Ultimate DIY pedal

bigchasbroon · October 23, 2009, 03:42:42 PM

the next step to diy pedals must surley be to make your own enclosures, has anybody had a go at casting alloys?

pazuzu · October 23, 2009, 03:55:02 PM

sheet metal would be much easier. i know aluminum needs to be cast in the lack of oxygen, or alloyed with something else to prevent oxidization.

The French connection · October 23, 2009, 04:21:54 PM

Not cast tough...Mick Farlow: a forum member.
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?action=search2;params=YWR2YW5jZWR8J3wxfCJ8c2VhcmNodHlwZXwnfDJ8Inx1c2Vyc3BlY3wnfG1pY2Zhcmxvdzc3fCJ8YnJkfCd8MiwzMSwzNSwzNCwxOSwxNCwzOSw3LDE1LDYsMzMsMTYsMTcsMzAsMjAsMjEsMjIsMjMsMjQsMjUsMjYsMjcsMjgsMjksMTAsOCwxMSw0fCJ8c2hvd19jb21wbGV0ZXwnfHwifHN1YmplY3Rfb25seXwnfHwifHNvcnRfZGlyfCd8ZGVzY3wifHNvcnR8J3xyZWxldmFuY2V8InxzZWFyY2h8J3xlbmNsb3N1cmU=

And nice cast enclosure from Mike from http://www.pedalenclosures.com/

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=63682.0

Dan

pazuzu · October 23, 2009, 04:28:51 PM

you know, brass would be ridiculously easy...didn't he do a brass wah?

tskullt · October 23, 2009, 08:40:11 PM

hey bigchasbroon,
casting is quite the adventure! (believe me, I know!) the mold is the fun part!
m.

amptramp · October 23, 2009, 08:48:20 PM

If I wanted to do a single casting to hold a whole bunch of pedals, I would use a cam cover casting. Something like a Suzuki cam cover with its high and low areas for stomp switches and controls respectively. Check your local wrecking yard - if they have an unusable engine, you may be able to get castings cheap.

frank_p · October 24, 2009, 12:08:40 AM

Quote from: tskullt on October 23, 2009, 08:40:11 PM
hey bigchasbroon,
casting is quite the adventure! (believe me, I know!) the mold is the fun part!
m.

You use lost wax process ? I used to be an apprentice in a mold making place for castings. If only I was still there...

tskullt · October 24, 2009, 08:20:59 AM

ha, yeah I wish you were there too! I'd have something for ya to work on!
m.

bigchasbroon · October 24, 2009, 01:43:06 PM

how is it done? is it just a bit too much for a novice?

liveloveshare · October 24, 2009, 02:02:53 PM

it requires extreme temperatures--upwards of 1000 kelvins if my memory serves me right..

::edit:: 933.47 K

Somicide · October 24, 2009, 04:26:37 PM

My high school offered a Metal Shop class, I can't see why a local community college or the like wouldn't have something similar complete with furnace, etc.

tskullt · October 24, 2009, 04:37:07 PM

molten aluminum is pressurized and forced into the mold. The enclosure is then ejected from the machine. (if you look at the inside of one of my enclosures, you'll see the impact of the ejector pins).

The mold is made of hardened steel and is ridiculously heavy!
m.

pazuzu · October 24, 2009, 08:02:09 PM

Quote from: tskullt on October 24, 2009, 04:37:07 PM
molten aluminum is pressurized and forced into the mold. The enclosure is then ejected from the machine. (if you look at the inside of one of my enclosures, you'll see the impact of the ejector pins).

The mold is made of hardened steel and is ridiculously heavy!
m.

do you cast in a vacuum or use some kind of shielding gas?

FiveseveN · October 24, 2009, 11:40:22 PM

Man... I was just looking into low-cost casting. Take a look at this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjcj64aNxAY
BTW, what about pewter? And what exactly is the deal with lost wax or styrofoam and such?

frank_p · December 11, 2009, 05:11:56 PM

Quote from: tskullt on October 24, 2009, 08:20:59 AM
ha, yeah I wish you were there too! I'd have something for ya to work on!
m.

