The Grodiest Odor | [ODR-1-like b/w Boost]

[jessenator]

This looks and sounds great! Pedal building is such a humbling hobby when a little smear of flux ruins a perfect build. Nice job seeing it through and the results are outstanding

Thanks for the kind words, Dan!

[WonkoTheSane]

Ooo old fonts are cool. You can probably convert those old ones to a more modern format.

My question was misunderstood though, I meant what's your process for the finishing? Paint, decals, silkscreen? I see a lot of nice jobs here, and I can't find much info on how to do such things.

[jessenator]

Ooo old fonts are cool. You can probably convert those old ones to a more modern format.

I'll have to dive through and see which ones are duplicates. Most are older (defunct) type foundries, but the typefaces are likely reproduced by whoever bought up the typefaces (or even the foundries). Foundries will also often just do their own versions of classic typefaces—all the big ones have a Helvetica…

My question was misunderstood though, I meant what's your process for the finishing? Paint, decals, silkscreen? I see a lot of nice jobs here, and I can't find much info on how to do such things.

So I do mine through Tayda Electronics (out of Thailand), and a others on the forum do, as well. It's a multi-step process, which includes drilling, powder coating, and then UV printing your artwork. I don't have/want a printer for water slide decals, and I don't have the knack for etching work, of which there are fabulous examples on the forum. I've done a few hand-painted ones, but I'm a graphic de-whiner designer by trade, and a bit obsessive, so the UV printing is right up my alley.

Thewintersoldier has a series of videos going through the whole process, the artwork created and processed with Affinity Designer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_k_C3WFLU

The process is analogous to the one for something like Inkscape, but Tayda's printing dept has very strict guidelines, since their workshop is always busy. They need files that are ALL ready to go. In general, they want Adobe Illustrator-generated PDF files, but the specifics are outlined in Chris' videos to get around """"owning"""" Adobe products, as well as in text on Tayda's page regarding Enclosure UV printing.

I also stumbled upon PedalPartsPlus now having a similar service being offered. I haven't looked deeply into the requirements, but it looks like you can do everything Tayda has been offering, with the added bonus of being able to print on every surface of the enclosure, which is neat. I would guess, since their print tech is local, their whole production is US-based—but again, I haven't looked into it deeply: only that it exists.

So essentially, you do it as if you were buying each step of the process: you have a drill pattern for the holes (Tayda has you create one with their tool which you can experiment with here https://drill.taydakits.com/design-experiment ); then you choose a powder coat you want (Tayda gives you approximate color values based on Pantone colors for some of them); you have your artwork, prepped according to their specs, and as part of that you can have an optional varnish coating applied as well, in either gloss or matte).

This image shows the layers included in a prepped-for-Tayda file (shown side-by-side for demonstration)


The opaque white layer was needed, since my enclosure was black—and unless you want a weird effect (similar to what is called "overprint" in the print world) for your artwork, it's recommended that it have this underlay of white to ensure the artwork looks as close as possible to what you've designed.

knockout (trapping) and an example I borrowed from a design site




I had an (unfinished) concept for another pedal which is based on that process, but never pulled the trigger (and probably won't):



My other project, Death to the King, was done on a white enclosure, so obviously no white was needed. Another project, The Sardine Tin, has no color layer in it; it's just white and matte varnish layers on an orange enclosure. I've seen other designs that are only a varnish layer; or the varnish is used as an effect or other element, like a ghost layer. You can get pretty creative with it.

Also, looking at a long-running thread regarding Tayda's UV printing on pedalpcb forum, you can print directly onto a bare enclosure and don't need a UV coat. I'm not sure if there's a prep coat of some kind that goes into that scenario—something like a transparent primer coat.  (i.e. if Tayda has to do that. I'm not aware of any additional work that needs doing on our end—the customer end)

[WonkoTheSane]

Oh being a graphic designer you have a clear advantage. I'm getting to old to invest time into learning these things. Electronics and music take enough of my time.

Well they look great! Do you offer services at all?

I'll check out the pedalpcb forum for that thread, thanks for the tip.