Axis Face MKII...threesome

[phillip]

Here are three new Axis Face pedals that I built for a few friends, just to get myself back into the pedal building hobby.  The first one got me refamiliarized with the techniques I had gotten rusty on, having not put a pedal together in the past 7 months.  These three are numbers 8, 9 and 10.  #9 is the red one.  #8 is the blue one on the top left, and #10 is the blue one on the bottom right.



Phillip

[brett]

Nice work!
How do you get that high polish?

[phillip]

Nice work!
How do you get that high polish?

Multiple coats of clear glossy lacquer.  I lay it on pretty heavily, so it's important that the temperatures outside be warm enough and the humidity be low enough so that it dries hard and smooth like those three (thankfully) did.  Have to keep it away from gnats and other small insects, too.  Apparently the sweet smell of lacquer brings them hovering around...I'd hate for one to get stuck in the clear!

Phillip

[brett]

Hi Phillip
actually, I meant on the box (under the lacquer).
Sand and polish.  What grades of paper/grit?  Hand job or machine?
thanks

[phillip]

For that striped aluminum look I use one of the small orbital hand sanders that uses velco-backed paper.  I use 120-grit all the way through.  First I sand the top of the box flat, then I tip the sander on it's edge and move the sander back and forth diagonally on the top of the box to get the striped appearance.  The back plate gets the same treatment.  It's also easy to make swirled patterns, too.  I would imagine that other grits would give varying degrees of intensity on the pattern.

For the sides, I just sand those flat so that they look nice when the color coat is applied.

After it's sanded it's important to wash the box off with something like Comet cleaner and water to remove all the aluminum dust left over from all the sanding...the looks of the pattern improve once the dust is removed.  Then I wipe it down with acetone so that it's ready for paint.

Phillip

[Processaurus]

Beautiful work!  You have a good eye for design.  I feel like there should be a matching smoking jacket for using the pedals.  A real cognac and cigars by the fireside look.

I really like how the design goes all around the sides, thats not so easy, because of the taper on the sides of the boxes sides.  How'd you get that on there, and what is it?

Regardless, your friends are stokin'.

[phillip]

Red velvet smoking jacket sold seperately

The stencil on the side doesn't match up perfectly, but it's pretty close.  I use a piece of metal that has that "snake skin" design...I forget what it's called.  I just found it in a metal scrap pile one afternoon and thought that it would make a rather cool looking design on the side of a pedal.

All I do is just carefully lay the metal on the sides of the pedal once the color coat is dry, then use some silver paint to put the pattern on.  I just make sure that the metal isn't crooked and that the holes are evenly aligned with the top and bottom of the box.

Phillip