Build Your Own Clone Message Board

You can use Elmer's rubber cement as "frisket" if you need to mask off any areas (to isolate your spray paint).

I'm doing some touch-up painting on a box, in-and-around the decal area. I hit the box with a few light passes of clear coat and allowed to dry overnight -- then I used a small brush to apply rubber cement mask, to protect my decal. I did a medium coat with rubber cement (the "Volume" and "Fuzz" labels over each pot) using a small brush that I didn't care about. After it dried, I did a second pass... the rubber cement wants to "come along" with your brush, and it's semi-transparent and hard to see where you've been, so I figured a second coat might be good. After the 2nd coat of rubber cement dried, I did the usual "light coat/light coat/light coat" with the base color spray. After that dries, the rubber cement frisket will "roll up" under your fingertips, with light pressure.

I also did some masking with blue "painters tape" which pulled up some of the clear coat, in some spots. I probably didn't let the clearcoat layer dry long enough first, but still that is worrisome.

Anyway, rubber cement isn't permanent unless you coat two surfaces, and stick them together. Besides "touch up" situations, there are probably creative ways to use rubber cement as a masking device. Hmmm...

Hope that helps!

Is clear coat the same as polyurethane varnish?

And while I'm here, any advice about working with high resolution vs actual printing size in Photoshop would be welcome

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Not really, Pancho.

Go to an auto parts store and by actual clearcoat. Krylon and rustoleum both make good products...

-Subba

Would something like this be okay?

Halford's Clear Acrylic

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Looks like it would. Of course, I've been wrong before....

-Subba

I'll give it a go. I'm quite prepared to mess it up so don't feel guilty of you're wrong

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Worst case scenario (and trust me, I been there): Back to bare metal.

While you are at the auto parts store, check out paint strip spray cans: http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/pc-12818-610-kleen-strip-aerosol-aircraft-remover-ear322.aspx
or something similar, often referred to as auto/aircraft paint remover. Aerosol, it sprays a clinging foam that sticks to your enclosure. Gloves and ventilation required!

Toss your enclosure into a paint roller tray liner and coat it. Paint and primer will bubble right off in about 10/20 minutes. Wash it and re-prime. shouldn't need to re-sand unless you gouged the aluminum scraping off the bubbled, foamy mess left behind by the stripper.

-Subba

I posted this in another forum but this looks like to proper place for it, sorry for the double post.

This may be an obvious question but... It seems the consensus is that it is better to use the laser decal paper. Will laser decal paper work in an inkjet printer or do you have to use a laser printer?
-Hud

I would imagine you have to use a laser printer. I know I do. More expensive than an inkjet, particularly if you want a colour one, but I think a good quality laser printer is a good investment.

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A question about drying; in Mantas' excellent post it says he waits 48 hours after the final coat of clear before building inside the enclosure. My clear coat says on the tin that it's throughly dry within an hour so am I fine to go for it after that? Is Mantas being overly cautious or does he know something I don't?

(Judging from his latest Hendrix design, I'd say yes, he does!)

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From my experience, manufacturers have a pretty weird definition of "dry". While it may feel dry to the touch, it really isn't. I discovered this very early on. If you build in a finished enclosure that hasn't cured long enough, There can be several undesirable effects. For one, you can get fingers prints on it that will not wipe off, as they've been pressed into the top coat. Also, everything you screw down into the eclosure (i.e. pots, switches, jacks...etc...) will leave an indentation in the top coat. I've had it literally twist and peel off around around the footswitch as well as around the larger, screw-in LED bezels. Like the big guy says, "Patience is a virtue". I've probably had more trouble learning that than any of us - LOL. The best cure I've found (pardon the pun) is to do three or four enclosures back to back. Usually, by the time you're finished with the last one in the series, the first one will be dry

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Keep 'yer tips tinned, 'yer sponges wet, and TELL THEM KIDS TO SHUT THE HELL UP!!!

Cool, I'll hold my breath until Tuesday then! One final beginners question then; can I start populating the PCB this evening and put it in a plastic bag until it's ready to be placed in the enclosure? Being new to electronics, I don't know if this is okay or not...

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Hey Pancho,

Ya, you are better off waiting a day or two. Like Mantas says, a thick coat of clear can be deceptive: Dry to the touch on top but gooey underneath. Once it fully cures, though, it is hard as a rock...

Use the curing time to get your board done. I usually populate the board and add outgoing wiring while waiting for the final cure, then when the enclosure is ready, add the jacks and hook it all together.

-Subba

I use my nose to tell me when its dry enough to assemble. If it still reaks of solvent smell, its still curing. When it stinks less, its good. Usually I allow 3-5 days and no sticky...

After some mis-starts, I'm painting/decal-ing my first two boxes now. And I have come to an early conclusion: "Patchwork" decals are a real pain in the butt. A full-face decal is much preferred, if possible. Just my opinion -- some people say they don't mind, or "you can only see the edges of the decal if you get close". Well, I have to disagree. If the rest of the box looks "pro", but you have visible decal edges on the face of the pedal (like I do) it kinda ruins the impact. "Looking close" is unavoidable. I think the edges of the decal are really distracting, and I think that full-face decals look better... your eye is more forgiving when the edge of the decal coincides with the edge of the enclosure.

