A place for my stuff.

[cooder]

Super sweet and lovely craftsmanship! Love those knobbies definitely post a few shots with them on! Noiiiice!

[mjg]

Wow.  I've never thought to use the letter stamps on wood before. They look amazing. 

[MTK]

Wow dude, that Rat is so cool-looking!
The cream mini-chickenheads with the single-letter stamps all on that nice walnut- doesn't get any classier than that unless you're using gold-plated stomp-washers.

What finish is that on the walnut?  That sheen..

Thanks, man. I've had those mini chicken knobs leftover/extras from a commission for almost a year. I'm not really a fan of that type but they fit the walnut like a glove. Good call on the gold hardware, I'll keep that in mind.

The finish is 2 coats of clear shellac then paste wax applied with 0000 steel wool. It makes for a "close to the wood" finish. I'm not a fan of heavy finishes, it's supposed to look like wood not plastic. lol Wipe on poly is my go-to for surfaces that will see high traffic like table tops, benches, etc... Picture frames, decorative boxes, knick knacks, etc... shellac is the way for me.

Damn that's cool.

Thanks, gordo.

Wow.  I’ve never thought to use the letter stamps on wood before. They look amazing. 

I bought those punches for the aluminum enclosures but I'm absolute ass at getting those to work correctly on them. I always end up with double stamps or just a nasty looking mess. Using them on wood is a lot more forgiving. You can give a few light taps to set the position before the final schmack.

Super sweet and lovely craftsmanship! Love those knobbies definitely post a few shots with them on! Noiiiice!

Will do, thanks. I've been really focusing on those the past couple days. I've got a pretty good method now and I think I'm going to start on making sets for a while a see if I get any bites.

[MTK]

I'm really enjoying this stuff. It doesn't take much material at all but there's a good bit of work. Yesterday, after work, I went digging through the scraps bin of my "fancy" material and grabbed a bit of bubinga and ebony. Fancy Schmancy stuff.

I haven't been able to find a source for those little brass inserts with the set-screw for a decent price. There are like 3 places that have them listed for .99c a piece and a place over seas that's got them for a better price but shipping makes them about .90c a piece. That's insane, IMO. Complete knobs cost less than that. My method for this is just harvesting them from existing knobs which kinda sucks because I'm wasting things. I got 50 blemished knobs from SBP for .30c a piece which is excellent though.

I'm lazy and haven't uploaded this stuff to youtube so forgive the IG links for videos.
insert harvest - https://www.instagram.com/p/CIGOMWxHiaJ/


Here are the bubinga and ebony knobs I made yesterday. This was my first try at a set, I was worried about keeping them uniform but it worked out well.







You can see the other 3 I've made in the background. That one looks like a barrel. And the other one, the massive one, is padauk and walnut with a bamboo indicator dot. The dots on the bubinga/ebony ones are toothpicks, so it's most likely birch.





That's the bamboo indicator. I dig the grain.


Here's a clip of them - https://www.instagram.com/p/CIEnkY9nbIy/



Here's the build folder showing the process. https://imgur.com/a/kv3q6hD

Basically, drill some material using a hole-saw for whatever size you'd like. Take it to the saw to free the blanks. Back to the drill press to make the holes the proper size for the inserts and drill the hole for the set-screw. Then put the insert in and add some super glue, taking care to not get glue on the set-screw threads. You might notice I started with 5 knobs but finished with 4. ...damn glue  Anyway, cut and glue the tops on, trim them up, sand them on the lathe. Back to the drill press to make spots for the indicator dots, cut and glue those in place. Back to the lathe to sand the tops down and final sand the whole thing. Apply a couple coats of shellac then wax with 0000 steel wool and buff with a cotton cloth with wax. Done and done.

[davent]

Those look great! The options for position markers is pretty endless as well, metals, all the side fretboard markers of mother of pearl, abalone...

Have done the same knob experiments with acrylics. Instead of the inserts i tapped the body of the knob to receive the set screw. For wood knobs dribble in some thin superglue after tapping to harden up the sides then run the tap in again. Drill press and brass rod to produce diy inserts.



dave

[jimilee]

I really dig those knobs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cooder]

Awesome sauce!

[MTK]

Those look great! The options for position markers is pretty endless as well, metals, all the side fretboard markers of mother of pearl, abalone...

Have done the same knob experiments with acrylics. Instead of the inserts i tapped the body of the knob to receive the set screw. For wood knobs dribble in some thin superglue after tapping to harden up the sides then run the tap in again. Drill press and brass rod to produce diy inserts.



dave

That's some good advice. Thanks. I figured out the problem I was having though, I wasn't getting glue in the threads after all. The problem was that the set screw was tapped into the insert at an angle, and because I was drilling a straight hole through the side of the knob, the screw couldn't properly thread itself. Since figuring that out, I've started using a slightly larger bit and lining the insert up to accommodate the space needed. I've made a few dozen without issue.

[MTK]

I took some good pictures of the recent batch I've been working on lately. Bolivian Rosewood, Padauk, Bubinga, Ebony, Honduras Rosewood, a little Walnut, Maple, and Mahogany here and there.


Pedal and circuit wise, I've got some TDA2030's coming in soon, gonna try working on a practice amp with gyrator EQs.

[harryklippton]

Those look amazing!

[dawson]

These are all great-
Even the photography's great- You're great.

Bravo, sir.

[MTK]

Those look amazing!

These are all great-
Even the photography's great- You're great.

Bravo, sir.

Thanks, guys. I'm really enjoying these.

[MTK]

Here are some things I've been messing with over the past few days.

Fun stuff first.

Dyed ply knobs. These are my favorite set so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ai7vMIXsKQ

Really digging the Bamboo pointer.





Boss MT2 Metal Zone

I haven't played one of these since high school and playing it again brought back lots of old memories of sitting in my room trying to learn Metallica songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz9aUegA2QM





Keeping the 90s distortion train rolling, here's the Randall RG100ES Preamp from Hell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs7oS3TaF5A



That one had some output issues because the toggle switch added some diodes to ground which we all know kills volume. I swapped the SPDT for a DPDT toggle and added in an LPB-1 to the diode side to bring it back up. It jams.



Now for the not fun stuff. A TDA2030 power amp.

I'm still noobing it with making vero layouts and I can't see where I've goofed. By all means, if you see where I messed up, throw a flashlight on it and be like, "Look, it's right there, dummy! Move that right there and this, and you're good to go." I'm using the bipolar +9 -9 power supply that I used for a VFE Mobius Strip so I know it's not the problem. The whole thing, bipolar section too, got hot real quick. No sound passed. I unplugged it before anything smoked. I've read the 2030 gets hot after prolonged use at high volume and especially when using a higher voltage supply. I've got a heatsink for it but with the way it heated up right away, I know I've messed up somewhere.

Here's the project file and schematic. http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_20x0_amp.pdf

The vero


And the build

[gordo]

I don't see anything that pops.  I'm assuming that the end we're looking at on D2 (pointing up on the vero) is the anode.

[MTK]

I don't see anything that pops.  I'm assuming that the end we're looking at on D2 (pointing up on the vero) is the anode.

I think I found it, unless I'm reading the etch board wrong, the schematic is the problem. Look at pin 5 on the schematic, it's got 2 diodes and 2 resistors connected to it, right? The etch board has 2 caps and a diode. I'm going to make a new schematic based on the etch board, then a new vero, and see where that gets me.