Pictures!

[mistahead]

PVA (white woodworker's) glue is your bestest friend ever - can be used to clear coat, pseudo-epoxy, affix, water-seal, and in a pinch also makes a VERY effective female contraceptive.   

Good stuff mate.

[Pettol]

A Klon centaur. This box has haunted - the paint seem to wrinkle no matter what I did. It has never happened before and in the end I covered it with a pickguard leftover.

[electricgrave]

^^ Great idea!!! Looks amazing!

[amptramp]

Are you trying to drown Ronald McDonald?

[musiclikscreams]

A Klon centaur. This box has haunted - the paint seem to wrinkle no matter what I did. It has never happened before and in the end I covered it with a pickguard leftover.

ive been wanting to do labeled knobs for a while.  they look awesome.  how did u do it?

pickguard is brilliant.  looks so nice

[antiuser]

Are you trying to drown Ronald McDonald?

Are you saying he doesn't deserve it? 

[antiuser]

I couldn't sleep so I made another fuzz... this one is all silicon and is loud and sputtery (but is easily tamed by using the guitar's volume control). Ended up re-using the first enclosure I'd ever drilled, so the holes aren't lined up and it looks kinda derpy. Fits the name I gave it.

[amptramp]

Are you trying to drown Ronald McDonald?

Are you saying he doesn't deserve it? 

Not at all!  Do you know how many bags of cement it takes to fill size 83EEEEE shoes?  Well, I have a mixing impeller and a bucket, so this is going to be a fun experiment.

[Pettol]

ive been wanting to do labeled knobs for a while.  they look awesome.  how did u do it?

pickguard is brilliant.  looks so nice

Thanks.

I used silver rub ons and sprayed two layers of clear coat over it (only on the top).

[davent]

Antiuser, really like the way you're dressing up your enclosure, very cool! Ssssh, we'd never ever notice the holes were miss-drilled,  they're exactly where they're suppose to be.

Nicely done!

[antiuser]

Hey thanks! I've been having fun coming up with new/different fuzzes and case designs. I guess I was deprived of fuzz as a child so now I'm making up for it   

[antiuser]

Another sleepless night, another fuzz. This time I can post guts because my spaghetti isn't even that bad! No sound samples yet though since it's 5am and my neighbours wouldn't appreciate me jamming at this hour, I don't think.

[pickdropper]

I feel compelled to point out that it's a Rat pedal.  Not sure if that is obvious with the subtle naming scheme.   

[Hemmel]

That's a beautiful Rat !

[antiuser]

If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have never known!  Looks great, really pro job.

[GGBB]

Pickdropper - that's the prettiest Rat I've ever seen.  What's going on finish/graphics wise?  And are you painting the inside of the enclosure?

[pickdropper]

Thanks folks.

The graphics are vector based and setup in Adobe Illustrator.

The graphic file was then laser etched into the powder coat of the enclosure.

[kato]

That Rat looks hella classy.
I'm sure it was a lot of work, but worth it. The textured white on black effect elevates it into the "if I could only keep one pedal..." realm.  I'm super curious how you did it.

The graphic file was then laser etched into the powder coat of the enclosure.

Is this documented anywhere?  Or is it a proprietary technique?

As I think about it, it's mind boggling. "Etch into powder coat?"  - by masking off everything else - and etching down to the metal? or just slightly into the coating. 
Then fill with white?  And remove the overspray without somehow damaging the original powder coat. It's baffling me.

[pickdropper]

Nope, nothing proprietary about it at all.  I wrote a more detailed bit about it in the etched enclosures post on the pictures page, but I can briefly explain it here.

The laser etching I did uses a 30W CO2 based laser.  It is strong enough to burn right through the coating on the enclosures, but not strong enough to dig into the pedal itself.  There are lasers that can do that, but I don't have access to one.  In this particular etch, there is no color backfilling.  I etched off the powder coating, leaving uncoated aluminum underneath.  Some of the mild color inconsistencies are those inherent in the enclosure aluminum, which I think can look kind of cool.

In the past, I have backfilled with paint pens if the contrast between the aluminum enclosure and the powder coating color didn't have a strong enough contrast.  I usually prefer the unfilled, however.

The etching process is fairly simple once the artwork is setup (as long as the engraver is properly aligned).  The laser engraver I use has standard Windows print drivers, so I just "print" to the engraver from Adobe Illustrator.  Some of the cheaper Laser Engravers out there use proprietary software instead of a print driver, which can be a bit of a hassle, but often they can work fine as long as they support the right formats.  Some of the really cheap ones only support JPEG or BMP.  I would recommend avoiding those (I never etch JPEGs if I can help it).

[kato]

Oh thanks Pickdropper. At least I can sleep now without thinking about how to do it via chemical etching.
Somehow I missed the word "laser" in "laser etched," even though I quoted it.     which makes my question look really dumb.

Out of my league for now, but maybe one day.   
Or perhaps I should go full DIY and try the $60 Laser Engraver at instructables.com.