Yes, it might be tricky to wrangle a full-face decal. Lets say you have to spend an hour, messing around with getting the decal into postion. Maybe it takes you three tries, and you ruin a couple decals. That's nothing compared to the weeks of time I'm spending, putting multiple clearcoats on top of my decals, so that I can eventually sand it down, and then spray even more clearcoat on top, hoping to eventually get an even surface. I could be BUILDING my pedal now, but I'm probably committed to another two weeks of sanding/painting (clearcoat needs to cure before sanding, and I dont use a toaster oven). My pedal would have looked better with a full-face decal, it would have been easier and faster.

I've already sprayed 6 or 8 clearcoats, but when I sanded the pedal earler, trying to level it out, I was too aggressive, and I removed a tiny bit of some of the decal (decal is black ink on white decal paper). So I had to spray more black, as a touch-up. Now I'm back on clearcoats again! And the black touchup spray created a whole other ridge too (I used blue tape to protect the design). All these extra steps could have been avoided with a full face decal.



You can see the edges around the knob labels, and at the top of the word "Ramones". If I had only used a full-face decal, I would not still be painting and sanding!!!!

Hey, it still looks real good. What I do is shoot clear into the edges of the decals. Aim at the edges first, doing a couple of coats there, not allowing much time between coats, like 3 minutes. Then I do the whole top lightly, then do the decal edges again on the next coat, then hit the top heavier. I'll spray the side in between waiting for the top coats to dry enough. If you work at it, the edges aren't as noticeable. They aren't perfect, but better.
I've never done a full face decal yet. I want to try it, but I can see where that would be a pain in the tush...

What graphics programs are everyone using?

I did a full face on my tremolo and avoided the edge problem. I did encounter that on the logo on the back though, someone saw it and asked where I'd got the sticker from

I did my artwork on Photoshop. My brother-in-law recommend Illustrator but I didn't get on with it. It's all down to what you're used to I guess.

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I actually find full-face decals easier than patchwork decals. Full-face decals can take a bit more time to get right, in as far as lining up your control legends with their respective controls, buy they're more than worth the extra work. With the right amount of clear coat and drying time on the actualy decal itself, they're a lot more durable than you might think. I haven't actually tried it myself, buy there was a guy on here a while back who gives all of his decals a coat of spray shellac to make them more durable. I'd say look into this if you're wary of handling full-face decals. Here is a 1790 sized enclosure I did with full-face on five sides

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Keep 'yer tips tinned, 'yer sponges wet, and TELL THEM KIDS TO SHUT THE HELL UP!!!

Now, that looks good!!!

Mantas is right, as usual, Lumpy... Full face is the only way to go, even on the sides, even if the side only has "input" on it.

I also find full face much easier to use. The trick is dry runs with regular paper, adjusting the text to fit where you want. Always print at least three decals for each side you are doing to allow for problems placing it. You can easily fit 3 or 4 top decals on one decal sheet.

Also, a lot of the problems people run into can be avoided with proper paint technique: if your box is smooth enough, you wont get any "silvering" and air bubbles will be easier to get rid of. Your Ramones pedal looks a little rough. A couple more coats of paint, wet sanded in between, maybe a thin coat of clear on top before decaling, all would make your life easier.

Also, I find white decals a bit thicker than the clear ones, and therefore harder to hide. I love the white text on dark box, but that means you have to either use white decals or mask off and use white paint under where the text is.

Keep us posted.

-Subba

BTW, Lumpy, great tip up above about using rubber cement as a making agent. Seems like it would work a lot easier than the alternatives.

-Subba

Damnit Mantas stop raising the bar on your own work. That's awesome!! Right down to the knobs...

Lumpy - LOVE the Ramones graphic! Killer. Thanks for the tips too. Whenever I get around to decaling instead of what I've been attempting to do, this will come in handy.

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This thread has been a big help.
I am still having problems making full faced decals?
How are you guys doing it?

I tried to trace around the enclosure and fill in the holes, etc.. but I can't make it line up correctly.

What are you guys using as a template?

Roth,

Take your enclosure, lay it upside down on a piece of white paper on a table, desk. or other firm surface. Trace around the top, then color in the holes. Hold the enclosure down hard with your free hand while you do it, so it doesn't move around. I do this on my kitchen counter, because it is slippery enough that I can spin the enclosure around and the paper moves with it. After you are done with the top, do the sides (if you are decaling the sides.) Scan paper at a good DPI, and at a 1:1 ratio. Then MIRROR your image! Those holes do not line up perfectly, even with Keith's CNC machine, and unless you mirror your image, they will be off. Go ahead and take a ruler to your enclosure, the distance from the edge to the center of the left hole (say, "level") will be slightly different than the distance from the other edge to the right hole (say, "tone"). Not much different, and hard to notice on a bare box, but enough to throw off your templates.

Print a test template, cut it out and lay it on your enclosure, and it will probably still be a little off. No problem. Just save it as a layer in whatever photoshopping program you are going to use, add circles drawn in the program over your hand drawn ones, adjust those to fit where the holes really are, then delete or erase the hand drawn holes.

Do LOTS of test prints! Push the stems of your pots up through the test prints and hold them in place with the knobs, then make sure your text is lined up right with and not being covered by your knobs. Repeat until satisfied.

By the time you are ready for the final decal print you can delete that whole template layer.

-Subba

Hey everybody, thanks soooo much for the tips. I've got two kits (Tremolo and Envelope Filter).. Much of the soldering is done, just been scared to start on the enclosures lol. Any possibility of posting a high res version of your Funkenberry graphics Subba? I saw that one a while ago and can't get over how awesome it is. Would love to use it, giving you full credit of course! Anyway thanks again for the tips and instructions....keep it up.

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