The Watering Hole

Yes, I've officially lost my mind, I'm now powder-coating my own stuff.  Here's one that I'm working on for a request... This will be a Paisley Drive.  I distress the enclosures first, then lay down translucent powder coat...  the Paisley could have been blue, like Wampler makes it, or green, since it's 95% tube screamer.  But I suggested orange and the requester rolled with it.  I couldn't do paisley, but I kind of went with a "scrawl/handwriting" type of distressing.

The back.

Dude, you have lost it!  Powder coating????  

Keep up the good work!  

And, what do you do in your spare time?    ;D  I can't even find time to restring a guitar these days!  

You need to get a dremel to help you with that distressing.  HANDY tool to have.  Looks cool man.  I might be asking you for a build in the near future.

Get him to build you a Red shift (with or without the shift).  Just get one.  Don't ask any questions.  LOL

FB, a Dremel is exactly how I did all the distressing.  

I use a variable speed dremel with a variety of different wire brushes and sanding wheels.  Here are two that are dremeled but not powdercoated yet...

ah, the dremel effects are much more recognizable in the unfinished ones.  

Charger they have an arm that you can mount SOME dremels to and use it like a drill press almost.  it would be cool if you could make uniform patterns.  Think Tech 21 XXL case.  

yeah those are cool.  

IMO, you might want to try a transparent color paint over the dremel swirls though.  Don't know how it's going to work with powder coating.  Just a thought.  Have seen some cool transparent paint over dremel or other swirl type pedals over at BYOC.  One guy did an XXL type with transparent candy red over it and it came out really cool.  I am not a powder coat expert, but think it might cover too much of the marks you work to create.  

I'm trying to do something a little more handmade than that.  Even with a drill press/dremel arbor, without a machine it's never going to be perfect... but I like the uniqueness of each one.  And my volume is very low, maybe if I ever design something and get a board printed up, I'll make 30 or 40 of something.  I'm also going to try some bead blasting with various sizes and types of material.  Lots of experimentation at this point, that's the advantage of just doing it for fun...

DreamTheaterRules — Jan 15, 2013yeah those are cool.  

IMO, you might want to try a transparent color paint over the dremel swirls though.  Don't know how it's going to work with powder coating.  Just a thought.  Have seen some cool transparent paint over dremel or other swirl type pedals over at BYOC.  One guy did an XXL type with transparent candy red over it and it came out really cool.  I am not a powder coat expert, but think it might cover too much of the marks you work to create.  

I'm surprised at this comment because I posted two photos of the marks showing pretty clearly through powder coating first thing in this thread.  Did you miss those?

I've tried paint many times.  At least 10 pedals.  That's how I ended up powder coating.  All of my previously painted pedals are being stripped and redone.  I use transparent powder.  In my experience, it's more transparent than paint, far more even in the coating, has better flake effects, and it's about 1000x tougher. I've done the paint thing and it sucks.  It looks good for a day, until the effect gets stepped on, but it gets nicked, scratched, and peeled off with even the most minor wear.  Just tightening bolts over paint can make massive scratches.  Even with multiple layers of clear coat enamel, I never got a pedal whose finish remained unblemished for even the length of one jam.

Here's an example of how the marks show through with a green transparent powder... I didn't take this from the best angle but the marks show right through...

charger — Jan 15, 2013I'm trying to do something a little more handmade than that.  Even with a drill press/dremel arbor, without a machine it's never going to be perfect... but I like the uniqueness of each one.  And my volume is very low, maybe if I ever design something and get a board printed up, I'll make 30 or 40 of something.  I'm also going to try some bead blasting with various sizes and types of material.  Lots of experimentation at this point, that's the advantage of just doing it for fun...

I'm just trying to help your creative muse.  Just a suggestion.  Do what ya want.  I think it's awesome you have the time to fool around with this stuff and I think it's great that you are having fun doing it.

Fenderbender — Jan 16, 2013[quote author=charger link=1357845068/0#9 date=1358276367]I'm trying to do something a little more handmade than that.  Even with a drill press/dremel arbor, without a machine it's never going to be perfect... but I like the uniqueness of each one.  And my volume is very low, maybe if I ever design something and get a board printed up, I'll make 30 or 40 of something.  I'm also going to try some bead blasting with various sizes and types of material.  Lots of experimentation at this point, that's the advantage of just doing it for fun...

I'm just trying to help your creative muse.  Just a suggestion.  Do what ya want.  I think it's awesome you have the time to fool around with this stuff and I think it's great that you are having fun doing it.

I did order the handle, which seems to make it somewhat easier to use for what I'm doing...

http://www.dremel.com/en-us/tools/Pages/ToolDetail.aspx?pid=A577

Fenderbender — Jan 16, 2013
I'm just trying to help your creative muse.  Just a suggestion.  Do what ya want.  I think it's awesome you have the time to fool around with this stuff and I think it's great that you are having fun doing it.

+1  I was just trying to offer helpful suggestions.  It seemed like the powder coat was covering up a lot of the marks, which IMO made it less worth the effort to get them.  But do what you want/like.  Might be just what you were after in person.  I wish I had the time to do this stuff.  I have tones of parts and even a couple full kits I haven't gotten too yet.  

I'm pretty stoked on the powder coating. I didn't post a before pic of that enclosure, so you'll just have to trust me, it's transparent.  The paint method is painful... the paints that actually are decently transparent (mostly oil paints) require a lot of nasty solvents and your pedal smells like a chemical factory for a week while it outgasses, and then you have to not touch it until it cures, then coat it with something super thick that drips everywhere (most guys use envirotex which is basically a finish you pour on a bartop).  

Powder coating can be applied as thin or thick as you want, takes about 5 minutes to spray, cooks for 30 minutes in a toaster oven, and then it's done.  No solvents, no chemicals, no waiting a week to breathe near it.  It looks great, it's way tougher than any paint I've seen--I can actually build the pedal after the enclosure is powdercoated, without fear of destroying the finish, and the finish comes out almost flawless.  And it's seriously transparent, with all kinds of cool flake effects, color changing effects, multicolor, etc.

Thats interesting.  Painting IS a big hassle.  That's why you see so many unfinished pedals at BYOC.  Guys love building them but it's a whole different thing to get into painting and having to back them, have a shed or someplace safe to paint but one that's not too cold or hot... yeah, big hassle.  

I am considering just getting  pre-drilled powder coated cases for the byoc kits I have and building them in those rather than finishing the ones that came with the kit.  I want some lime green (probably metalic/flake) for my screamer clones.   ;)