Finishing and painting/decorating enclosures

[Chipper Chapowski]

Hello my stompbox amigos,
I know this subject has been partly discussed in a few threads, but I feel we would all benefit from having an all in one thread that gives all your tips and tricks to making your latest box of wires looking the schizz.

All your ideas and methods would be extremely useful, from the most basic, to some crazy assed masterpieces, and if you have photo's then slap them up here for all to see!  Hope this is useful to some people, I know it will be to me.  Cheers dudes.

[petemoore]

I have one that's bright blue behind red and the colors 'jump' when you look at it or wiggle it....Lukki
 I have another one that's black on the sides tapering to red burst in the middle of the top...looks real good...I used Cherry Spray paint...4$ bottle and black...2/49 a bottle...
 I clear coat with nitrocellulose guitar laquer...tried many clear finish products...IMO this is the best I've tried.
 The other boxes I have that look super cool are the hand painted ones...I use a stretched cotton strands from a Qtip, paint that 'drags' perfectly off the cotton in very find lines...
 The other other cool way is swirl dipped/hand painted...stick a choice of colors of paint in a wide vessel of water [junk container of disposable] swirl just 'SO' then dip the top of your box in that about less than a half inch...I used yellow on top of blue on top of black...pretty psychadelic looking.
  I like colors that filter narrow frequency bands of light....like bright hues of purple and  red or blue

[ian87]

there's lots of good info to be found in this thread: http://www.diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=16306

[ethniccheese]

I get my pedals powder coated at a local shop for $1.33 each.  I have to wait until the guy is shooting a color that I want and put in with that run, but the stuff is indestructible.  I left a box in paint thinner overnight and the paint didn't even soften.  The pedals look really professional too.

[ErikMiller]

I get my pedals powder coated at a local shop for $1.33 each.  I have to wait until the guy is shooting a color that I want and put in with that run, but the stuff is indestructible.  I left a box in paint thinner overnight and the paint didn't even soften.  The pedals look really professional too.

What kind of shop is that? I'd like to try this, but I don't know what kind of businesses do that.

[ethniccheese]

It's basically an industrial powder coating/sandblasting shop.  They powder coat in large batches for local machine shops, farmers, etc...  The finished product is amazing and indestructible.  There is probably one close to your area.  Go by and talk to them and ask them if you can get them to include your boxes in bigger runs.

[brett]

Wow! That $1.33 powder coat is very cheap.  Some people got envious a while back when I mentioned I was getting powder coating for OZ$5 (~US$3).  As in your case, I just had to wait until they were using some of the same colour on a big job.

[gtrmac]

I've been spray painting with lacquer, applying decals and then clear coating lacquer on top.

It comes out passable at best IMO. They look pretty good but it's such a time consumer. I'm planning to have them powder coated and silk screened when I decide on a design. I want them to look as good as they sound.

[petemoore]

Marlboro ... even when typed it has mountains of machismo !!!
 I got this Emblem, 3/4'' by bout 1/2, shiny, black red and gold...KOOL.
 I put a pile of the Blue metal paint I got that dries THICK under where the emblem is [I marked that] then just dropped the emblem in the 'pool' of paint which grabs it by the sides [about 1/32''thick] and bottom...I don't have to worry about that coming off.
 For this pedal...Blue psychadelic circles and lines+art...On RED...this Emblem Looke Goode !
 I decided to take a minute to put it on there where it belongs.