Envirotex Build Guide - final update

[SillyOctpuss]

A few pedal have had questions about finishing pedals in envirotex recently and some people had also asked for some pictures of the process. I've got a large backlog of pcbs ready to go but have been super lazy getting any enclosures finished, so last night I started the first five and thought I'd document them here so if anyone has any questions they can ask them as we go.

The first five

1) Klone on a pedalpcb Kliche board
2) ODR1 - Aion legacy board
3) Red Llama - Vero
4) Sunface silicon - pedalpcb
5) Sunface germanium - pedalpcb

I print my graphics onto self adhesive glossy photo paper, these are all white or clear. You basically design your graphics, print them on the paper, pull of the backing and stick em down.

Here's the Klone and ODR1 graphics after being stuck onto the enclosures






You can see from where I pushed it into the holes I wasn't far off with these ones, the problem with the stickers is you really only get one go and sometimes they're so far off you just need to rip it off and print them again.

Once the backing is peeled off I use the shiny side to rub against the graphics and make sure it's stuck down to the pedal with no air bubbles. If you have one or two small ones it's usually not a problem, the envirotex is thick enough that it hides anything like that.

The next step is to cut out the holes with a craft knife and put some tape over the back of the holes. This will stop the envirotex falling through and creating flow marks which look terrible on the finished pedal. This is also where I realised my first mistake.



I don't cut out the holes for the led, I like to push the led up into the hole and leave it under the envirotex but on the klone I forgot to take off the drill mark from my decal before I printed it so I had to take it off, print another one and start again d'oh.



There that's much better. And the ODR1



You'll notice there's no LED I'm just going to have this one shine through the graphic, if it's bright enough it works great.

Skipping ahead here's all 5 stuck on the enclosures and ready for envirotex.

 

[steviejr92]

Dude face has to be the best name i ever heard for a Fuzz Face....Amazing builds man!

 

[VanWhy]

Yes! Following. Or "Watching" as it's called in this forum.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

All the pedals look a bit flat at the minute, one of the things I love about resin is it doesn't just protect the sticker but it also makes the colours really pop and the depth of gloss is just something else.

In order to work with resin though your gonna need a few things.

1- A work surface that can get totally ruined, resin can be super messy if you spill it so make sure you put cardboard or plenty of paper down. I usually tape a few sheets of A4 paper together. I find cardboard isn't usually as flat as I'd like and because resin self levels you really need a flat surface.
2- Some plastic cups to mix the resin in
3 - Little wooden sticks to stir and apply resin
4 - Paper plates. I find these are great to help you keep the enclosures separate from each other so you can move/spin them around easily while you're working on them. They will also catch most of the mess if you get lots of runs







Methylated spirits and paper towels to deal with any runs and to clean up the sides etc.

Oh and resin.

First step is to heat the resin up so it's easier to work with. If you try and use cold resin you'll get a cloudy finish and generally have a really bad time. Basically stick the two bottles in a bowl of hottish water for about 10 mins




You don't want to boil the resin but you need it to be fluid with no weird lumps or cloudiness.

Once it's been sat in the water for a while you take two plastic cups and pour equal amounts of the resin and hardener into two the cups.
This must be equal amounts by VOLUME and NOT WEIGHT. If you do it by weight you'll also have a bad time. Ask me how I know this!

I like to get plastic cups with the ridges on the side that way you can get them balanced pretty well.

Once you get them measured out I pour one into the other and give them a really good mix for about a minute. Make sure you scrape the sides and really get in round the bottom. If your resin's not properly mixed your gonna have a bad time. After you've been mixing for about a minute, gab another clean cup and pour the contents into that, then mix it again for at least another minute.

At this point you'll notice loads of bubbles in the resin - this is totally normal. Once it's mixed don't muck about and get it poured, if you leave a large amount mixed in the same cup it will start to go off very quickly.

First step is to use one of the stirrer sticks and fill the holes before pouring on the surface. This will help stop large bubbles forming in the drill holes.

I don't have pics of the mixing/pouring process because I quite literally had my hands full but just start from the inside and pour outwards in a spiral then use clear stirring stick to start moving the resin towards the edges.

Now the first time you pour you'll probably pour way too much and this is where you'll be glad you've got them on paper plates because it will just run off the sides and make an unholy mess. Less is more tbh but it's the kind of thing you just need to have a go at until you get a feel for how much you need.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Dude face has to be the best name i ever heard for a Fuzz Face....Amazing builds man!

