The Pedal Finishing Thread - Painting, Coating, Drilling, Envirotex, etc

Philtre · April 2018

As I mentioned in another thread the main part of building your own pedal is working on the enclosure. This involves drilling, painting, spraying, devising artwork, decals, clear coating and so on. Much of what I have discovered can be found in this thread and in threads by @SteveF (here) and @Adam_MD.

So I thought it might be good to collect tips, tricks and experience in one thread. This one...

Philtre · April 2018

To start the ball rolling here's a link to a great guide on finishing a pedal by Cleggy and JuanSolo:

http://juansolo.mooo.com/stompage/finishing.html

This is the de facto guide to finishing a pedal - so props to them!

Philtre · April 2018

A few weeks ago I built a Fuzz Factory pedal and thought that it might look cool if I hand painted a bare enclosure with Posca pens and sprayed it with Rustoleum gloss clear coat.

Wrong. It didn't look cool and any Rustoleum product is crap (their paint is like treacle, and their clear coat disintegrates). It would have looked better if I had poured a bucket of cold sick over it:

So, this week I disassembled the pedal, sanded it down and re-did the finish with a printed sticky decal and covered it with Envirotex Lite. It's an improvement I think:

BigMonka · April 2018

The new Fuzz Factory looks good @Philtre ;
Any chance you could get some close up photos on what the edges look like where the envirotex finishes please? I assume the ET only covers the top and doesn't cover all sides?

Philtre · April 2018

BigMonka said:

The new Fuzz Factory looks good @Philtre ;
Any chance you could get some close up photos on what the edges look like where the envirotex finishes please? I assume the ET only covers the top and doesn't cover all sides?

Thanks. I'll see what I can do with my phone camera. But if you click on the photo above and zoom in you can see that the ET only goes as far as the edges of the top of the enclosure. When the ET is poured I very carefully coax the ET to the edges with a spatula. So far I haven't had it run over the edge and down the sides. But if that were to happen, a cloth with meths would fix it.

Adam_MD · April 2018

Is this any good?

BigMonka · April 2018

Cheers @Adam_MD and @Philtre - it looks like it's forms a nice rounded edge so can't chip or peel off at that point. Very nice.

Philtre · April 2018

@Adam_MD How do get the ET to the edges? Do you coax it with a stick?

Adam_MD · April 2018

BigMonka said:

Cheers @Adam_MD and @Philtre - it looks like it's forms a nice rounded edge so can't chip or peel off at that point. Very nice.

If you use a piece of kitchen towel with methylated spirits on it to tidy up the edge with your finger you’ll get a nice rounded edge like that.

Adam_MD · April 2018

Philtre said:

@Adam_MD How do get the ET to the edges? Do you coax it with a stick?

Yes I pour it in the middle then spread to the edges with these you get a pack of 100 for £2

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ASAOJR2/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

NPP · April 2018

Philtre said:

A few weeks ago I built a Fuzz Factory pedal and thought that it might look cool if I hand painted a bare enclosure with Posca pens and sprayed it with Rustoleum gloss clear coat.

Wrong. It didn't look cool and any Rustoleum product is crap (their paint is like treacle, and their clear coat disintegrates). It would have looked better if I had poured a bucket of cold sick over it:

So, this week I disassembled the pedal, sanded it down and re-did the finish with a printed sticky decal and covered it with Envirotex Lite. It's an improvement I think:

so reliced pedals are not a thing then?

Philtre · April 2018

NPP said:

so reliced pedals are not a thing then?

Damn! Missed my chance now! :-)

SteveF · April 2018

New finish looks great Phil. My ET has arrived, so when I get a chance (I'm back to work after some leave, so I won't be quite as prolific now!) I'll have a crack at that for the Eternity.

Philtre · April 2018

@SteveF good to hear about the ET arriving. How long did it take to arrive?

SteveF · April 2018

10 days. Seems quite a small box - hopefully it will last for a few pedals.

