Wah Shell Misadventure

[davent]

Hi,

Have set out to rebuild my old wah pedal reusing only the shell and pot. Bought a whipple, made up a pcb with input buffer and output boost, three pole footswitch for true bypass and led, new proper power jack, have a six pole switch ready with capacitors for sweep range selection and  stripped all the extraneous bits out of the shell to start the rebuild.  Need a  hole for the six pole switch so laid out a spot, hauled out my maul and centrepunch and got down to business. Having done this to many Hammond boxes and chassis i never gave this a second thought and proceeded to centrepunch for my hole. Turns out a wah shell is not a Hammond product...  holes going to be too big for my switch.

So just what kind of miracles is JBWeld capable of ?  I've got almost empty tubes of unknown vintage, still good to use?  I'm going to back the busted out piece with a plate of 1/16" aluminum that will run from the jack plate to the cover's threaded-mount and still try to drill the hole for the switch.

Anybody out there thinking about drilling a wah shell, don't be a screw up like me, back up with a piece of wood the face you're wanting to centerpunch. These are are definitely not Hammond boxes, the metal's pretty brittle and very grainy nowhere near as robust.

Anyways... to be continued....

dave

[John Lyons]

Bummer!!
If you rough up the surfaces to be joined, JB weld
should hold up fine. What brand of wah shell is that?
The paint looks non dunlop/crybaby esq.

[smallbearelec]

I was going to suggest Bondo before looking at the pic, but J-B Weld will also be suitable for this. I would clean up as much as possible to enable a good bond before gluing. You should be able to salvage.

SD

[CynicalMan]

I don't know about other companies but dunlop makes its crybaby shells out of die-cast zinc, not aluminum. I've drilled one without problems, but I used an awl instead of a centre punch.

[kurtlives]

O bummer, too bad Dave.

Which wah casing was it?

In my limited experience I have found modern Crybaby enclosure quite sturdy and not too bad for drilling.

[davent]

Morning guys,

John, Chris it's a Dunlop "Original" Crybaby GCB-95, Christmas present from i think the early 90's?

Glued it up with the JBWeld.

Pictures of the results are on another computer so will post those later but it did come out pretty good.

dave

[davent]

Had to use a small hammer to convince the errant piece to go back into place while gluing , just wouldn't go back with only finger pressure.

Too bad JBWeld doesn't mix up black.

Now working on hiding/disguising the repair. Was going to use a small knob on the switch but have a big one that hides most of the break so will prbably use that one to help in the distraction.

dave

[Paul Marossy]

Nice fix. 

[Cliff Schecht]

I've drilled plenty of Crybaby cases without issues. Perhaps you had that centerpunch set a bit too strong?

[davent]

I've drilled plenty of Crybaby cases without issues. Perhaps you had that centerpunch set a bit too strong?

Ya, a touch too exuberant on my part, a hammer in hand should not always be an excuse for a cathartic experience.  Good to know drilling is not an issue as i need to enlarge the jack holes for the replacement parts and add an LED hole. Proceeding with caution.

dave

[Paul Marossy]

It's easy, next time don't use a 10 lb sledge hammer! 

[davent]

 The saga continues...

The patch reinforcement.



Managed to get the break itself disguised pretty good using AutoAir base black Acrylic paint to hide the glue line then used super glue to add texture like the rest of the pedal has. First tried a Steadler pigment pen but like a Sharpie it has a bluish cast to it. With a bit of sanding and polishing the break had pretty much disappeared.  Feeling pretty good with myself.



Tonight went back at it and went about putting a new switch in so it would be true bypass. Fitting a small Alpha and found i needed to remove all backing washers and nut from the bushing in order to get the switch to work, but  without anything on the bushing the switch was activating too early on the forward rock so put the thinnest washer back in but then couldn't activate the switch at all. Took the switch back out, checked it out to see if it was ok and it worked fine. Put the switch back in without a washer and tried it again with hand pressure but couldn't get it to switch. Put it down on the floor  stood up and as i've been doing for years rocked the rocker forward, click ... you know where this is going...









Godzilla strikes again!  Dooon't think i can fix it this time... some things just weren't meant to be.

Take care
dave

[Joe Hart]

Oh! What a drag. Try fixing it anyway?
-Joe Hart

[MikeH]

Ummm... that will buff out

[jdub]

Dude, rockin' fix! 

[tiges_ tendres]

I think you might have got a dodgy shell there!  Perhaps it was mis-cast.

[davent]

Shoulda' used Duct tape.

dave

[Quackzed]

yikes! can't believe the luck    but that first patch looks so good, I'd say go for it. In the end it'll be more patch than pedal but so what. it is a high pressure spot for a patch, but with another piece of metal  overlapped and jb'welded it'll probably hold, if you can keep the rest of the shell from disintegrating around it. and it's not a very visible spot, so you may not need to sweat the finishing touches.

at the same time i'd hate to have led you down the slippery slope here.
i've tried patching a few speakers that looked worth the effort but in the end were really unsalvageable.every false move would reopen a tear or start a new one 

[deadastronaut]

argh.......nasty.....

[ghostsauce]

Wow, what terrible luck.. I feel for ya man.  So... I guess we know without a doubt why dunlop decided to change their wah shells. :/