Well the shop got bought by a businessman and my mentor got kicked out: so it ended my training.

Quote from: FiveseveN on October 24, 2009, 11:40:22 PM
Man... I was just looking into low-cost casting. Take a look at this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjcj64aNxAY
BTW, what about pewter? And what exactly is the deal with lost wax or styrofoam and such?

I think you are mixing materials for different parts of different processes.

Pewter is very soft compared to aluminium. Your boxes will get deformed when stomping on them.

Lost wax process permit to have fine details, have more precision and having more productivity for large volumes. For making a few simple boxes, it's not worth it since the original female mold is labor intensive (and if bought costs a lot). An other advantage is that you keep the female mold and you don't loose it in the process. And since the positive mold is made of wax, your negative mold can last for a long time.

You can make pieces for example: watches, precision machine pieces (robots pieces, gears, etc.) with lost wax process, a level of precision you can't have with sand casting (or salt casting).

But the process is fastidious:
- Machining of the female mold in steel or aluminium
- Pour the wax for the positive mold
- Dip the positive mold in ceramic
- Melt the positive mold and cook the new female ceramic mold
- Cast with the metal of the wanted piece
- Cool and break the ceramic to have your piece(s)

Requires a lot of tools and is an art, so can take a long time to be good at it.

Scott674 · December 11, 2009, 06:31:48 PM

I've been thinking of some steel sheet metal, of the proper thickness, and some time with a welding setup... You can grind/sand the beads down so it should look pretty good in the end, and be very sturdy. Any thoughts on this proces? There'd be tapping holes for screws... preventing rust... steel is expensive??? Would other metals work? I think it's hard to properly weld aluminum, and I don't think there's thick sheets of aluminum readily available...

Ripthorn · December 11, 2009, 06:39:22 PM

I built my own chassis for a tube amp project out of some .07" aluminum. Of course, I had a shear and a brake at my disposal (not any more) and it was quite simple. I would have to say that all it really requires is some care to make sure everything is plumb and square. I think I drilled 50 or so holes in the thing too, talk about an enclosure taking forever to finish.

Hupla · December 12, 2009, 05:12:16 PM

With the right tools, sheet metal work would really be the easiest way of making enclosures. Just a bit of theory and practice and you're laughing.

G. Hoffman · December 15, 2009, 12:48:10 AM

Well, he wasn't doing pedals, but THIS GUY makes all sorts of stuff for his home made CNC machines, including casting things like bearings and such. He's casting aluminum without any vacuum or odd alloys.

I'm sure I probably just sent some of you off on a new expensive hobby. Maybe even two. Have fun! (I, certainly, would both be casting things, and making my own CNC if I could afford it!)

Gabriel

Skruffyhound · December 15, 2009, 01:45:51 PM

Aluminium is available in many thicknesses and you can weld it with practice, but it's not easy and the process releases a lot of toxins that don't make you any more clever.
Steel is cheap as chips, but difficult to get a professional finish with and more difficult to machine afterwards.
I build as a job, everything from structural sets to little doodads, but only one off things. If you add up the time, tools, materials and workshop space, then these little hammond boxes start to look cheap and quite prof when painted up. You'd really have to want to do it for fun and because you want to build something radically different to what's already available.
On the other side, I did make some quite nice little MDF boxes (plastic wood) which is strong enough for most purposes. I lined them with foil and they work. But with a wall saw/nail gun and a full workshop + experience, it still took me 3 hours to make 8 of them. Which makes them expensive.
Now I'm working on silver soldering copper boxes, and a multi effects box using an old cornet case with a copper plate as a control panel. Copper has the advantage that you can solder to it for supports for PCB's etc., and it's easy to work and strong enough if supported correctly.
Good luck

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