Bonus points to the (probably UK) members who knows who that is and why it's called Dude Face. I'll also be putting stickers on the sides of those that say "Analog.Dude We do clones right"

 

[steviejr92]

I'll also be putting stickers on the sides of those that say "Analog.Dude We do clones right"

That would be absolutely genius!

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Ok so remember I said that the pedals look a little flat but that the resin makes the colours pop. I'm not kidding.

I don't have pics of the pouring so we'll have to rejoin the action while I'm trying to clean up some spills over the side (it's been a while since I've done this and I'm a little rusty. I poured a little more than I needed.

Right after you poured the envirotex and cleared up the immediate runs with paper towels and methylated spirit you'll notice all of the bubbles that you mixed in while you were prepping your resin are still there and look terrible.

Here's the ODR1 and a Dude Face right after pouring





Those bubbles look terrible right? Don't panic though just breathe on them! Yup the CO2 from your breath will help bring them to the surface and burst them. Now you can use a lighter or one of those BBQ lighters but I literally just gently breathe over them until all of the bubbles are gone and you end up with this.





At this stage I've literally poured the resin, cleaned up the sides... ok if I'm being honest I also changed the plate the ODR1 was on as I completely misjudged the pour and it flooded off the side then just breathed on it to get rid of the bubbles.

All of the hard work is done now. The resin will self level and cure on it's own. Our job now is to babysit it for up to two hrs to clean up any runs and make sure hair, dust or other random crap don't settle in the finish. Once I'm at this stage I usually leave it for 10 mins, check it, 15 mins, check it, 30 mins etc until I don't think I'll get any more drips.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

The first time I came back to check on them I had a few runs to deal with but nothing crazy





A quick wipe with some methylated spirit and it's gone



I only cover the tops of my builds. I've tried doing the sides a few times and it's been a disaster. I've used a ton of resin, the sides always dry with weird flow marks and it's a bloody mess. I'm sure there's people out there who can do it but I'm definitely not one of them.

This is why I love resin btw, when I was cleaning a run I noticed the reflection of my component drawers in the surface. I've tried clear coats from a rattle can but I've never used anything which gave the same depth of gloss as resin for so little effort

 

[Laundryroom David]

This is amazingly helpful. Thank you so much for posting this.

 

[Paradox916]

Nice to see you build again! You might be one of the few if not the only one I know of that works with resin, and you got that process down pretty well, resin finishes definitely are unique and stand out I like the depth it adds. Im excited to see these finished!

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Last post of the night and after two hrs I decided that nothing else was going to run and I was ready to put them to bed to cure. I did, however, encounter a problem I've never had before and I've finished hundreds of enclosures like this. My Klone has developed some dark splotches around the sides and drill holes. The following day you can't really see it unless you pretty close looking directly at the pedal but it's still bloody annoying because I'm not sure what actually happened.



It looks like the resin has gotten under the sticker or something. I'm just going to have to live with it for now and see how it develops as it cures and when I drill it out. Absolute worst case scenario once it's cured I'll take a heat gun to it, peel it off and do it again but I'll wait and see for now.

Once I know I'm finished for the night I have some little plastic boxes that I make sure are totally clean inside and then flip over each of the pedals to stop hair or other crap landed on them while they're curing overnight.





Because these sit on the upraised edges of the plates it leaves an air gap but protects them from stuff landing on the finish. There's literally nothing worse than coming in to check on your pedals the next day and finding a hair stuck right in the middle or over a face on the graphics or something.

Then I just leave them till the next day. I also leave a dehumidifier running over night, the other big danger with resin if you pour in the winter or when it's really damp is an oily blush that can happen - it looks terrible and they feel kinda nasty. Also using resin in winter when it's really cold can stop it curing properly and it can go a bit rubbery, I always leave a dehumidifier and a heater going if I pour in winter now.

Basically that's it for a few days now. It takes about 72 hrs to properly cure, the instructions say 24 hrs or something but that's really just touch dry, I've also left a big old thumb print after it had been sitting overnight once. It was like the oil from my fingers stuck to it and never came off so if you looked at it really closely or in certain lights you could still see it. That was really annoying.

I'll pick this up in a few days when I drill the holes out with a stepped drill bit and show you how to keep the finish nice while drilling and how to not lift the decal and resin from the enclosure while you drill into it. It sounds scarier than it is it's actually really easy.

