DIY Info Collection.

[Scruffie]

I do need to put a warning up against the Dangers of DIY and its addictiveness on the front of this thread

Also about thinking starting a business... I think every DIYer at some point gets asked by someone that knows there hobby "why don't you build them for money!" and it may seem like a good idea, but it's a massive investment, I wouldn't do it full time, hats off to the Fuzz Hugger folks that do.

Also I'll add a Kit Section & Advice on first builds gradually... Kits can be a great confidence booster and they're easy to do (i'd suggest a GGG or BYOC over a Devi for a first time build as i've already had a few PMs on getting the Devis together, they're not a comprehensive build made easy for first timers)

Laowiz explained starting well though, forums are there to help eachother, breadboards are better for learning over just building and it's not just a once and your done thing... you'll be DIYing for a while yet, it's not as it may seem cheaper than just buying a pedal.

[McSpunckle]

I just tried a big assed sheet metal shear to cut out perfboards. Best. Thing. Ever. You can actually cut close enough to get BETWEEN the holes.

Once I have some cash, I may pick up a bench top shear.

[culturejam]

I just tried a big assed sheet metal shear to cut out perfboards. Best. Thing. Ever. You can actually cut close enough to get BETWEEN the holes.

Interesting!!


On another note, I recently tried out a trick I picked up on AMZ regarding eliminating RF interference and some other noise in high-gain circuits:
http://www.muzique.com/lab/hum.htm

That being using ferrite and shielded wire between the input jack and the stomp switch. I opted for a snap-on ferrite core because it stays put and is easy to work with. You can see the big-ass shielded wire and snap-on core at the left of this photo of a Muff clone below. It reduced some of the noise in the circuit. You may want to try this out if you have a high-gainer with lots of hiss or radio station pickup.

[nbabmf]

Sheet metal shear, eh?

[culturejam]

Sheet metal shear, eh?

I'm not really sure, honestly. A guy on DIYSB made some EHX style enclosures, and I bought a few. I've been thinking about getting a cheap metal brake to experiment with in that regard.

Here's the box from the outside:

[nbabmf]

I meant for cutting boards. I had a sheet metal enclosure made once, and it was a bit to drill because it was thick enough to be sturdy. It's a double edged sword.

[McSpunckle]

On another note, I recently tried out a trick I picked up on AMZ regarding eliminating RF interference and some other noise in high-gain circuits:
http://www.muzique.com/lab/hum.htm

That being using ferrite and shielded wire between the input jack and the stomp switch. I opted for a snap-on ferrite core because it stays put and is easy to work with. You can see the big-ass shielded wire and snap-on core at the left of this photo of a Muff clone below. It reduced some of the noise in the circuit. You may want to try this out if you have a high-gainer with lots of hiss or radio station pickup.

I've been meaning to try the ferrite beads. I was having a pretty bad problem with hiss and radio signals on my pedals, and used a 100 ohm resistor in series with the input, and a grounded 68pf cap in parallel. That took care of the radio noise. It still hissed when bypassed, so I started using some wire I had left over from making instrument cables for shielded cables.

Lately, though, I've been using Canare L-2B2AT. It's 20 cents a foot at Markertek. it has a foil shield, which works fine in stompboxes (at least it does in mine), and the drain wire really cuts down on the time it takes to prepare the wire. It's got two conductors, so you can use it for both the in and out jacks if they're close together (though, I wouldn't if the pedal is very high gain just to avoid cross-talk issues). Plus, it's really thin.

... also, I've never realised what those things clamped to all these wires were! Is that what's been on my laptop cord all this time?!

[culturejam]

Is that what's been on my laptop cord all this time?!

Yep. I recently snagged one off a spare USB cable. Some of them are attached permanently, and some have snaps.

[McSpunckle]

A huge, comfy chair to build pedals in seems awesome at first, but you quickly realize how awful it is. It's too big. It gets hot. Stuff gets lost in the sides.

I'm headed to the office store to get a regular fucking desk chair.

Remember this, kids.

[Jero]

A huge, comfy chair to build pedals in seems awesome at first, but you quickly realize how awful it is. It's too big. It gets hot. Stuff gets lost in the sides.
I'm headed to the office store to get a regular fucking desk chair.
Remember this, kids.

I suggest something like this

[McSpunckle]

I found a leatherette office chair lying around. It'll do. Pretty comfy, no arms (which I consider a plus), and it spins, for when I wanna be dizzy.

YEAH!

[LaoWiz]

Sheet metal shear, eh?

I'm not really sure, honestly. A guy on DIYSB made some EHX style enclosures, and I bought a few. I've been thinking about getting a cheap metal brake to experiment with in that regard.

Here's the box from the outside:

I was looking into metal brakes and welding equipment to make my own enclosures, as well. I think it would be awesome to make your own customized enclosures but not quite ready to get into that learning curve. I tend to make my pedals in bigger enclosures and really love the style of the vintage
boxes made back in the day. Building your own enclosures is something I haven't seen much at all on the pedal forums...

[eatyourguitar]

its called a box pan brake. they come with die's to get the leading edge the size you want so it matches the piece your bending but tool still fits down inside the box. ^this one is a lot simpler and can be done on ANY sheetmetal brake as long as the machine is rated for the gauge of steel your working.

[unownunown]

i found this for noobz like myself, it explains the how and why of wiring with helpful 3-d diagrams! hopefully it will be helpful to someone else, too.

http://gaussmarkov.net/wordpress/though ... p-a-1590b/

[McSpunckle]

Wear rubber gloves when refilling liquid flux bottles. (which you should own)
I bottle of Isopropyl alcohol is a great thing to have when you get some flux on your tools. Or a real flux remover. I'm finding IPA works fine and it can be used for a bunch of other things.
For your hands, Purell is great. Have a bottle on your desk. It's mostly IPA anyways.