DIY Earth-Friendlier Stompboxes (the thread)

[earthtonesaudio]

I've been meaning to do a how-to for a long time, and also to post it on my website, but I figured it would be nice to have an open-source version here.  So without further ado:

The DIY guide to making your stompboxes more environmentally friendly


Some preliminary things:

1. Mindset
This is the main ingredient in designing and building stompboxes that are better for the environment.  Put earth-friendliness right up there with parts costs and sound quality, and you'll be surprised at the solutions you can come up with.  Being on the lunatic leading edge of the "green movement," I practice not three, but 5 "R's" of earth-friendly habits:
Refuse (to buy things you don't need, or that are disposable by design)
Reduce (your consumption)
Reuse (if it still works)
Repair (if it can be repaired)
Recycle (as a last resort)
Do these in order for best results.

2. What can and can't be done
This varies from person to person depending on the tools and materials available.  For example I can't make my own transistors very easily, but I can scrounge transistors from dead or unwanted electronics equipment.  Some people will have access to wood or metalworking equipment, and can do lots of fabrication.  Others will have access to salvage yards with tons of potential materials for enclosures, knobs, etc.

3. Use your community
Reach out to your community and you'll be surprised at the help that is available.  Even if the guy at the local lumberyard has never heard of stompboxes, he may still want to help you find scrap wood for small enclosures, especially if you explain that you're trying to help recycle  materials and do your part for the environment.


Getting down to the nitty-gritty of it:

Start with what you know you can do.  Some simple examples:
-battery snaps made from dead batteries
-wire salvaged from old computers, radios, cars, etc.
-Wall wart adaptors for cheap (thrift stores) or free (when a friend replaces their answering machine or similar device)
-old, unloved pedals can be donors for enclosure, jacks, knobs, and electronic components

Move up to more advanced techniques as your experience, tools, and available materials allow.
-cut up old wine corks for non-slip pedal feet
-get acquainted with the local salvage yard, and buy a pair of tin snips 
-cut fallen branches down to size and drill partway through to make your own knobs
-become an expert in dismantling old equipment and organize the liberated components instead of putting them all in one container (meaning, don't just have a "junk parts" box, split it up so you have one box for old telephone speakers, one box for weird looking diodes, one for small transformers, etc etc)

If you can't build, and must buy, shop smart.
-Order in bulk whenever you can (fewer trips saves fuel, and it's cheaper)
-Get non-toxic alternatives.  Yes, they do exist!  Not everything can be done non-toxic, but a whole lot can.  Paint, primer, cleansers, grease removers, glues, etc.

Do the research.
-aluminum is already recycled (that's right, your "new" Hammond 1590B is not really "new."  But that's a good thing!)
-if you can find part X locally, rather than from somewhere far away, opt for the local version.  Save fuel and help the local economy.
-talk to people in your area.  They may hook you up with something you need, or think of something you didn't.


Much more to come (links, etc).  Please add!

[earthtonesaudio]

Some threads from here that could be construed as "environmentally better-than-average" approaches:

Battery snaps: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=66278.0 (plus non-toxic glue that I've found to work)

Junkyards/Scrapyards: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=15834.0

Longer lasting etchant: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=65039.0

[John Blund]

Some very good points!
what I've been looking for are a good alternative to PCBs and those epoxy fiber perfboards.
Terminal strips and such are ok but are a bit difficult to make compact designs with.

haven't even though about making knobs of wood just have to find some earth friendly paint as well

[frank_p]

Some very good points!
What I've been looking for are a good alternative to PCBs and those epoxy fiber perfboards.
Terminal strips and such are ok but are a bit difficult to make compact designs with.

Is it true that early Orange amps were made on wood boards ?  I would really like to see a picture of that !  How the components were mounted (in holes?) ?

Maybe I am naive, but I've buyed thin cork boards to mount the components of a simple fuzz I am planning to build in a point to point style. I am trying to pin down the components in place for soldering each other.

I thing I will do the VMF like this.  If you have a better idea tell me ! 

[earthtonesaudio]

just have to find some earth friendly paint as well

Try AFM Safecoat.  They have metal primers, and all sorts of enamels, clearcoats, etc.

They have some colors but mostly clear or white... but that doesn't mean you have to add a toxic dye.  Plant dyes are super safe and some are very bright.  I like beets for red, and red cabbage can do purple, green, and many shades of pink depending on the acidity of the solution you're making.  It's lots of fun.

You can also make a lot of things out of regular old milk.  Like plastic, glue, and paint.  To make plastic from milk all you need is heat and vinegar, and a cheesecloth.  It's wild.

Maybe I am naive, but I've buyed thin cork boards to mount the components of a simple fuzz I am planning to build in a point to point style. I am trying to pin down the components in place for soldering each other.
I thing I will do the VMF like this.  If you have a better idea tell me ! 

That's a cool idea, Frank.  Can't get much more natural than cork.  Plus the cork industry ensures the survival of the cork forests and all the associated wildlife, which is an extra bonus.  I once mounted the components for a pedal on a piece of cardboard cracker box.  I poked the leads through, twisted, and soldered.  It was a little tricky though.

