Effects Bay

Looking over various Pedal Line Friday submissions and many pro pedal board breakdowns, I’ve seen multiple ways to mark and record the settings on pedals. Usually, you see good old masking tape or gaffers tape on the pedals themselves. Sometimes you see mailing labels like Avery labels, etc. Often the tape leaves gunk behind and or tears depending on the age of the tape on the pedal. Avery labels are really hard to remove and can damage your pedals, etc.

I wanted to create something that guitarist could use but address these problems. I went in search of a sticker that sticks… but removes easily. It was a challenge to find something that once applied won’t move or shift on the pedal, but as soon as you want to remove it or replace the label with new setting values, would come off very easily. I believe we found a great solution to this problem.

I also wanted something that looked good. Not just hand drawn circles or simple check marks next to the knobs, etc. like you often see, but something that complimented the pedal nicely.  I created pre-defined formats that could be applied to various pedals including boutique styles, etc.

The label system is super easy. Look at your pedal and note how many knobs and if there is an appropriate label for that manufacturer. For example there is a Boss 4 knob version. You would use a Sharpie (or other permanent marker) and draw a line from the center point out to the edge (ruler makes it tight!). After your settings have been marked on the label remove it from the sheet and apply it to the pedal. If it’s not straight, no worries, it peels off, then re-apply.

If you have an odd-ball pedal, no problem, you can use single knob labels and apply those, or use another style. For example, MXR 3 knob will work for many of the 3 knob boutique pedal enclosures out there.

Another great feature is the ability to set multiple settings. You might need to track multiple settings on a single knob. Color markers could be used to identify the different preset needed.

So you’re thinking of labeling some pedals – how do you get your hands on these? I’m offering a label pack that will get you the following labels:

3 Ibanez 4 knob labels
3 Ibanez 3 knob labels
3 MXR Wide 2 knob labels
3 MXR 1 knob labels
9 MXR 2 knob labels
12 MXR 3 knob labels
9 Boss 4 knob labels
9 Boss 3 knob labels
6 Toggles labels
54 single knob labels

This should cover many of the average boards out there, and still have extra labels in hand. Having extras is the whole point. Next month, you don’t like your previous settings.. peel off the label add a new one. Simple.

You get all 111 stickers for only $9.95 + shipping! You can order by clicking the ‘Buy Now’ below. Shipping will be calculated via PayPal.

Looking forward to seeing some of these labels on upcoming Pedal Line Fridays!

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@mojosarmy sent me a tweet letting me know he posted a video where he modified his Dunlop GCB-95 Cry Baby to be true bypass. This is a great 2 part modification that I did to my wah a couple of years ago (I also changed the inductor, changed the pot to an ICAR taper pot and added a LED).

For those of you interested in tweaking pedals, this is a great project that covers a lot of the fundamentals and something that will definitely get your hands dirty. The first part of the modification is to replace the footswitch with a 3PDT footswitch. That will get your switching ready for the true bypass, but you must follow that up with the PCB mod. Changing the footswitch alone will NOT make this true bypass. That is because the signal is buffered in the circuit after the input signal. The goal is to route the input signal to the footswitch then back to the circuit. That is the second mod. The second modification involves cutting a trace on the board and hard wiring a lead from the board to the footswitch.

Mojo did a great job showing all the steps as well as explaining what all needs to be done. For further information, especially if you’re PCB board in the wah doesn’t look like Mojo’s, check out this GREAT page – True bypass for the Dunlop GCB-95 Crybaby That pages shows the trace cut on various revisions of the board (Rev F, G, H & I). Thanks Mojo for letting me know about your vid!

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The following is a guest post by Nick Williams of IHateBarreChords.com. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Guitarists from many musical genres – perhaps most notably the rock scene – have used to various effects to give their music a unique sound. Simple effects like distortion give rock music its distinct “crunching” sound – a non-musical friend of mine describes it as grinding metal – while “wah-wah” (popularized by Hendrix) and other odd effects do strange things to an electric guitar’s sound that can’t really be put into words. Finding out what the various effects sound like is easy enough, with some help from YouTube, but typically you need an electronic device called an effects pedal (or distortion pedal or some other variant) to achieve these sounds through your own playing

These pedals are often – though not always – pretty expensive. Their prices can rival that of the guitars themselves and this can make them seem somewhat inaccessible – at least in the short term. Being in such a situation personally, I was determined to find a way to experiment with all the possible effects while I saved up to buy a proper pedal and did quite a lot of digging to find a way to do so – though it wasn’t nearly as hard as I expected.

