Cheap (and easy) way to paint DIY stomps?

anyone found an easy way to paint their DIY stomp boxes?

not interested in buying 10 different spray cans, and then having to sand in between each coat etc. :lol:

just something that will make my pedals look a bit more interesting!

Cheers guys

Alex

Get some 'model' paint (Humbrol etc) from a hobby shop and use a brush? Like on an old Airfix model. The paint is enamel so it's pretty tough and has a shiny finish. It'll give your pedals that hand-finished boutique look : )

Perfect!! thanks for your help :grin:

If you want durable, easy, and fairly cheap, get the brush on hammertone silver from a company like Rustoleum - it's in the big box stores.

Why brush on and silver? The brush on will go much further, you won't end up with overspray everywhere, you need a thick coat of the stuff for the hammered effect anyway, and if it chips, it usually isn't visible!

If you want to get a little more adventurous, there is something called etching primer for auto body work. It makes paint adhere much better, and works on rusty metal.

The Krylon cans dry fast and are fairly durable. The Rustoleum industrial strength stuff is even more durable (comes in the tall cans). The industrial strength is limited in the colors you can get, though.

But the easiest IMO is actually powdercoating. Since boxes are small, you can bake the powdercoat in a toaster oven - just grab a used one since you can't put food in it after it is used for powdercoating! You only need a light duty air compressor, because the powder only needs 8 - 10 psi. A little airbrush compressor or similar is fine. I think Harbor Freight has powdercoating guns for ~$60, maybe a little more. And they have a few basic colors of powders only, but they are only ~$6 for a pound of powder (that will go a FAR way). IIRC, they have red, yellow, white, and black. Maybe green, but I'm not sure.

Why go to the expense of powdercoating? It only takes 20 minutes for the powder to bake on the box, and you could throw the thing down a flight of stairs and it probably wouldn't chip! No solvents, no thinners, no sanding, no primer, no clearcoats. If you get a piece of dirt in the powder, just blow it off with air and start over.

You can also find powders on eBay and other places for stupid cheap - 2 pounds of powder for $7 or something like that. Maybe not the prettiest of colors with those, but it's a decent way to get a finish on a box that is fast and relatively painless.

Oh yeah - if you put paint on a box and want to keep the chipping down even more, get a can of the Minwax clearcoat stuff - again the brush on. A little can goes a long way, and they have clear/tinted/gloss/satin, and even a waterbased forumula.

You can also bake the paints in an oven, but it can get kind of tricky - easy to burn the paint, or not bake it at the right temp, for the right amount of time. Most gloss coats will yellow, so your sky blue pedal will turn puke green!

I know the powdercoating may seem excessive/overkill, but it allows you to get a decent finish on the box and get back to building!

Pedal parts plus sells powder coated enclosures, the colors are very nice and quite often their clearance section has enough of a selection.

+1 on the self etching primer. Two steps may be more than your looking for, but that stuff will make your results look much better.

Enviro-Tex Lite is a good clearcoat for durability. It's a 2-part pourable epoxy that is a 1:1 mix of resin and hardener. You can get it at Hobby Lobby and the like. I gave up on paint / clearcoat - the clearcoat took too long to cure and weren't as durable as I wanted. I'd recommend doing a search on finishing stompboxes with the stuff, but here's a start.

http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/envirotex.html