Adam_MD · April 2018

What size did you buy?

SteveF · April 2018

16 oz. I think it was the only size in stock when I looked.

Adam_MD · April 2018

That will do loads of pedals if you’re careful with how much you mix.

Philtre · April 2018

Adam_MD said:

That will do loads of pedals if you’re careful with how much you mix.

Unlike me...my first mix could have done 5 pedals.

Sporky · April 2018

NPP said:

so reliced pedals are not a thing then?

They were in my day.

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/ABominiser.jpg

Adam_MD · April 2018

Sporky said:

NPP said:

so reliced pedals are not a thing then?

They were in my day.

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/ABominiser.jpg

Is that a yellow to dark purple/black fade in the paintwork? It looks really cool. What circuit is it?

SteveF · April 2018

Sporky said:

NPP said:

so reliced pedals are not a thing then?

They were in my day.

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/ABominiser.jpg

Now there’s a blast from the past

Sporky · April 2018

Adam_MD said:

Sporky said:

NPP said:

so reliced pedals are not a thing then?

They were in my day.

http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/pictures/ABominiser.jpg

Is that a yellow to dark purple/black fade in the paintwork? It looks really cool. What circuit is it?

Yup. It's just a teeny Ab switch. At the time I was painting in the loft of my flat and it was pretty dusty up there, so I'd sand off the bumps, go through the paint in places and pretend it was deliberate.

Philtre · April 2018

Here's another makeover.

This was a Skreddy Lunar Module Deluxe I built earlier this year (in fact, my second pedal). Once again, this was done with Posca pens covered with cold sick Rustoleum Clear Coat. Looks a bit ropey:

And here's the makeover with printed decal and Envirotex top-coat (so shiny you can see the iPhone camera reflected):

I think this one's a tad nicer. ;-)

Philtre · April 2018

I've given up on Posca pens on enclosures. But that's not to say that it can't be done. Champion Leccy does a great job:

https://championleccy.com/

aord43 · April 2018

Philtre said:

I've given up on Posca pens on enclosures. But that's not to say that it can't be done. Champion Leccy does a great job:

https://championleccy.com/

The Guitar Knobs podcast had an excellent interview with the Champion Leccy guy. It was highly amusing hearing him try to explain the names of the pedals and Champion Leccy itself to them (being American and not used to NE England terminology).
They were not phased and loved it/him/the pedals.

Philtre · May 2018

I built a Lovepedal Amp 11 from the schematic here.

I used a violet coloured enclosure and red 1510 Davies knobs (from Tayda) and the combination of "Lovepedal" and violet reminded me of those Love Hearts sweets. Remember them?

SteveF · May 2018

That's awesome Phil! Love the labels - just like the sweets

Paul_C · May 2018

I'm part way through painting an enclosure, so I'll need to update when its finished, but so far I've:

Sprayed a couple of coats of primer (white) followed by three coats of pink (a couple of cans left over from a paintjob I did for a friend years ago).

Decided that doing the whole pedal in pink was too much so started painting some white acrylic on with a brush, with the intention of sanding it back to leave a thin layer of white in places and the full-on pink in others.

Found a couple of images which gave me another idea and then spent a day painting on more acrylic, finishing off with a couple of figures drawn with a paintpen.

I'm planning to sand back some of the white on the sides to smooth things over and then put a few coats of satin clear acrylic on to finish it off and seal it.

Here's a pic:

I need a couple more pink knobs too, as I only have six right now

Adam_MD · May 2018

I’m not keen on the pink knobs but love the paint job on the enclosure @Paul_C. What circuit are you putting in it?

Paul_C · May 2018

It's a kit made by Parasit Studios called an Into The Unknown.

It might well end up with knobs of a different colour, not made a firm decision yet.

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The Pedal Finishing Thread - Painting, Coating, Drilling, Envirotex, etc

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