DIY enclosures

C Bradley · July 28, 2005, 09:27:17 AM

Anyone making their own boxes? I've been using 4" PVC drain pipe caps with a steel 4" round junction box cover. Cost = $2 at Home Depot or Lowe's. These are good sturdy boxes and I can fit a Fuzz Face inside them easily. Any other designs I should know about?

petemoore · July 28, 2005, 11:47:09 AM

RACO Conversion, cheep de-uglifiable with *some bondo work.
I'm using the front panel of a large ONKYO reciever for wah, splitter blend, BMP and LPB.
Take a piece of your favorite looking sheet of metal, thick enough that you can work and is strong enough, then size, cut, bend it to the shape you want. Find ways to work it quickly...I have a few like this that I really like.

H4T · July 28, 2005, 01:11:19 PM

Over at GeoFex, they mention that you can use steel studs to create your own MXR-sized enclosures. You can have complete control over the length of your enclosure this way.

http://geofex.com/Article_Folders/steelstud/steelstud.htm

Requires a little bit of bending, but hey, cheap as hell lol.

Yun · July 30, 2005, 12:34:31 PM

Quote from: C BradleyAnyone making their own boxes? I've been using 4" PVC drain pipe caps with a steel 4" round junction box cover. Cost = $2 at Home Depot or Lowe's. These are good sturdy boxes and I can fit a Fuzz Face inside them easily. Any other designs I should know about?

You mean that you're using the end caps off of PVC pipes eh? i thaught i was the only one doin that, man

.

For the back-plate i used the metal PCB stand offs from radio-shack. i hot glued them to the sides, drilled my home-made back plate, and screwed it closed.

For the back plate:

i use the clear plexi-glass that you can also get at lowes, as well as home depot. Use a scroll-saw to cut it round, etc.

I like the clear because i can see the guts :twisted: . And my "dandy" workmans-ship (yeah....right :roll: :lol: )

amz-fx · July 30, 2005, 03:00:13 PM

Quote from: YunYou mean that you're using the end caps off of PVC pipes eh? i thaught i was the only one doin that, man

http://www.muzique.com/lab/enclosures.htm

Also look at the YAFF article.

regards, Jack

primalphunk · July 30, 2005, 08:08:54 PM

I've been using general foods international coffee tins and reinforcing them a little with small pieces of wood...That's just to keep the plugging and unplugging of jacks from tearing them up. I'd be scared to death to stomp on them but my intent is to stuff them into a rack drawer anyway and control them with my gcx audio switcher...

Just looking to stay as Sanford & Son as possible with my enclosures. :wink: Whatever works...

peace,
James

C Bradley · July 30, 2005, 08:23:43 PM

Quote from: amz-fx
Quote from: YunYou mean that you're using the end caps off of PVC pipes eh? i thaught i was the only one doin that, man

http://www.muzique.com/lab/enclosures.htm

Also look at the YAFF article.

regards, Jack

Yep! That's where I first saw it done, and I've been using them ever since. Great idea. :wink:

Yun · July 30, 2005, 10:00:01 PM

no no, i've seen that site before, guys. I've talking about a pvc CAP, The one on that site is an end drain cap.

The ones i use are and actual THICK PVC domed cap, just like the FF's originals, but only a 4" .

I also buy rubber plugs to use for back plates....

C Bradley · July 30, 2005, 10:24:14 PM

I considered using the domed caps, but the walls are high. I wanted something a little more low-profile.

Yun · July 30, 2005, 10:48:04 PM

Quote from: C BradleyI considered using the domed caps, but the walls are high. I wanted something a little more low-profile.

Yeah, i remedied that by grinding em down....

I should start using drain caps though. It seems to be A LOT less work....

amz-fx · July 31, 2005, 12:59:15 PM

QuoteThe ones i use are and actual THICK PVC domed cap

I tried those but it was a lot of work to get the jack and pots to go through with enough room for the nut to hold it down. You have to countersink the hole with a larger drill bit. The drain cap is definitely less work.

regards, Jack

Paul Marossy · July 31, 2005, 02:50:20 PM

You can also recycle some things to get a DIY enclosure. I friend gave me a pile of these old transceiever boxes that looked like this when I started (two U-shaped pieces):

And after about an hour's worth of work cutting them down, drilling some holes and filling some holes with JB Weld they look like these when I was finished with them:

Yun · July 31, 2005, 05:25:20 PM

dang, mr.Paul; you do some good graphics, dude.

