Hey guys. Just (finally) finished my pedal. The etch turned out so much cooler than I anticipated, and I'm going to make more, this is just awesome. :)
I am finding this delay isn't one that I think I'd put tap tempo on. I think I will still play around with it and see if I can't, just because I'm a nerdy engineer guy and want to always stuff more stuff inside boxes, but this is a great example of ambient, moody delay.
I should sit down and do a "features runthrough" kind of video, but this was just some fun little jam I stumbled upon while playing around with the pedal and the looper.
I am finding the "shimmer" setting to be strange in that it only seems to want to repeat a single time regardless of the feedback settings. I'm going to build a few more and compare? Anyone else?
Enjoy!
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A very laid back jam. Like it.
I didnt notice a problem with the shimmer settings but with deep, i get 1 or 2 repeats and then it fizzles out abruptly, not sure if thats normal or not. Ive socketed some of the resisters as recommended so i was going to play about with the values and see if it makes any difference.
I like your pedal board. What did you use?
Thanks! It's just some OSB that I had laying around from a home improvement project. I put some polyurethane on it, mounted some handles from the drawer section and used some none-slip rubber feet on the bottom, then put strips of Velcro on it. Nothing fancy, but I think it looks nice and is great for the times I don't want to deal with my PRPro. I think this summer I'll make a slightly larger one. ...or buy a PT Jr.
Man I want to learn to etch enclosed, that's so awesome
That's a great lookin etch man! I can't wait to build mine...
Looks great! Can't wait for these PCBs to get back in stock.
Love the look!
Josh
Very nice build and demo!
Would love to do some etching like that. any details you could share?
Pretty sure I've never seen a backwards etch like that. Excellent job. Looks great inside, too.
Ohhh, I like it! Very tidy innards, and that's a really great looking etch.
I'm surprised we haven't seen more of these on the forum yet, seeing as they sold out within a couple of days of launch. Though for my part in that I have two unpopulated boards sitting here :) This demo has made me bump this up the to-do list though, it sounds lush. Thanks for taking the time to record it, if you make another more in depth one please post it here.
That reverse etch looks awesome!
That looks really cool.
Part of me wants to investigate etching enclosures like this. I haven't made the leap yet.
Super etch and demo!
Regarding the Shimmer: sounds like you have a component shorting to ground. If you are only getting one repeat it makes sense that the signal is getting killed off...you can still get a repeat by having the Path set to skip the filtering. Fortunately, the Shimmer is only four components so it should not be hard to track down.
Great build mate, tidy guts, very cool exterior, sweet!
Thanks everyone!
I'll have to look tomorrow, all the pots have "pot condoms" on right now, except for the rate knob, so I don't think there's any shorting from them, but I'll take a look more tomorrow.
The etch was a total accident. :) I meant to do a nice, simple etch like I've seen many times before. I block sanded the box with 360 up to about 2000 in grits. I then ironed on my blue press and peel mask.
I then taped off the sides and bottom, and dunked the box face down.
There was a pretty serious reaction that ramped up pretty quickly, definitely exothermic. It was rather scary, it was bubbling and the box was getting too hot to touch, and the etchant was steaming...
I pulled it out after...5 minutes? 10 minutes? Maybe 4 minutes. I didn't look too precisely at the clock. I pulled it out and found that the mask had been melted or came off in the violence of the reaction, but when I used 0000 steel wool on it, it seemed to have removed the mask edges first, working its way inward as it etched down, so the lettering has a very angular bevel to it. Amazingly cool in person.
I'm not sure why the etchant reacted the way it did, but I added a bit of water a while back when I found it was crystallizing a bit, and adding water seemed to bring back its potency. It also has been used to etch a few copper circuit boards. I'm wondering if the "trick" was watered, slightly "coppery" etchant being in contact with freshly exposed aluminum. I'm going to consult with my chemical engineer brother, and I'll be trying to repeat the results. I'll report back (and put in a few more board orders!)
I found this to be very enlightening!
http://www.artmondo.net/printworks/articles/ferric.htm (http://www.artmondo.net/printworks/articles/ferric.htm)
Im very impressed with your final outcome! Demo sounds soo good..i think i need to bump this one higher on my to do list.
Thanks! It really is a great design, full of ambience and really enjoyable tone. I'm definitely one of those people who couldn't ever be satisfied with one single delay pedal, not yet any how, but this one would be in my top 3 or 4.
Dont use ferric chloride to etch aluminum, ferric chloride is an etchant for copper. Stannous chloride etchs aluminium fairly safely, use that. Dont reuse the etchant that you used, its probably contaminated. It is also a bad idea in general to use ferric chloride to etch zinc (or galvanized steel) as it will create zinc chloride (which etches faster and exothermicly) and hydrogen gas. Which isnt ideal.
Worked for me, and I'll perform the same thing outside this next time with more ventilation. Perhaps you read the article I posted? It seems to be something used to etch aluminum. Where are you getting your information from?
Years as a printmaker and printmaking lab tech, which uses ferric chloride to etch copper plates for printing. It will work on aluminium, but you wont be able to reuse the etchant, unlike with copper where you can reuse ferric chloride for a long long time. And the reaction will be fast and not very controllable (pitting). And probably fairly toxic.
The linked article is about using ferric to etch copper plates. Stannous chloride can be used to etch aluminum and will probably be far better all around.
Fair enough.
I've found the pitting to be highly desireable, so no arguments there. :)
I've used it before on aluminum a few times, and while this time was a bit more reactive (due mostly to the sanding of the box, thus exposing fresh, unoxidized aluminum), I'm pretty sure this is fairly safe. If it isn't give me the chemistry proof to prove otherwise. Until then, perhaps we'll just leave it at "etcher beware".
I'll ask my chemical engineer brother what he thinks the reaction is.