[kurtlives]

I always save my etchant. Also when ever I have liitle bits of wire left over I always keep them in  a little tin. I find uses for them (switch to LED, jumpering etc..)

I like the tree branch knob idea.

[brett]

Hi

Maybe I am naive, but I've buyed thin cork boards to mount the components of a simple fuzz

Sounds similar to the cardboard (esp corrugated) that others say does a fine job for simple circuits.  I'm working on a blinking LED circuit on a piece of beer carton right now.  Keep it simple, I say.

The casein (milk-derived plastic) idea is, IMO, utterly BRILLIANT.
cheers

[kurtlives]

This whole earth friendly idea would be good idea for the one of Tonegod's monthly contests. Who can make the most earth friendly stompbox....?

[sengo]

You could also reuse the PCB's that come in those old electronics as circuit boards for your new pedals, just use the traces you need, and you may need to us more jumpers than usual, or stretch some transistor leads further to fit them to the board. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm planning on doing this in the future.

Nick 

Edit: I also think it would be awesome to have a "Greenest pedal" contest as well.

[bonkdav]

Im so happy this thread is going.

Ive always planned on the knob idea just because it was cheap and i thought it would be cool, now i realize how earth friendly it is and im hoping everyone will do it.

Recycling parts is fun too.  Its like christmas when you crack open an old device you can never tell exactly what components your gonna stumble upon.  It always puts a smile on my face when im thinking "hello there tropical fish caps" or "i cant wait to test this germ out".   since "mojo" parts come from the same era as  some of the electronics that are being discarded today.

[newfish]

Well, this is an excellent thread.

I've been tripping over an old Hi-Fi Cassette deck for a while now. 

It's mid to late 70s, and is no longer used - although still working.

Assuming no local charity / community groups want it (who still uses tapes anyway?) - I can feel a 'salvage' coming on.

...and the size of the case will make several other folded aluminium cases from the shiny sheet of goodness...

Might just have some 'mojo' parts in there too - *plus* how cool would it be to have a booster / overdrive with a VU meter to indicate how much boost you were adding?

[DougH]

I buy $5 surplus aluminum modem boxes to use for amp chassis. (I'm on my 4th one right now.) They still have the pcb's in them stuffed with parts. The first one had a wet-cell battery in it but after that they have been coming with these cute little 20v transformers. Those could be used back-to-back for a tube pedal or something. I've gotten a handful of silver micas off the boards too. You never know what you'll find. In all honesty I don't scrounge parts much anymore. It's too time-intensive for me to spend 5 minutes desoldering a PCB to end up with a cap with 1/8" leads. I still have an old VCR and a mid-70's radio shack receiver that I haven't touched. One of these days...

[sengo]

I buy $5 surplus aluminum modem boxes to use for amp chassis. (I'm on my 4th one right now.)

Hey, that's pretty cool. Do you get them online or from a local surplus store? can you fit the guts to a decent sized tube amp in them?


I can't believe I'm unable to find a screwdriver anywhere in my house to get this old radio/tape deck apart. I think im going to have to take a hatchet to it. 

[DougH]

I get the boxes at a local place. I've built three 3-tube amps so far. The one I'm working on now is 4-tube. Four tubes and a pair of decent sized transformers is about the limit for these chassis. There is also some funkiness due to the fact that the lid edge is actually 1/2" from the edge of the box. Although it is folded and closed, there is a 1/2" space along the back edge that can make installing speaker jacks, etc "interesting". I've learned to work with them though and can't beat the price. Here's a couple amps I've built with them in my gallery:

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/DougH/

[sengo]

Oh hey yeah! I saw that Vox head when you originally posted about it. Very nice looking. I really like how you use the grating so you can see the tubes glowing, I was thinking of doing the same thing when I finally get around to building an amp myself.

[dschwartz]

is that milk plastic good enough for knobs for example??
i saw some videos on youtube but you can´t see how hard it gets or how resistant..

that casin plastic has my mind on a freaking brainstorm!!

[earthtonesaudio]

is that milk plastic good enough for knobs for example??
i saw some videos on youtube but you can´t see how hard it gets or how resistant..

that casin plastic has my mind on a freaking brainstorm!!

I've been wondering about this too.  I'm guessing it wouldn't be the most durable thing in the world, but who knows.  If you make some (please do!), do a scratch test (scratch with materials of varying hardness) to get a general idea of how tough it is.  I'm putting off this experiment until I have enough time to get the vinegar smell out of the house before the wife comes home!

Also interesting is that plastics used to be made of bone, urea, and other weird "nature" stuff.  Bakelite (I think that's the name) was used for circuit boards, and it was made with urea and male cats just loved to pee on it.  This probably caused a lot of busted gadgets and some very startled cats (ZAP!).

I am just speculating, but I think petroleum-based plastics are a fairly recent development (last 50 years or so) at least in terms of commercial use.

[earthtonesaudio]

I just want to note that there are a number of sites out there that have good "green" DIY pedalmaking stuff already.  diyguitarist.com, muzique.com and geofex.com come to mind immediately.  The world is a better place because of the articles on steel stud enclosures, thrift store pedalboards, and of course sewing machine pedal A/B switchers.

