Guitar Effects Central: Project Enclosures


Enclosure
The first step to building an enclosure for your project is deciding what enclosure to use. I mainly use either Eddystone or Hammand "BB" sized enclosures. These enclosures are made from die-cast aluminum and therefore help to block external interferance. These enclosures are sturdy, which makes for a great stompbox enclosure. You could also use plastic enclosures, but these are weak and allow external interferance causing them to sometimes hum. The interferance may be reduced by adding aluminum tape to the inside of the box. Make sure that your PCB or breadboard will fit inside the box along with all of the external parts(potentiometers, jacks, and switches). Once you chose an enclosure that suits your needs, you are now ready to drill holes for mounting.


Drilling Holes for Mounting
In order to mount you external components, you must drill holes. Before drilling holes in your box, make a layout of where you want to put the components. After this, make sure all components will fit where you want them. If not, then redo the layout. The last thing you want is to drill the holes and then realize that you drill the potentiometer hole too close to the side, so the pot won't fit in. Also make sure that the jack connections will not be touching ground once mounted. Once you make sure the layout is correct, then you may drill the holes to the proper size. I recommend center-punching the holes before drilling to insure that the holes are on the mark. Hammond or Eddystone "BB" size Layouts are available to print out from GEOFEX. Now that you have drilled the mounting holes in your enclosure, you are ready for painting.


Painting
First off, make sure you paint in a clean, well ventalated area. In somewhere other than this clean area, you want to sand the enclosure using 400, then 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper (available at local autoparts store). Next, use acetone to clean the surface of the area you want to paint. Once that area is free of dust, use a can of Auto Primer and spray on your first coat of primer (also available from local autoparts store). This primer dries extremely fast, so recoat whenever you feel like it. I usually put 3 or 4 light coats of primer on making sure I am coating evenly. Once the primer is on and fairly dry, say 5 or 10 minutes, I put my first coat of paint on. I use auto paint, once again from the local autoparts store. Choose whichever color you like. Spray about 5 coats of paint overtop of the primer making sure that you are coating it evenly. Once it is completely covered let it dry. While this is drying, if you haven't all ready, you can go to the local craft store and pick up some Rub-On Lettering. Make sure you choose a color that will show up with the paint you have chosen. So far I have only seen black Rub-Ons, but I'm sure there are other colors somewhere out there. I haven't tryed use the stick-on lettering, but I'm sure they would work too. Now that your paint is dry, you are ready to put on the lettering. Believe me, this can be a real pain-in-the-ass. Once again, you might want to come up with a layout to insure that you get everything right on the first try. Line up the lettering using masking tape, making sure that everything is centered and straight. Once you have the tape marked, start rubbing the lettering on. If you make a mistake, masking tape also works great for removing the letters without chipping the paint. Once all the labels are on, you are ready for clearcoat. The clearcoat I used from the auto shop tended to easily chip, so I found some spray-on epoxy clearcoat which is much less prone to chipping. The epoxy provides a nice strong finish, which you will want after putting all this time and effort into painting it. The insure complete coverage, use many coats of clearcoat. Once the epoxy is dry you are ready to mount the parts.

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