Glitterratti - dormant granny smith green

[rullywowr]

Trying to squeeze all of it in there with a 9V battery was a b$*&%- I am starting to lean towards not including 9V in my pedals unless absolutely needed.  Took my time, etching was clean, powdercoat nicey.  As you see by the pics, I only had a large 1uF film cap on hand so I ended up having to remote it to make everything happy.  After some minor board placement and wire tweaking it is solid now!

[TheCobbenator]

Beautiful! I've got two of these I've got to finish for some buds.  There's no time, man!

[jkokura]

Great stuff! I enjoy your build.

Jacob

[k.rock!]

Wow man! I'm really loving your finished product! Looks perfect.

So, are u using water-slide decals, then powder-coating with clear and finally baking it?

I would love to improve the way I'm working with water-slides and the ol' clear spray paint. Lately I haven't been 100% satisfied =\


-Kaleb

[keysandguitars]

Bravo, man, that thing looks sweet! Super clean decals and build.

I too am interested in your finishing process with decals and powder coating. I'm thinking of buying a powder coating gun. I already own a good air compressor so for me the cost of entry may be well worth the price. Especially when considering rattle cans cost about as much as powder and that painting is time consuming and a royal PITA!

[jimmybjj]

Great looking build. I like the powder and knob combo. Those dormant colors are great, good on the pictures as well, I always have a hard time on getting what the colors really look like.

[rullywowr]

Thanks everybody!  It is really hard to capture the extra fantasitc "sparkle" that the dormant colors put off but you get the idea.

As far as powder coating, I owe it to the OP in the powder coating tutorial on this website for getting me into it. Check out this tutorial here if you haven't already:
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=1785.0

Decal is fairly straightfoward.  Just draw it up (Inkscape is great btw and free), print on laser decal paper, and slide it on.  Let completely dry (this is key so any trapped moisture doesn't cause bubbles) and then shoot a light mist of clear over it.  Once that is melted (flowed out) I take it out and shoot another slightly heavier mist of clear on it which melts right into it.  It is self leveling for the most part.  If you have any questions, I would be glad to share my experiences with the stuff - I have had the kit for about 2 weeks and after a few blunders and stripping (you will make mistakes when first starting) - I feel I have a good grasp on it.

[nzCdog]

Slick! Love the colour man... nice job

[masterlk]

+1 on ALL the coments....really beautiful build. I have had a hard time using Gimp and Inkscape. Did you learn Inkscape by just fooling around with it or do you have a resource?

[irmcdermott]

all of these powder coated enclosures are giving me the itch to start investing.... my wife will not be happy...

[josetxu]

really beautiful!!!

[gtr2]

That really is a superb finish!  Nice work.

Josh

[rullywowr]

+1 on ALL the coments....really beautiful build. I have had a hard time using Gimp and Inkscape. Did you learn Inkscape by just fooling around with it or do you have a resource?

Thanks!  I learned by fooling around as well as internet searching some tutorials.  The absolute greatest thing about Inkscape (besides layers) is the "Align and Distribute" function.  You can easily make all your knobs, drill holes, etc all line up perfectly with this function.  If you do it right, punch your holes with a center punch and drill carefully you will have near perfect alignment with little surprises.  Make sure you grab the Effects Pedal Builder Vector Pack (PDF) which contains all the knobs, LEDs, jacks, enclosures, which you can simply move into inkscape at 100% accurate sizing link:
http://www.ontheroadeffects.com/vectorpack/

I'm no expert but maybe I can make a quick tutorial on how to use Inkscape for Pedal Builders.

Layers are great.  You mock up your whole pedal and then can turn things off like knobs, pcbs..etc when it is time to print the actual decal.  Lately, I have been trying to do more curved text and even radius markers around the knobs.

[jimmybjj]

+1 on ALL the coments....really beautiful build. I have had a hard time using Gimp and Inkscape. Did you learn Inkscape by just fooling around with it or do you have a resource?

Thanks!  I learned by fooling around as well as internet searching some tutorials.  The absolute greatest thing about Inkscape (besides layers) is the "Align and Distribute" function.  You can easily make all your knobs, drill holes, etc all line up perfectly with this function.  If you do it right, punch your holes with a center punch and drill carefully you will have near perfect alignment with little surprises.  Make sure you grab the Effects Pedal Builder Vector Pack (PDF) which contains all the knobs, LEDs, jacks, enclosures, which you can simply move into inkscape at 100% accurate sizing link:
http://www.ontheroadeffects.com/vectorpack/

I'm no expert but maybe I can make a quick tutorial on how to use Inkscape for Pedal Builders.

Layers are great.  You mock up your whole pedal and then can turn things off like knobs, pcbs..etc when it is time to print the actual decal.  Lately, I have been trying to do more curved text and even radius markers around the knobs.

I'd read it I've been using raster based programs and need to take the leap into vector.

[masterlk]

I would love a tutorial! It would be appreciated for sure. Thanks for the link.