Pedal enclosure Paint/graphics techniques

[George]

I want to paint my enclosures, print graphics and then seal it with clearcoating, or use some black decals on top of the paint but it seems that my forum searching skills didnt do me any good.
Is there any guide or any usefull post in the forum that would help me with that (what paint/clearcoat to use, how to apply ech.) ??
Thanks in advance

[Jebus]

There's lots of videos about decals and painting in YouTube. They might not be about pedals, but same techniques are used. Lots of people develop their own style just by trying bunch of different stuff. If I paint enclosure I use acrylic paints and clear coats meant for cars.

Juansolo and Gleggy made this great tutorial about using waterslide decals and Envirotex (epoxy): http://juansolo.co.uk/stompage/finishing.html

[SmoothAction]

Hey George

There are nearly infinite ways to finish an enclosure. The combinations alone are mind-numbing.

Do you want to..
-Spray Paint
-Adhesive decal
-Waterslide
-Hand paint
- Acid etch
-Transfer
-Swirl dip
-Laser engrave
-Stamp
-Powdercoat
-etc...

It may be hard to find on the forum because everyone has their own method. How do you want to print your graphics? Screen print? Toner transfer? There are tons of people on here with wildly different finishing techniques. Some combinations work better than others. For example, some brands of clear coat react to the base paint in unsavory ways such as bleeding, cracking, warping, etc... Then you have envirotex, raw sanding, the possibilities are endless.

A HUGE part of finishing an enclosure is trial and error and finding what works for you as an individual. I can suggest something fun to experiment with.

Buy something like this - https://www.impressart.com/products/letter-stamps.html
Stamp the enclosure labels with a fitted wood block underneath to prevent the aluminum from warping as you pound the lettering.
Melt a white (or any color) crayon into the grooves you created with the stamps.
Take off the excess wax so only the imprinted letters are filled.
Do whatever you want because it's up to you.
Don't listen to me.

Experiment.

[davent]

Cool idea with the stamp and wax, going to try that.

Experiment, i've been using acrylic paints applied with anything olying on the workbench, airbrushes, paintbrushes, stencils and stamped, toothbrushes, scrubbrushes, gouged with files and wire picks, sanded off, collaged, inks, charcoal,  pencil crayons.

For clearcoat I use a waterborne lacquer sprayed with an airbrush for a non-gloss finish.

dave

[EBRAddict]

Has anyone ever CNC engraved their enclosure? I keep waiting for one of those Chinese 3 axis micro CNC machines to show up used on Craigslist.

[George]

Has anyone ever CNC engraved their enclosure? I keep waiting for one of those Chinese 3 axis micro CNC machines to show up used on Craigslist.

That would be awesome - i would like to have engraved enclosures like these




Also thank you all for your comments - Soon i ll post the results and the methods i used
BONUS round : i made my own enclosures from thin steel square pipes in dimentions of standart aluminium enclosures for 8 euros and the pipes is good form more than 15 enclosures. Once i finish them i ll post a guide for really easy DIY cheap as dirt enclosures 

[TNblueshawk]

Pickdropper has some of the best engraved enclosures I've seen.

When I first started I looked at hundredes of finished pedals in the show off section of here and BYOC to get ideas. If one caught my fancy I would hit them up on what they did etc...

[stevie1556]

A few years ago I found a trophy shop that would engrave my enclosures. The results were gonna but lacked the smaller, fine detail, and I found normal paint chipped so they had to be powder coated. If you want screen printed graphics, the set up costs are very high, unless you can do it yourself. Water slide decals are good with a bit of practice.

For painting an enclosure, I would say powder coating is the best option as they don't chip very easily, and to do it doesn't take all that much time.

Personally I prefer the powder coating and laser engraving for mine as it's quite quick but it's what works best for me. To laser engrave an enclosure probably takes around 3 minutes with the settings that I use.

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

[jball85]

If your not engraving or etching, I would do laser printed waterslide decals, and I can't emphasize the Laser part of that statement enough. The toughest part is getting the clear coat right.

[splice42]

I can't emphasize the Laser part of that statement enough.

Why is that? I've done bubblejet printed waterslide decals and haven't had an issue with them so far.