How fast can you build?

[BuddytheReow]

Hey All,

Just curious, but what's the average time it takes to build once you've sourced your parts?

Secondly, what's your quickest build time including enclosure design?

 

[HamishR]

For me half the reason for building is to enjoy the build, so I'm not in a hurry. But a PedalPCB build might only need an afternoon. My "enclosure design" is, um, usually kinda minimal! I've never timed myself but a simple pedal like a Zen Drive might only take an hour or so.

A lot of my builds are on vero, so often I'll spend an evening designing my layout first. I'm pretty anal on how I like my layouts. The builds take a little longer because of the extra wiring and board prep.

The thing which amazes me is how time can fly by while I'm designing the board layout or soldering parts... I'm off in my own little world!

 

[Chas Grant]

Honestly there isn't really an average time. Everyone builds differently. I seen where some people populate the entire board then solder all the components at once and I've seen where some people place one component, solder it in then inspect it, when they are happy with that one component they move to the next. You also have to factor in the component count of the build. A simple single op-amp distortion could take a few hours from start to boxed up and playable but some of the more complicated modulation circuits can have 5 or more chips in them and can take quite some time just to solder everything in. There's a lot of factors involved. They only way to find your average time is to jump in head first and build a few.
I agree with @HamishR, I enjoy the build and I'm usually not in a hurry. Taken it nice and slow prevents mistakes also. Most of the time the circuit fires up right off the bat, and if it doesn't, its normally something easy. Like I plugged the input plug into the output jack, Don't Laugh its easier than you think and everyone has done it. Now I have built some pedals for people and they wanted a quick turn around and have done it in a few hours including enclosure graphics, but that's not the norm. Normally I'll populate the board one day, get the enclosure drilled and the pots set, then test the circuit and enjoy it out of the enclosure the next day. Then work on the graphics and finishing the enclosure on the 3rd day. If there's time I will box it up then.

 

[Barry]

I usually do graphics first on five or six pedals, which may take weeks, but I'm populating the previous batch also, once I have the graphics on and clear coated, I'll usually populate the board one evening then off board and boxing the next, I don't test out of the box generally, unless there's an issue, then I just pop it back out and sort out any issues, also I work full time and this is strictly a hobby at this time.

 

[Nostradoomus]

Building the board takes anywhere from 10-20 minutes to a few hours (duophase and the like). I etch my enclosures so that takes days, mostly due to paint dry times. Throw in clear coating which can take another day or two to do properly. I’m hoping with my new shop space I’m setting up I can get a better workflow happening...step 1 is design and finish a bunch of enclosures as I have drawers full of complete circuits ready to go.

 

[SYLV9ST9R]

For me, it's been first deciding on a handful of pedals I want to build, while waiting for the boards to come in (average of 4-6 weeks), I'll design the graphics and when I'm happy with it, I'll order my components (I usually use Tayda as a one-stop shop, as much as I love LMS and SBE, shipping to Canada is $$ for small orders) and then verify and prepare small bags with the right components for each build. Also, I tend to do my soldering between 10 PM to midnight, as it's the only free time I can get between work and kids. And not having a dedicated workspace means I got to set up and pack up afterwards. Last week, in 3 nights, I populated 4 boards and only have the jacks and switches to wire in.
So for me, preparation is very important with limited time and space. I also decided to go UV printing for my enclosure, as the time saved with dealing with decals is well worth the cost for me.