Rubber Band

[gordo]

I got a bit of spare time this weekend so I got this nice little comp together.  I'm on a "bare essentials" laser kick these days but I finally have some consistency and a feel for how much power powdercoat takes to cut so it's been a fairly productive learning curve.

This is a really nice compressor.  It's really not transparent by compressor standards but with the Function control set to midpoint it pretty much takes the parametric EQ out of the path and what's left is a very smooth compression that deviates a bit from the normal Dyna/Ross crowd.  Distortion really isn't and as Lectric FX mentions in the build doc it's much more of a Grit control and you're left to figure out what you'd like to use as a clipper.  I auditioned most of my stash once I got it boxed up and ended up going with a 1N695.  It struck a nice balance of grit and didn't take down the level too noticeably.  I wasn't crazy about adding another diode in the optional D2 slot but I reserve the right to keep trying.  The Gate function is very subtle but totally cool.

It looks like I tried to goop the board in front of the stomp switch but it's just light reflecting off the PCB.

[jimilee]

Dude, that looks really nice. I'm going to start on mine this week I think.


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[utarefson]

Looking great man! Is the enclosure laser etched? It's so nice and crisp. I have the Neje Master 2s 30W and all attempts to etch black powdercoat result in a melted resin Could you please share some details on your process?

[Aleph Null]

The laser etch looks really nice! The guts look clean too. This circuit is definitely going my build list.

[diablochris6]

Sweet build! Compressors are a dark art, and your enclosure definitely falls into that territory!

[gordo]

The Neje took me a while to get a handle on it.  First is that the LightBurn software is well worth the investment.  It has a bit of a learning curve but nothing too drastic.  It's really good at pinpointing stuff before you burn.  So if I drill the starter holes and then drop the PDF of the drill template in to the software and just turn the centers on I can place the laser on the center of each hole to make sure the enclosure is lined up correctly.

I set the bottom of the laser shield to be 20mm above the enclosure and then use the thumbwheel to get the beam as sharp as possible.  I've been using Fill for the text layer with a speed of 1000 and 100% power.  Images seem to work a bit better at 600 or 1000 with 85-90% power.  Lines get a bit choppy if the powder is deep so I move the beam fast at 2000 and 80-90% power.

[cooder]

Excellent build and graphics and all! Have to check that project out...