Cheap boxes just for the enclosure - alternative

[aron]

Sometimes we just want a box - already drilled and ready for a circuit. Locally, I have been seeing a number of these cheap pedals for sale. Like $20 for a pedal - not miniature - a decent size. I picked one up and it has room for 3 pots, a switch, LED, DC jack and built in 9V compartment. In addition, although the board is mounted to the pots, there is space on the bottom to velcro in perfboard. A pretty good deal considering no drilling and it may be possible to use some of the components - although they must be of poor quality.

[EBK]

although they must be of poor quality.

Maybe.  Maybe not.
There are many ways to reduce cost, and there are many variables that can be used to describe quality.

Many years ago, someone got the idea to buy up some Joyo Ultimate Drive pedals, goop the boards, repaint the enclosures, and sell them as boutique pedals. People bought the fancy pedals and liked them, I think, until the scheme was exposed.

[soggybag]

I bought a bunch of mini pedals on Aliexpress. They were all like $25 to $35. A few claim to be clones of well known pedals like OCD, Klon. They all shipped from China, so it took about three weeks to receive. It feels like you're buying factory direct. The quality is okay no worse than anything I've built. The quality wasn't wowing me either.

I opened up one of the boxes to have a look at the delay. Everything was surface mount. There was a lot of room left over. It had three pots mounted on one board with those 9mm pots and another board with the everything else. It had a standard blue 3PDT switch wired in the standard way.

The idea I've been tossing around in my head the last week was using a Boss enclosure for something else. What I'd really like to do is use the Boss bypass switching and buffer with a new circuit. Problem is I don't have an old Boss pedal I want to take apart.

I do have this old Digitech thing that might work, it's not built the same as the Boss pedals.

[niektb]

I order my drilled enclosures at Tayda!
https://www.taydaelectronics.com/hardware/enclosures/drilled-enclosures-for-pedalpcb.html
Pre-drilled, powder-coated in any color you want and all for a whopping $7 (excl. shipping)!