Harmonic Percolator - stripboard & steel mini enclosure

[jcpst]

I bought this enclosure from Missouri Electrical Box Company a while back, and wasn’t sure what to put in it. I have an old Dano with lipstick pickups, and in my mind a Harmonic Percolator seemed like the right type of grit for it. Nevermind the fact that I’ve never built or even played one before .

At first the output was low. I panicked and prematurely created a troubleshooting thread. But after going over the layout again, I saw that I had the B and C of Q1 backwards. A simple twist of the legs and I was in business.

Drilling the enclosure was brutal / ridiculous. I’m pretty sure I just don’t have the right tools for the job. There I am, with my hand drill, step bit, and drilling paste. There was lots of smoke, and sometimes the hole I was drilling would glow red. It took a lot of elbow grease. I boogered up the face a bit, but it could have turned out worse.

Overall, I’m happy with this ‘lil clang thang. It’s a type of pedal I haven’t explored yet, I can see myself exploring variations of it in the near future.

 

[lowpitch]

I like that enclosure. I guess it's steel? (Edit: It is. I can't read thread titles apparently) I've hand drilled steel amp chassis in the past and it always sucked ass and looked terrible. This isn't bad by comparison.
Anyway, I need to build myself a Harmonic Percolator at some point.

 

[pricklyrobot]

Only tips I have for drilling steel are slowest speed you can manage and plenty of pressure (like most of your body weight) on the back of the drill.

Unless it’s stainless, then you should just give up immediately!

 

[jcpst]

Only tips I have for drilling steel are slowest speed you can manage and plenty of pressure (like most of your body weight) on the back of the drill.

Unless it’s stainless, then you should just give up immediately!

It is stainless! I was pushing my body weight into it. I bent the face while drilling, fortunately I was able to get it most of the way back.

 

[owlexifry]

this is sick

 

[BuddytheReow]

Are there no sides of the enclosure?

 

[jcpst]

Are there no sides of the enclosure?

Good callout- there is a bottom half that you can’t really see in those photos. These aren’t great shots, but here’s the side and the back.