave of bubbles, but didn't go back and keep checking - thanks for the tip!!!

[oip]

these are so cool!  the maiden duo in particular.  also clean op aisle 20 is a pretty excellent name.

epoxy is next on my list of things to try the finish is just so crisp

[jimilee]

Huge maiden fan


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[fredwreck]

I love envirotex now! Great job

[mrclean77]

If you are even THINKING about trying E-tex --- TRY IT. I keep thinking, 'this is one of those things it'll take a little bit to get kinda good at', but I bet it won't take as long as learning to be decent at soldering, making up and down of a schematic, EAGLE, etc, etc, etc.

Still undecided if I want to do it over an etch. If you put a clear-coated pedal right next to the E-tex pedal, the difference is crazy - I really love the glassy-looking finish, but my hesitation with doing it over an etch is that I like to be able to feel the etch --- even with 8-10 coats of clear, the texture is there and is cool to show folks who may be unfamiliar with the process. I'm sure I'll do it eventually, if for nothing else to prove myself right or wrong.