Pictures!

[vigilante397]

I had done a Dr. Boogie like this before, but the Boogie lost its place on my board and it seemed a shame to lose one of my favorite art schemes So I re-finished this Rat in the same way. Mongolian old script, CNC engraved and painted in.

[Benoi31]

Really cool !

[Badpaw]

Valvecaster retro style pedal build.

I love the sound of an overdriven tube amp but I also love the convenience of a battery powered, solid state amp. What to do? Enter Matsumin Valvecaster. This is a simple, low voltage pedal that drives a 12AU7 tube to pretty convincing overdrive.

I like the retro feel of tubes and I thought this clever and rich pedal circuit needed a stylish home in keeping with the feel of its main component.

I spotted 2 vintage Weston electrical meters online and the idea hit me, mount the valve externally and make a show of it. I took cues from the shape of the upper plinth and the meters viewing window and after some careful measuring of the tube, socket and meters body I made a template and cut 6 cooling fins from 2mm aluminium. After further measuring I drilled the tube hole and mounting points. I used 5mm hex stand offs between each fin. After a lot of sanding and finishing the radiator was done.

I removed all of the meters guts and external fittings and drilled where I needed to for the power input (no room for an internal battery) and pilot light ( a fender amp jewel light with a led imbedded in it with translucent silicone for diffusion. The Valvecaster has 3 controls, volume, tone and gain. The meter had 4 terminals so I fitted a 4th pot that switches on and can set the brightness of a 3mm led that illuminates the tube from below emulating a tubes glow. I drilled out the meters original brass terminal screws and used them as control knobs.

The input and output jacks fit amazingly well owing to the efficient and space saving point to point wiring of the circuits components onto the valve socket itself. I used a daughter board on the foot switch which makes true bypass, ground connections and hook ups a cinch.

And there we have it, a real tube based, Machine age style overdrive emulator pedal...as used by The Rocketeer!

[rankot]

Amazing!

[Badpaw]

Thank you very much! I'm very pleased with it.

[Galego]

That looks really great Badpaw. Congrats!

[Marcos - Munky]

9th build of 2018: Alfonso's Zendrive, in my opinion the best ts-like od. Didn't had any ideas for an artwork to etch, so I went with a swirl using red, green and blue nail polishes.

[vigilante397]

Now that I have to be to work at 7:30 instead of 5:30 every morning I've been finding time to work on things I've been through 8 (I think) Klones in my time here before setlling on the Ceriatone Centura last year. It sounds amazing, the only thing I wasn't thrilled with was the artwork. Nothing against Ceriatone, I've just always felt like something with that great of tone deserved better looks. So 3 hours of prep, 23 hours of CNC milling and 1 hour of painting later I got this:

[bluebunny]

So 3 hours of prep, 23 hours of CNC milling and 1 hour of painting later I got this:

And still at work by 7:30?  Nice.   

[vigilante397]

And still at work by 7:30?  Nice.   

You know it I started the engraving at 10AM sunday and it finished 9AM monday, so I was at work when it finished and had to walk the Mrs. through shutting down the machine and whatnot via text message

[bluebunny]

Remote-controlled wives.  Whatever next?   <whatever-emoji-I-put-here-I'll-be-in-trouble>

[hylandren]

That's some serious nice machine etching!
I heard a CNC machine going once...that thing was louder than standing in front of EJ's amps! lol
If that was typical of a CNC machine, I don't know how anyone could sleep through that!





[/quote]

[vigilante397]

If that was typical of a CNC machine, I don't know how anyone could sleep through that!

Mine is a desktop CNC so it's much smaller than industrial machines. Plus I have a thick foam pad under it so my workbench doesn't vibrate along with it, and now you can barely hear it outside the garage

[duck_arse]

I watched a cnc machine once, it was grinding my new tooth from a blank.

what on earth did you do to the enclosure to make the drapes up the sides?

[vigilante397]

what on earth did you do to the enclosure to make the drapes up the sides?

The enclosure came like that, it's not a standard Hammond box. If I understood correctly their boxes are cast from a mold made from an original Klon. So it's very large, and has the fancy drapes on the sides.

[ElectricDruid]

what on earth did you do to the enclosure to make the drapes up the sides?

The enclosure came like that, it's not a standard Hammond box. If I understood correctly their boxes are cast from a mold made from an original Klon. So it's very large, and has the fancy drapes on the sides.

That looks like a good way to increase the cost price for no sonic benefit whatsoever! Still, it certainly makes the pedal identifiable and unique, and maybe that's the point...until someone copies it like your Ceriatone people.

The etching looks great, love it. Really nice work. Two-tone etches look fab.

[vigilante397]

That looks like a good way to increase the cost price for no sonic benefit whatsoever!

Yup Pretty sure that's where the bulk of the price comes from.

The etching looks great, love it. Really nice work. Two-tone etches look fab.

Thanks It's one of the very few times in my pedal-making that even my wife has agreed it turned out cool

[patrick398]

Good job i'm not a perfectionist. Latest bodge job offering.



White powder coat enclosure from Tayda.
Things of note:
I did this with an iron. Strangely the powder coat started to melt hence the slightly rough edges. I found this surprising as i was under the impression powder coating was done at very high temperatures so didn't think there was any way the iron would melt it. Maybe i need to set the iron to a lower temp setting. I guess there's a goldie locks zone where it's hot enough to melt the toner but not the powder coat?

Anyone else experienced this?

[deadastronaut]

ive been meaning to try this 'cold toner transfer', but it still looks grey rather than black

going by this guys results....but no need for heat is a plus on paint..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBIxvwZ_0og

[patrick398]

ive been meaning to try this 'cold toner transfer', but it still looks grey rather than black

going by this guys results....but no need for heat is a plus on paint..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBIxvwZ_0og

There's also a video of a guy who does a toner transfer by just applying a thin laying of clear coat to aluminium and then rubs it for a few minutes and it all applies flawlessly, looks like some kind of witchcraft but i wonder whether it'd work on pre-painted enclosures