That's my problem- i don't have the technowlegy, tools, or knowledge to make My pedals look "pretty" . i don't even own a drill press! i usually use the black plastic MXR sized enclosures from radio-shack :oops: .

My pedals aren't quite the lookers, however they sound dern good....

mojotron · July 31, 2005, 07:36:09 PM

I got tired of using hammond enclosures for prototypes (just too expensive), so I started using electrical junction boxes like these:

There are more details on this thread:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=30980&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=junction&start=0

I have about 20 of these and I'm really happy with these boxes because I can swap the tops around and keep the bottoms screwed to the pedal board. Very rugged and very cheap. And, not too bad looking if you paint them.

Paul Marossy · July 31, 2005, 08:36:11 PM

mojotron-

That's nice work on the J-box enclosures. It would be kind of cool to make a modular pedalboard based on those faceplates...

mojotron · July 31, 2005, 10:29:53 PM

Quote from: Paul Marossymojotron-

That's nice work on the J-box enclosures. It would be kind of cool to make a modular pedalboard based on those faceplates...

Hey Paul - that's pretty much what I do and it works out pretty well. If I go out for a gig - I have a 5/8"x6"x3' piece of plywood that serves as my pedal board. I have the junction boxes screwed to the board so they don't move at all. I just load up what ever combo of effects I need - they are only connected to the top part of the junction box - in what ever order, then screw them down. I have the bottoms permanately screwed into the board so that the stomp switch side of the bottoms is on the floor and the back is on the plywood - this makes a bit of an angle too while the board is on the ground. I run a bead of bathroom caulking on the back up the plywood to keep the board from moving around while I'm playing.

I have an old boss 9VDC power distribuition unit (PDU - used to be for a set of boss mini-rack units) that I have screwed into the side of the board to power up to 10 effects. Using a 3' board that I can put 9 junction box effects and the PDU on the board - I just wrap it in bubble wrap when I go out with it, and it's unlikely an effect off the board is going to get ripped off. Unless the thief brings a phillips head screwdriver to the gig.

I usually reuse one of my old boss mini-rack mount delays on the board too - which takes up 2 of the junction box locations on the board and then the remote switch takes up another location, then I usually have a couple of fuzzes, a BSIAB2 or an A/B/Y box , a fulldrive clone, a distortion pro clone or an ea trem, and an overdrive that I'm finishing the design on.

I keep re-doing this board. I'm working on a couple of designs that take up 2 junction boxes as well as making another PDU just for the board. So I'm working on a way to accomodate my latest stuff. One day I'll keep the thing in one piece and post a picture. The only effect I have that is not a junction box DIY thing is the delay - so this works pretty well for what I need.

mojotron · July 31, 2005, 11:05:03 PM

Here's a couple more recent pictures:

On the left is one of my Fulldrive clones (the paint job is a fine example of why you don't bake polyurethene :oops: ), but I never use the boost switch (I put a Sparkle boost after the Fulldrive in the effects chain and use that for a distortion boost if I need it) so I left that off this one and used the parts elsewhere.

On the right is my Distortion Pro clone - as you can see I'm still working on this one. I hate having that many big knobs on one effect to I went with some Alpha 9mm pots (the small ones on a strip of vero board) - now it's just like the Fulltone. As you can see it's in one of the j-box tops that I use for prototyping as it has a ton of holes for switches and pots... I'll eventually get this so that the 9mm pots are inbetween a set of 16mm pots on each side all on one j-box top and reuse this top for something else.

I'm not big on LEDs, but I always leave a hole just in case I want to add it later.

Here's some more pics - I also built the "Boutiqued" Axis Face recently - I really like this build. I have used all of these j-box tops for painting experiments as well - some are cool others are ... well - just experiments.

Paul Marossy · August 01, 2005, 10:26:02 AM

That's pretty cool mojotron. Maybe someday I'll repackage some of my favorites and make a modular pedal board system.

corbs · August 01, 2005, 10:52:23 AM

hey, mojotron - get some steel brackets and then who needs a pedal board when you can just screw them together to form a block!

Paul Marossy · August 01, 2005, 10:56:25 AM

Quote from: corbshey, mojotron - get some steel brackets and then who needs a pedal board when you can just screw them together to form a block!

That's sort of my thinking, but it would be basically a large metal enclosure with a couple of rails on the top and bottom in two rows of effects, one above the other. The faceplates would then be attached to those rails with some screws. No need for velcro or anything like that, either. The more I think about it, the more that I like the idea. :idea:

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DIY enclosures