finishing a box like the russian big muff?

[taang]

Hello all,
I was doing some searching on the forums for box finishing techniques and materials and I found that most threads posted deal with waterslide decals and such.

I was wondering if anybody could provide some tips or point me in the right direction to finishing a box with a solid background and solid foreground design.

I realize that the black on the Russian Big muff is most likely powder coated; and the yellow screen printed, but I know the Zvex pedals are painted with Testors brand enamel model paints on an enamel (acrylic?) background without a clearcoat, and those seem very durable. Maybe a stencil kind of thing with masking tape? Any thoughts?

I'm sure there are many pedals finish like it, but the Russian Big Muff popped first in my head.  


cheers
michael

[runmikeyrun]

I'm not sure how much time you have on your hands, but you can make a somewhat intricate stencil like this:

Design your stencil in photoshop.  Print on a piece of transparency paper.  Cut out all the graphics with an exacto knife.  There's your stencil.  Intricate designs take a lot longer, and it's not nearly as clean as screen printing because there's always some overspray, but it's way easier that getting into screen printing.  Another idea- cut out the stencil and just use craft paint and a bristle brush to stencil it on.  You don't paint it on, you kind of dab and swirl the brush over the stencil.

If you paint anything you always need to clear coat it, so whatever you do make sure to do 2 coats of clear minimum.

[taang]

I've tried clearcoating an enclosure before (over a photopaper adhesive decal) using an acrylic based spray (maybe 4 coats?), and the thing just peeled and cracked like crazy.

But I know that there are many pedals makers (usually large companies, but also small ones) that don't clearcoat their boxes. I'd rather not have the gloss of a clearcoat, if possible.

[asatbluesboy]

I saw somewhere (Instructables?) once a tutorial on how to make a screen off a pantyhose. You pretty much cut the pantyhose, attach it to one of them embroidery round wood thingies, print the design, put it under your "screen" and paint it (the screen) with glue where you want it to be impermeable.

[Earthscum]

Check out your local sign shops. Most of them can cut vinyl decals for you, and the artwork fee SHOULD drop or go away if you walk in with a Illustrator 9 formatted vector file already sized. If not, they usually don't charge much to convert... but you are at the mercy of their idea of "good enough".

(I really should invest and just do this stuff myself, lol... it's one of the things I did at my last job).

[phector2004]

For neat results, I wouldn't stencil and spray... tried that on my fuzz face and the spraypaint got under the edges. Gives a low-resolution look, if that's what you're after, but it's not that great for sharp edges

[taang]

has anybody tried making a layer of painters tape and using a laser cutter to cut a stencil? I just remembered that some kids at my high school were doing that to stencil something... like a cell phone or something.

once/if i get access to a laser cutter, i'll definitely try it and post the results

[phector2004]

Well you could directly etch the design with a laser cutter. Maybe even layer the paint such that when it etches, you reveal lower layers?

I know some of the members here have worked with lasers to engrave their boxes, maybe they can help you out?

[taang]

well, i'm not really interested in etching and removing a layer of paint so much as to adding a layer of paint. but if etching can get a precise ish result, i'll be all right. My design is almost entirely text, and the most detailed part is in the relatively small text labels