Miscellaneous pedal projects

[JohnH]

Maybe a U Bolt of some sort as protection? If you can get one tall enough to still allow removal of the tube when needed.

Yeah, I reckon that's the ticket, thanks WeirdBits. Will have a look online and see what I can find.

Acrylic windows look nice but don't really add anything, and certainly not ventilation. A lot of that sort of pedal use lower voltages for the valve and use a red LED to obtain the valve 'glow' for show.

I think looking nice is an ok justification. People like to see tubes, so even if it's not utilitarian it still adds something. In the end it will probably come down to how much time I have spare, and what design I come up with for the enclosure. Given Lawry's choice of Purgatory for the name I was thinking of maybe ripping some Durer engravings to print on the box, and a window will probably be inconvenient to navigate around.

[JohnH]

Any thoughts on something like this?

https://youdaelectronics.com/guard-p...ax7-p0685.html

[Simon Barden]

The 4-layer one might be tall enough. You really don't want any part of the valve poking out of the top. I've seen 3-layer ones with the top of the valve poking out a fair way. That may be OK(ish) for a small hi-fi amp that sits on a shelf, but not for something that will go on the floor. Looks like you've got 60mm of height with the 4-ring unit. So I'd get the ruler out and see where you are. Looks like there are other ones available (designed for bigger valves) and you may find one of those will give more protection (and some are nicely chromed so will look smarter). So I'd check their dimensions as well. It's trying to find the right level of balance between giving insufficient protection and going completely OTT.

[JohnH]

Yeah, that's kind of what I figured. Cool, I'll measure it up and have a think.

I managed to sneak in a bit of soldering last night, and got the board for the Megalith populated. I realised I accidentally bought the wrong rotary switch, as I needed one with a pin to set the number of turns. I found a DPDT switch in a box of bits, so will use that instead, and hopefully have it wired up (if not boxed) by the end of the weekend.

[JohnH]

UPDATE: totally changed my mind about the valvecaster - turns out I love it, and have been playing with it all day.

I ran it through my 30W amp instead of my small practice one, and fiddled around with the gain a bit. It's really nice. I think I'll end up using it a lot, so have been rethinking my enclosure. Will definitely need something sturdier to protect the tube

[JohnH]

Just finished the Megalith, and it is brutal. Absolutely love it!

Will try to get a pic (and a sound bite) tomorrow. I tried a powder coated enclosure from Tayda, which is pretty nice. I had a few issues with drilling, so will probably have to buy a new stepped bit and another enclosure at some point

[jugglindan]

What are the advantages of a stepped drill bit vs a regular drill bit? I do all my pedals by centre punch, 2.5mm pilot hole followed by the size I need.

[Bakersdozen]

Stepped drill bits are fast and make small work of holes rather quickly. They're handy as they stop at different sizes. And you can get different size steps. Some go up two sizes, some one etc. And you don't have to keep fumbling around for different drill bits. The issue with using them on a painted surface is that if your not careful between the second last and final step, you can kind of countersink around your hole which would take some finish off around it.

I've used that to my advantage with the plastic LED holders I use, to get them sitting down a bit and flush with the surface, which looks nice.

[Bakersdozen]

Just finished the Megalith, and it is brutal. Absolutely love it!

Will try to get a pic (and a sound bite) tomorrow. I tried a powder coated enclosure from Tayda, which is pretty nice. I had a few issues with drilling, so will probably have to buy a new stepped bit and another enclosure at some point

Keen to hear this thing, mate. And see it.

[JohnH]

Basically what BakersDozen said. It's a really quick way to drill all the holes without swapping bits. Mine goes up to 25mm, so on the Valvecaster I could drill everything with the one bit, including the tube socket.

I somehow managed to both bugger up my template for this one, and also mislabelled the pot hole sizes - so I drilled the first two to be almost the same size as the pot washer, and the switch and one of the LED holes is in the wrong spot.

I realised the pot holes were too big because they looked wrong, and even though the washer covers them it's not a good look if I ever end up giving it to someone else. The LED and switch being out is obviously the main reason I'll have to buy a new box.