CONTEST Mark it Donnie!

fig

fig

Village Idiot
Everyone knows how much I enjoy contests, so let's have another!

To those who are weary of waiting for pre-drilled enclosures to eventually make their way from Thailand, give Hugo and company a break and DIY!

@PedalPCB is re-stocking his very cool drop-in drill template. He was kind enough to allow me to try one out and it really tossed my T-squares!

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You can't have mine, but here's a chance to pick one up on me!
Just post a pic or story about a drill job gone wrong, and the 3 the most heart-wrenching, funniest, or down-right disgusting will win a $50 PedalPCB gift card!

Are you a noob with no pics or tales to tell? No problem! Just let us know what led you to this path of node return.

Post as many as you like :unsure:, and then YOU vote for the winner. Posting ends Monday Aug 30th @ 11:59pm.

So dig out the shunned, the shamed, the whoopsies, the WTF did I do's, and the swiss cheesers.
Why? (gee whiz you must be new here) Because I said so! :ROFLMAO:
 
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Robert said:
Not an entry into the contest, but figured it was appropriate. :ROFLMAO:

View attachment 15311

This is the poor enclosure that gets used as a test dummy for new 1590BB templates.... I think it's time for a new one.
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Definitely time for a new one but that enclosure also deserves to be turned into a proper pedal. Burned out old test pilot has earned the right to have a nice overdrive and boost fitted in there, be covered in tweed and ride off into the sunset in a corvette...

It's possible I maybe anthropomorphize things a bit too much... Maybe. I may have also developed an addiction for covering things in tweed... Hmm.
 
While my attempts at drilling aren't totally egregious, they still offend the senses.

This one bothers me the most (the LED is way off center).

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2 knob pedals. At first glance they look ok, but look closer: Why is one knob closer to the edge than the other?

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4 knob pedals. The knobs should be in a square, right? Well, my pedals prefer trapezoid. (This one might be harder to see in the picture, but in person it's obvious one knob is slightly outside the square).


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3 knobs in row? Sure, no problem.... oh 🤦‍♂️

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I've mentioned this 1590A in a couple other threads. I was using a hand-drill for it when the step-bit grabbed on to the enclosure and wrenched it from the clamps which caused me to fumble the whole shootin' mess and ... well you can see the hole is an odd shape and has an unintended bevel edge, not to mention a chip out of the metal opposite of the bevel (you should've seen it before I cleaned it up with a rat-tail file!). I found some washers on the road near my flat and drilled out the centre of the biggest one to match the correct stomper inner-diameter, but it too got caught a few times on the bit (not much surface area on a washer to clamp down), so the washer was a bit mangled and had to be hammered flat, a few times. The plastic white washers that come with 3PDTs weren't big enough to hide the butchery.

You can see in the second pic, with the washer in situ, it finally matches the other stomper hole. The project was a dual boost with stompers and LED holes on top; the back panel houses a volume control for each boost, a toggle for each boost (one is for extra bass, the other toggle changes how the boosts cascade into each other) and of course in/out and power jacks. INCREDIBLY tight fit for cramming all the bits, so drilling accuracy was of paramount importance. Of course, all those holes were drilled except the last hole taken on the aforementioned ride — I didn't want to bin all that effort, and enclosures aren't cheap.

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Then there's my ill-fated drilling attempt with my first ever pedal build, mentioned in this thead. Here's the pertinent pic:

img_1192-jpg.4098379


Luckily the ovals are hidden by the pots' washers/nuts and the knobs.

Half a millimetre off is terrible, the knobs and other controls tend to magnify any discrepancy in your drilling accuracy.

Thing is, I still enjoy drilling — measuring everything for a custom layout and being meticulous (even though it never turns out meticulous) is incredibly satisfying...
 
fig said:
An icebreaker! Very nice!

Did you order only what you needed for the build? My first build was a kit, but the enclosure wasn't drilled. It sure was by the time the battery died on the DeWalt, I tell you what.
Click to expand...
The only thing I had to order was the enclosure. Everything else I bought from my local electronics store. The very next pedal I had done, I posted about in another thread. It also turned into cosmetic disaster 😜.
 
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Robert said:
Not an entry into the contest, but figured it was appropriate. :ROFLMAO:

View attachment 15311

This is the poor enclosure that gets used as a test dummy for new 1590BB templates.... I think it's time for a new one.
Click to expand...
This ought to be one of the prizes!

Great way to retire it.

Maybe fill every hole with various size/colour LEDs that react to your instrument's signal, stick a booster and buffer in there as well so it's practical/functional but also the greatest light show a pedalboard has ever seen!
 
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this guy looks innocent enough, however, in a total newb move, I didn’t print the drill template at 100% and so all the holes were too close. I had to widen all the holes, bend the pot legs to get the board to fit and get creative with washer placement to cover up my oversight.
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this one, notice all the “mojo” around the edges? Yeah, that was a result of the step bit snagging with a high torque electric drill meanwhile I stared at the yellow helicopter in my hand and stupidly tried to stop it bare handed without letting up on the trigger. The thing finally let loose and shot across the concrete. Left some nice bruises on my hand.

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tone switch experiment gone wrong
 
Yeah, spi, I can relate!

There are some "Dimples" on the opposite wall of my above 1590A, 'cause the step-bit is longer than the 1590A is wide! Luckily the step bit didn't go all the way through the opposite wall, but to get the correct diameter for the intended holes, I had to push my luck...
Nearly had matching extra holes.
😸
 
My laughter is with you, not at you everyone. I see a lot of myself in the above so far. The whirly-gigs are especially delightful if you neglect to disengage the drill first. It reminds me of a Stoker Ace quote;

It is useless to apply the brake when the car is upside down.
 
Oh! I’ve got a good one for sure that I’ll have to post tomorrow— not a pedal, but guitar related and definitely on the upper threshold of how bad a drilling mishap can get!
In the meantime, I’m on my way to see John Fogerty tonight. Oh how I’ve missed live music
 
I was routering my Tele build's neck pickup pocket out to humbucker size, and noticed a bit of wood I'd missed, so I went back in with the router, but I'd already taken the template off, but the pocket shape was done ...

DIY Router Tip
When the template comes out, you need to reset the router's max depth...
 
Ok here’s my story… I had built two kits the super cheapo Klon ones, this is the start of my node return. I thought it would be nice to build one and do a custom enclosure for a friend who is a huge fan of lord of the rings… this is a double fail because I had no idea how to fo graphics at the time let alone drill. I got an enclosure painted it gold, I set to drilling by eye with a normal drill bit…. We can see where this is going… it caught spun out of my hand and crushed the back of my hand creating a huge bruise and bleeding… thankfully it didn’t break anything. In the end it kinda fits and the graphics look like the drilling does… what I learned is step bit, full graphics not little cut outs and try a little research…. Again that was 50 pedals or so ago…and a 5e3. Here’s a picture or two of the end. Not to bad but their was blood sweat and tears… and it's not even or lined up...

cheers!
 

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