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Aluminum is very difficult to get good paint adhesion on. In my shop we basically spray automotive lacquers, but for aluminum we always use an etching primer. This was the only primer that passed a “rub a piece of masking tape in it and pull” test. I think you can get self etching primers in...

The rheostat leg that is opposite the one that had the unsoldered wire looks like a cold solder to me. I have no idea if that could be causing the issue, but I know I’ve had all sorts of intermittent issues from “slightly” cold solders. I wonder if with a bright light and magnifying glass you...

I think @phi1 has the answer—when you say that it works with the cover off, are you getting a tremelo like sound, or is it sounding like a guitar being played? Looking at your circuit board, there’s an empty spot, with an “a” and a “k” labelled near the holes. A led goes there, with that little...

Most likely cause would be the box bottom touching something (maybe the lug from one of the sockets) and shorting it out. So, I’d start by looking at anything that might come into contact with the bottom as it gets screwed down. If it’s a part that can’t be repositioned easily, try putting two...

All this talk of dentists and mercury brings back a sweet memory of my childhood. If I needed a filling, the dentist would always give me a tiny glass vial of mercury to take home and play with—with the admonishment to my mother and I that I needed to make sure I didn't eat any of it! I'd bring...

You can also take some heat shrink and just leave the bottom 1 mm of blade exposed; obviously not as protective of shorting out stuff as "non-conductive" would be, but more user safe than an all conductive shaft would be.

I’ve got an old set of plastic adjustment “tools” that I think used to be standard for doing adjustments to trimmers in color tvs, etc. they aren’t nearly strong enough to used on screws, but I always have used them to toy with live circuit adjustments, worried about both the components’ lives...

I can’t imagine populating a board without pulling on and then bending the legs out at 45 degrees. Then, I clip them so only about 1/4 inch remains (much less heat sink, parts solder faster). The bend pulls the component lead against the copper, and also holds the part in place. Since I’m anal...

Those knobs are probably the closest similar material to insert ratio to the types of bosses we would typically be using. And m3 would be a big size for most of what we would do as “preproduction“ samples. (We were not involved in production manufacturing, except for very short (less than 100...

I’d imagine especially with carbon filled nylon, you’d have no problems. We would use that in SLS prints, and it’s just an incredibly strong and stabile material. We had insert boss failures with PLA, ABS, and PC, which were our main extrusion filaments. My caution was based on an assumption...

With typical filament used in printers, I’d argue against using heat set inserts. After having many failures after product left us, due to fractures where the bosses eventually cracked around the heat set inserts, (and this was after my typically making the bosses larger than I would have for...

Nice builds! Mercurial is one of my top 5 PPcb builds. Almost every gain setting in it has a usable setting, and makes adding both a bit of brown and some body to a strat. I run mine at 18v—as long as your caps can handle it, everything fine in the circuit, and it gets a bit more headroom, and...

You can always stick a few washers on the interior, so it doesn’t poke out if that becomes an issue.

I really like the art—what do you feel you messed up on it? The abstractly color blocked stylization attracted me instantly, before I read any words. I assume the flanger is good at the jet whoosh.

I used to have to match Illustrator output to mate with CNC parts, usually with high enough accuracy to look good from just a few inches away. Scaling in Illustrator is very accurate, you just need to be careful with your calculations and data entry. If you’re Opening up a pdf into Illustrator...

That said, I’m pretty sure I have a nice working one downstairs. If you want, I can take some measurements for you. It’s one of my favorite, say handful, of clean drives. What voltage do you run it at?

This is not a good answer, but the Q1 and Q2 specs are what I would get when I test a transistor in my cute little British (sorry, I am blanking on company name…) tester, they’re not directly readable as to what a typical biasing of a device would me. I think, those specs are given as an idea of...

I hate fan noise too, but there are some really quiet (in the 25 db range) fans available. In projects I built where noise was an issue (power supplies for photographers was one niche) combining multiple small fans and really thinking about air flow, I was able to get some packages that you'd...

Wonderful! Any build report that includes VU meters and mentions Douglas Self gets automatic love from me.

He retired the year after I built mine. I haven’t talked to the new owners, but my sense, at least from the site, is that the quality is pretty much the same. I’ve been surprised that prices seem pretty similar to before also.