The first thing I needed (and that you need if you want to use a computer to mess around with effects) is a 1/4 inch to 3.5 mm jack – aka a little connector that lets you put the end of your guitar cable into one end and plug the 3.5 mm extension on the other side into the mic jack of your computer. In short, you’re routing your guitar signal directly into your laptop instead of running it through an amplifier*.

Next you’ll need a software application called Gnuitar. I’m a Linux user so I went looking for a cross-platform solution that works on both Windows and Linux (and I think Mac as well). It’s free and it requires no setting up whatsoever (other than selecting your effects). You just need to connect your guitar to your laptop (or any computer) as explained above and run the application. You’ll see a start button that will trigger the program to start outputting the incoming guitar signal through the speakers. Finally, you’ll notice a very diverse set of effects to choose from : (i)  two different distortion settings (ii) tremolo (iii) whammy (iv) wah-wah (v) reverb (vi) chorus and so on – plus some filters to help weed out any unwanted noise.

That’s it! Your computer now works as a distortion/effects pedal and all you need is a little 1/4 inch to 3.5 mm adapter that costs about one dollar and maybe an extra cable (see below). You can now mess around with all the cool effects you’ll be able to rock out to with an actual pedal (and hopefully be more motivated to save up and invest in one). I should point out that the software effects sound great but they don’t compare to an effects pedal dedicated to the purpose and it does sound pretty artificial when compared side-by-side with an authentic piece of quality gear. Still, it’s great for experimenting with different sounds and practicing when an actual pedal isn’t handy.

* You might need to run it through your amplifier before running it into the mic jack on your computer (thus requiring an extra guitar cable) depending on how strong (or not) the signal from your guitar pick-ups is (and the thickness of your strings). If you have to do this, be VERY careful to turn the amplifier up only as much as necessary so the software can pick-up the signal and process it. It’s very possible to damage your sound card by feeding it too much signal from the amplifier so use only as much as you need and you’ll be fine. You probably won’t even need to run it through your amp though.

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it – and I hope my guide works for you. If for some reason you have trouble, you can email me at adminihatebarrechordscom and I’ll do my best to help you out. On that note, I’d love it if you visited my guitar forum or just checked out my website.

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For a while there, I was REALLY into working on pedals. Unfortunately, my work has really consumed my available pedal time, and that is something that is getting on my nerves, and something that will hopefully change soon. My bench is right next to my office, so I’m always reminded about how much I enjoy working on pedals for my music buddies out there. Working on pedals is very empowering. It’s a good feeling to ‘fix’ something … in this ‘throw away’ mentality these days. Once you know how to fix things, the requests start pouring in from friends with broken footswitches and wiring.

Then the next logical step is to build something. Probably from a kit but you might be get into breadboarding, etc. Playing with circuits is fantastic. Seeing cause-and-effect and being able to manipulate it by experimentation. Very cool. When you work with pedals one of the big challenges is sourcing parts. It can be a pain, especially if you’re working on vintage circuits and trying to find compatible values to those older schematics. Availability and pricing can be an issue too. Personally, I’ve been buying parts from several electronic sites, but it was really great to see Mammoth Electronics.

Mammoth Electronics is a great new site for providing pedal parts out there. They also offer kits and offer some services such as silk screening and enclosure drilling. I had a chance to send some questions to Blake, President of Mammoth Electronics:

What inspired you to start Mammoth Electronics?
Playing in numerous bands and the local studio scene, I was a gear-head and effects-junky from pedals to rackmount gear, and began trying to build my own pedals with alot of trial and error. I found that there was a tremendous amount of knowledge out on the web and in forums and blogs, but it was hard to find a parts source that was reliable, consistent and easy to navigate so I thought, “maybe i should do that.”

How long has Mammoth Electronics been in business?
It will be 2 years this December.

Where are you located? Is this a web shop only? Or do you have a brick and mortar presence as well?
We are centrally located in Oklahoma USA and we are not currently open to the public, but possibly one day. We shall see?!

What separates you from the other electronic component or pedal part outfits out there?
There are some great companies that are out there and each offers a unique selection of parts and knowledge. What we offer is a seamless and easy-to-navigate shopping experience with a large selection of enclosures, colors and drill-layouts as well as great sounding DIY pedal kits and all the supplies necessary to build high quality and great looking pedals. While we are geared toward the DIY guys and small-run manufacturers, we have a deep inventory to efficiently supply larger pedal, audio and amp manufacturers.  Consequently,  because of our bulk purchasing with suppliers, weare able to pass on the price savings to our smaller customers so everybody wins.

