Pictures!

[Auke Haarsma]

Your words did appear...they are included in the section you quoted

[Sweetalk]

Your words did appear...they are included in the section you quoted

Oh yeah!! I see it...

[rikkards]

The backstory:
I got a router and router table this past Xmas and decided I needed a project and figured a pedalboard would be nice excuse to try it out. I figured I would do the KISS method and keep it simple. The question was how to keep the pedals on the board. I had seen different methods but I didn't want anything too permanent that involved drilling holes in case I get the itch to build a new pedal and need to do some shuffling. I originally thought of using a large strip of velcro but decided to try something different. Since Lee Valley tools HQ is less than a mile from my place, I went there and bought some small rare-earth magnets and went to a local steel provider and had them cut 2 pieces of steel 6"x19".

Well I finished building it today and here are some pictures:
The whole board and gear:

Closer up:

Pedal removed showing magnets:


Painted the steel using a rustoleum hammered steel paint and lacquered it to keep the paint from chipping. Stained the wood (pine) and lacquered it as well.

The magnets are rated 2.5 lbs magnetic strength each so 4 should hold about 10 lbs firmly.  The only catch is that the pedals do stay in place even upside down but since they are using the screws as aluminum isn't magnetic, if I stomped on an angle they may move a bit but how I normally play, they don't at all.
Some possible solutions to the problem are:
1. Paint the bottom of the pedal with magnetic paint and get a bigger magnet. The one drawback to this is I socket all of my transistors. I suspect a bigger magnet may pull them out of the sockets
2. Thicker non-slip cushioning on the bottom to limit lateral movement. I think I may do this as it seems the most simple method. May just double up the little strips I bought at the local home store.

The only other feature it has that I haven't taken a picture of is I routed out the cavity under the raised section. If I ever decide to get a power adapter it would fit nicely inside and I would just have to figure a way of getting the power cables out neatly to the front.

By the way, a unibit will go through steel but it takes a lot longer and a lot of oil.
The original design had the steel inset but I decided to change it after the second attempt as it was going to be difficult to route out that big of an inset . I actually like the way I did it instead
Hope you like.

[greigoroth]

Looks great!

You planning to gig with it? The rock and roller inside me wonders how it would go with the magnets!

[rikkards]

Thanks, I appreciate it!

I don't know how well it would handle the abuse that some pedal boards go through especially if you were a working musician but I am more of a bedroom guitar player. It was more of an experiment with rare-earth magnets and one of the criteria was that it look pretty to meet the expectations of the house's "decorating coordinator" 

I suspect if went to jam with someone once in a while it would be fine, probably have to place the pedals back on the magnets (although the magnets would probably have stayed on the board). I would definitely need to resolve the lateral movement issue for transportation as they could potentially be pushed off from the side. I suspect if I had painted the bottom and went with 1/2" magnets it may have addressed the movement issue. For something that had the requirement of being flexible with placement it definitely worked and I really like the look of it.

Also wasn't too expensive:
Steel: $13
Paint: $5
Stain: $5
Lacquer $5 (but I already had it from refinishing our dining room table)
Wood: $10

Looks great!

You planning to gig with it? The rock and roller inside me wonders how it would go with the magnets!

[Ronsonic]

I just wanna say, I love this picture thread.

All you guys rock.

Keep building.

Ron

[gutsofgold]

Active ABY switch from GGG





First time etching pcb - brett's Hidrosis fuzz (which sounds awesome)
(Im)patiently waiting for the enclosure to come in the mail. I'm going to paint it blue to match the components and the wiring. 

[Gil]

[Gil]

Why not see them all ?

[ConanB]

Why not see them all ?

Are those large silver enclosures custom made or can you buy them someplace?
They would be great for some of the larger builds I have in mind.

[theundeadelvis]

Are those large silver enclosures custom made or can you buy them someplace?
They would be great for some of the larger builds I have in mind.

You might try these: http://www.hammondmfg.com/dwg16.htm

[Gil]

I found them at the same local dealer from which I bought the hammonds.

[Gil]

I found them at the same local dealer from which I bought the hammonds.

These are great for Moogerfooger / Mutron style pedals ! 

[cheeb]

Gil, I like those black ones. Very simple and stylish. I think I may steal that for my next.

[ambulancevoice]

First time etching pcb - brett's Hidrosis fuzz (which sounds awesome)
(Im)patiently waiting for the enclosure to come in the mail. I'm going to paint it blue to match the components and the wiring. 

true blue box

[darron]

First time etching pcb - brett's Hidrosis fuzz (which sounds awesome)
(Im)patiently waiting for the enclosure to come in the mail. I'm going to paint it blue to match the components and the wiring. 

true blue box

i noticed that with my builds the components all seemed to have a blue theme to them, especially since i mount the blue 3pdt's to the board. so because of that i like blue heat shrink. i got really disappointed the other day when i ordered through the mail from my local electronics shop (altronics) and they send me different coloured caps than i usually pick out in store, even though they had the same ratings. at once point i even considered colouring the greencaps blue, but nah. (:

[Gil]

Gil, I like those black ones. Very simple and stylish. I think I may steal that for my next.

Thanks !

What I like about the white pen is that it is easily erasable using simple paint dissolver,
so you can erase and rewrite if you're not satisfied with the results

Man, I start missing building those pedals ! It's been 5 years since I made the last one.
I've been deeply into vintage synthesizers restoration projects, ones like this:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1784800

Here I took an old Prophet 5 which I've been given and was missing the entire chassis with all jacks, transformer and power supply.
I DIYed the powersupply the same way I build those pedals (on a pref board), bought the original transformer,
fixed all issues (well, two minor issues are left now, still working on it), managed to get an original chassis which I refurbished,
refurbished the wood, and installed them all to a restored synth. I'm still in process of getting  new knobs and badges.

Take a look:





















Enjoy !!

[jpm83]

Active ABY switch from GGG





First time etching pcb - brett's Hidrosis fuzz (which sounds awesome)
(Im)patiently waiting for the enclosure to come in the mail. I'm going to paint it blue to match the components and the wiring. 

Where did you buy those caps? They look nice. Really neat looking build BTW.

Janne

[Renegadrian]

I build a Valvecaster yesterday...
I made a gallery for your curiosity...

http://web.tiscali.it/renegadrian/

I used a TEKO case, which has enough room for the valve and all the pieces...I built a "wall" for the tube with wood...I triple checked its measures and cut it to totally fit in - I was going to glue it, but it's not necessary. I made two holes, one that contains the tube socket (then glued in) and another one for the wires. I also made two "peepshow" holes in the enclosure just above the tube...
I just need to fix the paint inperfections, put some labels on and clear coat...But well, that's it...

[Ronsonic]

Nice job on the Prophet 5, Gil. The shop where I work does a lot of vintage synth work (that's a phrase that didn't exist 20 years ago) and I've seen a lot of those go through. They are never easy. Congrats on the resurrection.

Ron