Stardrive - Glitterattii

[rullywowr]

Just finished the "StarDrive".  I have a friend who is a vet and (much to his wife's dismay) likes to play StarCraft so I whipped up a Glitteratti with a StarCraft type of theme.  Dormant red powdercoat, laser decal, blue LED.  Home etched PCB.  This pedal sounds rippin!  One of my favorite circuits here at the MadBean lab.  I'm going to build at least 4 more.  

[keysandguitars]

Nicely done! Where did you get those sparkly knobs?

[rullywowr]

To be honest - I am pretty sure that is just overspray from some of the powder coating process and should just wipe off...  Sharp eye!

[keysandguitars]

I like the look. I've got a sparkle black enclosure and looking for some knobs and thought those would be perfect. Care to overspray some for me   

Your decal looks seemless. Is that laser or inkject. I've yet to take the plunge into decaling and just don't know if I'm going to start.

[rullywowr]

Thanks for the kind words!  The decal is a waterslide laser under clear powder coat.  I got the HP Laserjet6MP (1994 model) for free from a friend and it has been awesome for everything!  The printer is so old it has a parallel port but I got a parallel to ethernet adapter and it sits on my network at home so I can just print over WiFi...  I want to try some color laser decals but have reservations about jacking up the work color laser...

I also can't say enough good things about powdercoating.  I love my simple setup and will never ever use a rattle can on a pedal again.  Simply powder the pedal with base color, slide decal into place, let dry completely then clear powder coat.  After it comes out of the oven and is cool to the touch you can start putting your pcb and jacks in it.  Layout your pedal in inkscape first and you have a drilling template and decal all in one.  Simply awesome.

[keysandguitars]

How much does it cost to get a basic powder coating rig together?

[rullywowr]

I purchased my powder coating gun for about $69.99 (Eastwood basic kit on eBay).  The powders are pretty cheap ($3.99 for 2oz from www.columbiacoatings.com) which will do about 4-5 pedals.  Add a air compressor (even a very low flow one or a tank) and throw in a toaster oven (free to $20) and you are in.  There is a great tutorial on this forum about powdercoating and inspired me to get into it myself. 

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

Nice job! I'm glad you pointed out that ebay score! I'm gonna get mine from there. Columbia Coating has a lot of good powder color choices too!!

[rullywowr]

Glad to share    

I couldn't see purchasing the regular kit ($99.99) or the deluxe kit.  I used the extra cash to put towards 12 empty powder canisters for the gun (about $30)...this was an EXCELLENT suggestion from the OP who did the powdercoating tutorial on this site.   Also don't forget the high temp masking and a roll of the hanging wire...along with rubber gloves, paper towels, and acetone.  Gotta keep your fingerprints off it.  Also remember to let the decal dry FULLY before clear coating.  Additionally, I found I get much better results with the clear if I do it at 350F instead of 375F...the decal tends to turn brown at higher temps...350F works great.

Once you do your first powdercoat enclosure you will be like, "why did I ever mess around with rattle cans???!?".  Trickiest part is getting the part into the oven without knocking it into something.  If you do, you can just take it out and give it a quick blast and put back in.  I reuse a set of 4 screws to keep powder out of the holes and give it "legs" to stand up on the mini cookie sheet that comes with the toaster oven.  Every one I do is better than the last.

Finally, tonight I am going to mod the Eastwood gun so the hand operated plunger is actually a footswitch....I have just the housing as well as some momentary heavy duty stomps.  I will be sure to post some pics of the final beast.  It is a PITA to hold the part with one hand, and then have to use the other hand to push the plunger AND spray....Good luck!

Oh...PS..  My favorites are the Columbia Dormant colors currently.  The dormant copper, dormant red, dormant blue, and dormant Granny Smith green all rock..however I have an order of the day-glo coming tomorrow.  I didn't have much luck yet with the translucent colors but will try again soon....

[nzCdog]

Cool build bro 

[irmcdermott]

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