How is the world of DIY/MIY and boutique builds? Is the field growing and the demand rising?
The demand is there and growing. With knowledge and parts becoming more available, we are seeing a large number of new-to-the-market customers. Alot of guys want the experience of literally “building” and “crafting” their own sound. They want to put their signature audio circuit into a box that they can customize with paint color, knobs and artwork and put on display for others to see and hear. It’s a satisfying experience to hear another performing musician play a lick through an effect pedal that you built and to know you had a piece in that. Some customers have the ambition of selling thousands of units a year and others simply want to build a few units a year. I think the other driving factor for the DIY community has been the downturn in the economy and the subsequent effect on peoples wallets.  Why pay $200 for an overdrive pedal when you can easily build it yourself for 1/3 of the price and as a plus, you get the ability to choose the size of the enclosure, color of enclosure, color of LED and the type of knobs? The DIY effects market just makes sense in a cash-strapped economy.

Do you offer some vintage NOS components?
We have some vintage NOS stock. We have been asked to carry more and from time to time we will bring in some vintage parts, especially chips. We get alot of requests for old Bucket Brigade chips, but since there is a surplus of counterfeits out there, we are careful what we bring into our stock.

With the limited supplies of vintage transistors and capacitors, etc., are there *really* comparative components that can achieve same/similar tones?
Absolutely. To the average consumer, most wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in vintage transistors and caps. It is sweet every once in a while when you hear a vintage mullard yellow-jacket OC44 next to a clone or cross-part. Nothing really compares to the old stuff and if price is not in the equation, then by all means, get the old stuff. But, we’ve tried to do our best to partner with manufacturers that are still making replicas to the same specifications of the old stuff. We carry the CoolAudio Bucket brigade delay chips that have replaced the old Panasonic BBD. We also carry a line of germanium and silicon transistors that are made to the original mullard spec by a North American military transistor manufacturer.

What are the components you see flying off the shelf at a regular basis?
Our customers really like our 3PDT (true bypass) foot switches as well as our micro toggle switches. Alot of the switches out on the market are China junk, but our supplier, 4Site Electronics, makes some high quality switches. Our enclosures are a big seller as well. The ability to customize drilling and powder coat and still ship same or next-day makes it really favorable for our customers that want a high quality enclosure with a quick turnaround. Consumables are another big one. We sell alot of wire, solder and bare circuit boards.

What is the most popular enclosure out there in demand? Any reasons why?
The 4S125B, 4S1590B and 4S1590BB are the big sellers and recently the 4S1590BBT (Taller version of the 1590BB) are selling very consistently. Some builders want to maximize real estate on their pedal boards so they opt for the smaller 4S1590B, some want the ability to put 10 toggles and potentiometers in a single box so they will stuff them into a 4S1590BB or 4S1590BBT. For alot of our beginner DIY guys, we recommend the larger enclosures (4S125B and 4S1590BB) simply because it is easy to maneuver the components and wire inside the enclosure.

Do you offer enclosure painting.. or silkscreening?
Yes. We do offer powder coating and silkscreening.

Do you offer pre-drilled enclosures?
Yes, we have a huge selection of pre-drilled options and are always adding more at our customers’ requests.

For people interested in pedal building, kits are a great way to get started. Do you offer any kits? If so, what kit do you recommend for someone interested in building?
For a first-time / beginner build, the Stage 3 Booster is very simple and sounds incredible. After that, the Hot Chilicon Fuzz, the ODC Overdrive and the EA tremelo are very simple builds with dynamic audio quality.

Do you offer any give aways (ie: components, enclosures, kits, etc?)
Multiple times a week, we have awesome giveaways, from effects pedals and kits to parts and enclosures. Our facebook page is the place to be to find out about the giveaways and its super easy to win. We also have daily deals that occur multiple times per week and its a great opportunity to pickup some great parts at a ridiculously low price.

Anything new coming down the pipe that you’re excited about?
The pipeline is definitely full with new and exciting products.  We have some new kits that are coming in the next few months, including a delay. In response to our Amplifier guys, we are going to be bringing on a full line of caps, transistors, resistors and pots as well as the hardware, boards, sockets and consumables. There are a few other irons in the fire that I’m not at liberty to discuss, but I am certainly excited about the direction Mammoth is heading and the community of engineer-artists that we get to partner with.

