first run of my effects is done... what do you think? (pics)

[arielfx]

here is a picture of the last one of the FF clones i made for commercial purpose

this is the 5th and last of the series. next run wont have screened logos but laser engraved logos because its so much easier to do.

what do you think?

http://www.arielfx.com/ebay/arielfx_proto.jpg

[Peter Snowberg]

That looks great!

Very nice job!

[petemoore]

I think you're going for 'Best in Show'...

[arielfx]

thanks  

petemoore - they also sound pretty damn good  :lol:

the next run with the ac-128 will have boards with trimpots so i can use a larger range of transistors. getting a good ac128 pair is not easy these days.

[MartyMart]

That looks fantastic !!  very nice work  

Marty.

[gez]

next run wont have screened logos but laser engraved logos because its so much easier to do

Care to elaborate?  

what do you think?

Superb!

[arielfx]

sure... the first run (3 germanium FF or phuzz phaces & 2 silicon FF or silly) was a small production run with two designs for the boxes. i had someone do the the designs and gave them to a guy in a silk screening factory to make a screen out of them (plus a few other designs). this was pretty expensive as the net is a much more expensive net than used in standard fabric screening and i am limited to the designs on the screen. if i would like more designs i will have to pay for another screen...

i do the screening on my own so i also bought the special ink that wont come off when you play around with it and this ink was priced at $70 for 1 liter which is enough for many runs but it is still expensive. after killing a few boxes i got the hang of it and did a run of all the boxes in one time. cleaning the screen and working area took me about 45 minutes after that and the enitre place smelled bad because of the mineral terpentine (spelling?). the boxes came out great but i knew that as soon as i would like to screen my other designs for 2 compressors and octave, i had to start the entire mess again and i don't think it's worth it because of the time and the the MESS. sending the boxes for a factory to be screened at these quantities is not an option so i had an idea to convert the designs into a vector format in autocad or coral so they can be used in a laser engraving machine. sheets of aluminium can be bought in just about any color and there are tons of places which will engrave your files for very little money and than i only need to bolt those plates down to the boxes using the pots and the switch and there you have it - pro looking, not so expensive pedals that can be produced much more quickly in larger numbers.

[mlabbee]

Interesting - your post got me curious, so I looked around the web a little to see what laser engraving metal would look like.  Check this out:  http://www.palmer-pursuit.com/online-catalog/laser-engraving.htm

It looks like the engraved some powder coated and/or anodized aluminum and it looks pretty damn good.  Just starting with an anodized or poweder coated box might be a lot easier than getting a plate onto a box in a way that sticks tight without ever loosening and making noise.

[bwanasonic]

How was the box in the photograph finished? Is that silkscreen or laser engraving? Looks really nice - I'd like to try whatever method was used.

Kerry M

[arielfx]

mlabbee - you can engrave directly on the box but most places can't do that actually. i'm sure that if you'll look for long enough you'll find a place that agrees but it seems that they prefer to work with aluminium and some material called alumnmal or some silly name like that which is laminated plastic with aluminium so that you can engrave lets say from red to black or from cherry red to gold...

the places that help you out mostly are the same places that do signs and stuff and to engrave on powder coated boxes needs a little different setup they usually do not have.

bwanasonic - the box was screened. screened gives you great visible text and graphics. if you are going to do that remember to use epoxy ink or anything else which will hold on to the surface you are working on. i am not sure what my color is because its german and dont have any english writings on the box so i can't really tell what type of color but i got it from a silk screening factory and its used to color metals (usually these colors are very strong and dry in about 10 minutes).

[Marcos - Munky]

Looks cool.

[fuzz_fanatic]

swEEt  

[Paul Marossy]

Very nice!  

[mlabbee]

you can engrave directly on the box but most places can't do that actually. i'm sure that if you'll look for long enough you'll find a place that agrees but it seems that they prefer to work with aluminium and some material called alumnmal or some silly name like that which is laminated plastic with aluminium so that you can engrave lets say from red to black or from cherry red to gold...

Dang! Why can't this stuff be simple?  

In any event, I forgot to mention that I think the screened version you posted looks absolutely fantastic. It's a shame you can't find an easy/efficient way to just keep producing them like that. I'm sure the laser iengraving will look good, too, but I really dig the color and the texture of the lettering.  Excellent work!

[arielfx]

thank you  

things are never simple if you ask me... don't forget that i live in israel and israel is NOT the US. over here its much harder to find pretty much anything non-standard because the market for these things is very small. i don't really know for fact but i am pretty much sure that you can find someone who will engrave on boxes over there. maybe in europe as well but for now i am stuck here so ill use what i have.

i must admit i really like the looks myself but i would like to produce some more and sell them for a reasonable cost and not have a 2 month waiting list... but lets look on the bright side of things: when every second guitar player will own something i made these boxes will be super rare and people will go mad on ebay for them  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[Dragonfly]

VERY nice looking enclosures....im definitely diggin' the texture...too bad you cant keep doing them that way...

btw...regarding your "boost" pedal...is that one based on the AMZ Mosfet booster?  thats a great sounding boost....

[arielfx]

Dragonfly - yes... by the way ive actually built 3 of them into hammond 1590b boxes with no marking on them and some local guitar players use them. i have one with a screened box but no pictures of that for now because i don't have a digital camera. anyway i guess i will keep the screened box and the next run with the plates will have a lower price!