[frank_p]

is that milk plastic good enough for knobs for example??
i saw some videos on youtube but you can´t see how hard it gets or how resistant..

that casin plastic has my mind on a freaking brainstorm!!

I've been wondering about this too.  I'm guessing it wouldn't be the most durable thing in the world, but who knows.  If you make some (please do!), do a scratch test (scratch with materials of varying hardness) to get a general idea of how tough it is.  I'm putting off this experiment until I have enough time to get the vinegar smell out of the house before the wife comes home!

Also interesting is that plastics used to be made of bone, urea, and other weird "nature" stuff.  Bakelite (I think that's the name) was used for circuit boards, and it was made with urea and male cats just loved to pee on it.  This probably caused a lot of busted gadgets and some very startled cats (ZAP!).

I am just speculating, but I think petroleum-based plastics are a fairly recent development (last 50 years or so) at least in terms of commercial use.

The first "man-made" polymer or plastic (Plastics means that it can be formed, polymers is the nature of the stuff) have an "ecologic" and economic debut.

It was around 1860 that a company (Phelan and Collander) would offer a  10 000$ prize to the person who could create a good chemical substitute for natural ivory for their pool balls.   John Wesley Hyatt found the solution by inventing the artificial cellulose,
it found many applications after that.  Cellulose was pattented under "celluloid".

« Bakelite » (commercial name) was invented in 1907 and was the first completely synthetic plastic on the market (inventor : Leo Hendrik Baekeland).  The most common name for this plastic is thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin.

The first "plastic" circuit boards were made of this and is still widely used.  Boards are made by mixing the matrix (or filler) (for support wood particles,paper, fabric, etc) with phenol and formaldehyde (two toxic materials).  Then all that stuff is putted in a press and its heated.  A chemical reaction occurs between the two materials and sticks to the matrix.  The composite material is hard, can't melt and have very good heat resistance characteristics.  That is why it is used for circuit boards.  There are two classes of plastics THERMOSTTING or THERMOPLASTICS.

Thermosesetted plastics are very hard (if not impossible) to recycle because the forming process involves chemical reactions that can't be reversed (everything is crosslinked in there).  Think of epoxy, rubber, melamine.  Polyimides is also widely used in the circuit board industry and is a thermoset (can't be recycled)

So making green boards that could meet environmental concerns is not so evident.  It should be biodegradable and seal out moisture at the same time.  It should not melt if overheated.  It should not be made in a composite way because they are hard to recycle.

So plastics may not be the ideal answers to a green circuit board.

If you want to use greener plastics on your stompboxes, they should be made with thermoplastics.  Those should not be mixed with fillers as to make them a composite material (Think of : fiber board + parafins) because they are reluctant to recycling.

Thermoplastics are formed into shape by heat and can be regrinded to be recycled.  But they hate your solering iron.  These are (some of them) :

Polyethylene  PE  (you can scratch it with your nail)  Most general cheap purpose.  But the greenest in my book)
Polypropylene PP (new cheap strat knobs) (you can't scratch it with your nail but still soft)  (Container covers that have a molded in hinge)
Polyamide (Nylon)  Guitar picks.  Great mechanical properties, can be dyed. Pots components.
Polyacrylates (cheap gibson type knobs) : fragile(cracks), transparent panels.
Acrylonitryle butadiene styrene ABS (old strat knobs) : Copolymer formed or 3 plastics. Great mechanical properties, sewer pipes, solid knobs.  The fumes of this plastic is TOXIC at the manufacturer plant.
Polyvinyl chloride PVC (old strat pickguards) : (the monomer from witch it is made is toxic)  (patented in 1914 !!!)  A lot of ecologic pressure on this one because of leaching additives that is put in there to have better mechanical and processing qualities.
Polyacetal  (Greater guitar picks than nylon)
Cellulose acetate : (indestructible Gibson transparent knobs, also those screwdrivers handles you can hit with you hammer and gift ribbons that are used so the gift can't be opened)
Polycarbonate : safety glasses, impact resistant.
Polystyrene isolation foam, goodies that cracks (plastic forks...)
And many more...

If you are concerned about the lifecycle of materials and recycling, use those thermoplastics and avoid thermosetting plastics.

Conventionnal PCB is NOT an option in « green » pedals (total composite and thermosetting) unless you « reuse » the plate witch is not evident.

Also : plastic additives to avoid.
Toxic color pigment such as white lead oxide.
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) :  Is a flame retardant  used in PCB, capacitors, electrical appliance plastics case, (liver toxicity, thyroid toxicity, and neurodevelopmental toxicity) (alternatives exists).
Phthalates : used in plastics to increase elasticity and Resistance to cracks (liver, testes damage and birth defects).  Used a lot in PVC.
Bisphenol A : modifies hormonal responnse

Hope it help in your pursuit of a green stompbox.  (Not the tubescreamer)
Frank

[brett]

is that milk plastic good enough for knobs for example??

Easily.  My parents have a TABLE TOP made out of it.  It is cream-coloured and about 1/2 or 5/8 inch thick.  It seems about as strong as bakelite or glass.