Pepers' Pedals: Building a Booger Booster from start to finish

I had time today to build an order #225 a Booger Booster. It's an LPB-1 clone. I had a helper in the form of my 5 year old son Harper. This post will follow every step of the build process.

Any questions or comments are welcome.

First of all I need to sort out the layout, drilling template and graphics for the pedal. I do all my stuff in Inkscape (free and open source) with Pedal Builder's Vector Art Pack. Using a layer for each stage it very easy to design and export drilling templates and graphics ready to apply to the enclosure.

Each layer of the proposed design

With the pedal designed and ready to go it's time to export the images and print out the drilling template and waterslide decal.

My laser printer. I use this for everything. Great printer.

I export my final graphics at 600dpi and print as "Labels". I use laser decal paper from Decalpaper Australia I use both clear and white. These decals I printed previously on another sheet with some other decals as the paper is expensive to waste.

Template and Decals

Now with the template and decals ready it's time to apply the template and head to the basement to drill the enclosure. I use masking tape to attach the template as it doesn't leave any sticky residue.

Template attached and holes centre punched

I use a 3mm-8mm Centre drill bit to drill as a pilot and for the pots and LEDs. 3mm LED or 8mm for bezel. 8mm for pots as it allows a little room to adjust. Them I drill out the rest of the holes to the correct sizes. 12mm for 3pdt, 12mm for DC jack, 9.5mm for jacks. After drilling I then deburr all the holes so all the sharp edges are gone and the decal wont catch on them when applying it.

About to drill.

Deburred all edges.

Alright now the enclosure is drilled, it's time to apply the decal. First I need to clean the enclosure before applying the decal. The enclosure is a pre-powder coated 1590A from Tayda. Unfortunately the enclosure had some black rub marks on it that needed to come off before applying the decal. I used some paper towels and toothpaste and it came up really good. Washed it off. Then using alcohol (uvex len cleaner) I cleaned the enclosure clear of any fingerprints or any other contaminates .

Toothpaste treatment

Washing off the minty fresh toothpaste

Super clean and ready to go

Now that the box is super clean it's time to cut out and apply the graphic. I use nice sharp (expensive) scissors to cut the decal and make sure i round the corners off so the decal doesn't lift. I use an old takeaway container for the decal bath. I use luke warm soapy water for my decals.

Trimming

Trimmed

Put into decal bath face down for about 5 seconds

Decal face up for abut 20 seconds. When it starts to move a bit it's ready to go

Applying the decal. I put a little bit of water on the surface of the box
just before I apply the decal

Decal on!

Carefully dab off surface water and push out any bubbles.
Trying hard not to move it too much. This bit can be tricky.

Add caption

Ok. So now I have to wait for the decal to dry so I can powder coat it. So while that's happening I'm going to do the vero board. It's a super simple one and LPB-1 EHX clone. I'm going to use the Tagboard Effects layout. The layout isn't right so I had to correct it on the fly. I've also added 100uf and 100nf power filter caps.

Selecting some vero from the scraps

Trim to size

My custom vero cutter that I built from a bolt a drill bit and some heatshrink

Add resistors

Caps

All components soldered in and vero ready to go

Vero board ready and decal dry (mostly) it time to proceed to powder coat the box with clear power to seal on the graphic and protect it. I have a cheap and nasty powder coating system rigged up with a small air compressor. I run about 12PSI going into the gun. First I re-clean the enclosure and make sure there is no dust, fingerprints or anything on the box. Then I give it a pre-heat to about 50-70 DegC for a few minutes. I then apply the clear powder. Next is to place it into my modified bake oven to cure the powder. It needs 180DegC for 8mins to completely cure.

Decal dry

Pre heat and dry off the last of the decal

Hanging ready to coat

Powder coat system

Powder coat setup

Power Coating in action

Coated and ready for baking

8mins @ 180DegC

Baking in my modified oven

Air temp setting to get part temp right

Measurement

Done and cooling.

Next step is to part out the enclosure and put the guts in. I use my 3d printed pedal sockets to tighten up all the nuts to avoid marking/scratching the box.