Paintin' boxes!

[Eric!]

So..I have this friend.
She loves to paint. She paints pedals. Her paint isn't heavy duty enough.

So, she wants to know what others use. She'll be doing some custom work for me, too.

I did a bit of searching, that didn't go so far, soooo..I want TONS of input. The amount where it's gonna piss me off to read that much.

I said input. Not babble.

[Jero]

Hand painted? I'd say look into finish/clear coats of sorts. That'll protect the other, weak, paint.

[nbabmf]

A few coats of clear will do the trick. When clear coating a hand painted pedal, I like to do a few light coats at a time, separated by a minute or two so you can see it goes on smooth but doesn't run. I'll repeat that process two or three times over the course of a couple days, and let the enclosure dry in a warm, dry place with plenty of ventilation, until it doesn't stink anymore before handling. You can tell when there's enough clear coat because the art will pop out.

Make sure you match solvent based with solvent based, water based with water based, enamel with enamel, lacquer with lacquer, etc.

[eatyourguitar]

Enamel is your best bet. You can clear it with enamel or epoxy. A lot of builders bake them at a low temp but that may be just to speed it up. Some think baking = durability. I wouldnt know.

[Jero]

With baking you have to be careful not to use too high of heat or it will actually make the paint chip easier.

[McSpunckle]

BABBLE BABBLE BABBLE BABBLE

[comtrails70]

Not babble.

[Davegraz]

my first post - huzzah!

i got into the horrifically addicting hobby of building boxes in september... i found a lot of luck with sanding the box first- cleaning it up with a tacky cloth and vinegar and painting it with some straight up rustoleum gloss finish that has the paint and primer mixed. i rigged a 'drying station' with a guitar stand and hair dryer i borrowed from my fiance just found it to be more convenient for me than buying a used toaster (plus all the goodwills were out!). i did this box with a full graphic that i ordered on amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Grafix-Adhesive-2 ... 146&sr=8-1

after that i hit it with a ridiculous amount of clear coat with 15 or 20 minutes between coats

this is a wooly mammoth clone i did

this is a klon clone but it really doesn't speak to the type of paint because there isn't any! just a lot of sanding at varying degrees of grit followed by the graphics and 2 days worth of clear


edit: the Klon clone was a huge obsession for me, took me a few weeks to get the circuit working and i wanted to keep it as true as possible - i got the same davies knobs and painted them with rustoleum plastic paint

[eatyourguitar]

look what I found. http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=82997.0