Actually this entire process is a doddle tbh. I've had a few issues from time to time but in the main it always just looks great for not a lot of effort.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Nice to see you build again! You might be one of the few if not the only one I know of that works with resin, and you got that process down pretty well, resin finishes definitely are unique and stand out I like the depth it adds. Im excited to see these finished!

Aw shucks dude.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I was just in checking on them there and thought I'd show the difference between the decals on their own and the resin after it's cured to be touch dry. I'll update this again in 3 or 4 days weather depending as I'll be drilling outside.

 

[Erik S]

Those look great. The deep gloss is killer. I’m messing with aerosol clear coat, and it’s my least favorite part of my process. I don’t think you’ve convinced me to switch to epoxy, but I do love the look.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I tried to use aerosol clear coats for quite a while and didn't like the smell, mess or the time it took me to do it. Plus I had to do it outside. The epoxy takes about 3 hrs to get to the stage where I left them last night and about 2 hrs of that is just checking on them.

The slight annoyance is having to leave them to cure for a few days before you can get on with building them.

My earliest builds that I finished in aerosol look terrible these days compared to the first resin projects I completed. They've got a load of chips etc in them but my early resin projects still look great.
I totally get why people don't bother with resin though either. Compared to just buying a powder coated enclosure and just leaving the blanks or even using sharpy is a lot quicker.

I'm pretty intrigued by the no film decals but I'm pretty sure it won't have gloss like lacquer plus I have no laser printer.

I'd also like to have a go at taydas print service but postage to the UK from Tayda now is pretty expensive these days plus I'd have to learn the vector software and how to design the damn things. With resin I don't really need to think about it anymore.

 

[Erik S]

Does envirotex not smell terrible? That would be a selling point… I think of epoxy as smelling pretty strong. I’m also not familiar with the solvent you’re using- how does that smell? I guess you’re probably not using a ton of it. Working outside is definitely one of the main drawbacks to aerosol. Something I could use inside in the winter would be pretty awesome.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Does envirotex not smell terrible? That would be a selling point… I think of epoxy as smelling pretty strong. I’m also not familiar with the solvent you’re using- how does that smell? I guess you’re probably not using a ton of it. Working outside is definitely one of the main drawbacks to aerosol. Something I could use inside in the winter would be pretty awesome.

It's not great smelling stuff tbh but I kinda like it. I wouldn't wear it as aftershave but I associate it with having a new batch of pedals on the way.

Methylated spirit don't smell great either but you use so little of it that it's not an issue. I tend to work in our spare room and the smell doesn't last long the following day once the windows are open. I definitely prefer the smell of resin to aerosol but to each their own.

The two biggest advantages I've found with resin for me is the quality of finish vs the effort put in and being able to work in my spare room all year round.

 

[VanWhy]

Thanks for doing this @SillyOctpuss . Very interesting. It's a little intimidating but damn does it look good. I don't like doing the rattle can stuff either so this is a cool alternative.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Thanks for doing this @SillyOctpuss . Very interesting. It's a little intimidating but damn does it look good. I don't like doing the rattle can stuff either so this is a cool alternative.

Honestly I was super intimidated the first time I did it too but the results were so good I can't bring myself to do anything else. It's honestly really easy so definitely worth having a go even if only once.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

So my enclosures have been curing for five days now, I could have drilled these earlier but the weathers been terrible and I really wanted to drill outside. I was sick of the bloody rain though so set myself up inside and decided to get these done.

Step one is get the tape off the inside of your enclosures and double check for any flaws you can't live with. Unless your gonna have a dedicated 'clean' space to do this then be prepared for small specs of dust or other imperfections. To be honest other people wont notice them but YOU will and unless the pedal is right under your nose then honestly you wont see them either.




Next step is really important for the quality of the finished product, we need to fill all the pores in the resin. If you don't do this some of the small bits of resin and dust from drilling will go into the pores and stick to the surface causing pitting and making the finish a little cloudy. If that happens you either have to wet sand and polish the resin or do another pour on top to get it back to what we have here. I've forgotten to do this step before and it's terrible to get to this stage and then ruin the finish on an enclosure.

You'll need some paper towels and Rain X - I'm not sure what the equivalent product will be called for you guys in the states. It's basically stuff that bikers put on their helmets to fill the pours on their visors and will make the rain or water just run off the surface.






That should be enough info for anyone looking for this stuff.

Just squirt a bunch onto the paper towel, wipe it on and then wipe it off with a clean piece.







Once this is done then we can get onto drilling out the holes and we're finished.