Please check out Mammoth Electronics at their website and like them on Facebook!

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Below is a guest post by Lucas Hoelbling. He was kind enough to send me a post about his journey of pedal building and about some upcoming pedals he’s developing. As a guy who dabbles in circuits and such I felt this was pretty inspiring. If you are interested in guest posting or submitting a guest review, please contact me!

Hi! I’m Lucas Hoelbling, 17 years old and I live in Carinthia, Austria. I got the idea of making guitar and bass pedals in school. I go to school in the HTL Moessingerstrasse here in Carinthia. There I take telecommunications and electronics classes. I always was more a fan of the analog stuff like transistors, opamps and so on than the digital stuff like microcontrollers and stuff. So a friend of mine thought we would do something different with the knowledge that is given to us in school and design our own guitar and bass pedals! The previously mentioned friend, who also happens to be a bass player, has this crazy rig of effects that I always was fascinated with. So one day when I was bored I got on the PC and got basic knowledge how the different types of pedals work. After a little more research I really thought everything you can do in a pedal has already been done. I literally thought I would never be able to create something new and my pedals would always be referred to some other pedals. So days went by and I always found new schematics, plans and layouts of the pedals that everybody has heard of. Then I suddenly got the idea of a new, different kind of pedal. So I drew a basic sketch of how it should work. The next day I showed it to my electronics teacher and he did a few changes but approved it. I was stoked and could not wait to build it. The next day I got home from school and ordered the stuff I needed.

A few days later I had already designed a logo, thought of programming an own website for it and the parts I ordered finally arrived. I immediately started soldering and fifteen minutes later it was done. The next day I gave it to my friend to test it. It was not working. I really felt sad and tried to find the error. I simulated the circuit on the PC and everything was working properly. I double checked the circuit of the pedal multiple times. It just was not working. The reason was that in the simulation all the components are in perfect environment, not influencing each other and not heating up… so basically in real life it would never be able to work. Basically I’m discovering all the problems that other pedal builders already fixed. But I like it this way, so I can get to my own solutions. I am currently working on version 5 of the pedal that is called MOM-D – The GMOO. It is basically a distortion pedal with adjustable cut-off times and switchable FX-Loop that gives you more crazy noises.

A big problem or advantage for me is that I am a little perfectionist in such things. If that pedal does not have the sound I want it to have it’s not going to be sold. So for now I have multiple pedals in development- The GMOO, The TremoloOo, The MOM-D WaveFun, and a simple booster but I don’t have a name for it yet. Available to order are only two pedals by now. The MOM-D LÖÖPER, a completely customizable A/B Line selector. The second pedal, which is not really a pedal, is the MOM-D Kraftwerk (translated it means Powerplant). It’s also a completely customizable power supply for your pedals/pedalboard. I am currently giving away one of those two pedals to one lucky person that likes my MOM-D Facebook page.

The idea behind all my pedals is that they are completely customizable. That means if you want a LÖÖPER with three FX-Chains with a volume knob for every chain and no tuner output you can have it. If you just need a box that switches between your amps or mutes your signal or really anything- you can ask for it. If you need a Kraftwerk for your pedalboard that consists out of 20+ pedals you get it. If you just need a little no-noise power supply for your 3 pedals you can have it too. Just shoot me an e-mail telling me what you imagine and we can work something out for sure ( momdpedalsgmailcom )

I really think there has to be a change in the industry. They really should make pedals more custom. Also I want to say that all the parts I use to build my stuff are bought in my local electronics shop. It’s called Drauelectronic and I really love to support them because they are a really personal and small business. The owner of the shop has known me since I was six years old so we get along pretty good. I also try to sell my products as cheap as possible. That means I just calculate the costs of the parts I need plus a small fee for the power I use to run my soldering iron and the solder I need. So for every product there are around 5-10€ that are really for me. That money I use to develop more pedals and build prototypes.

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Last week I had a request to build a tap tempo switch for a friend. He has a Boss RC-3 Loop Station and needed some external control that could be managed via the tap tempo switch. Figured it would be a quick and fun project and I just happened to have a small enclosure laying around. The only thing I needed to order was the momentary footswitch.

The concept is pretty simple. You basically wire tip to ring on the mono jack.. and that’s it. You could go a little fancier with a LED etc. Also apparently you can go with a stereo jack and use a TRS cable for additional control. Here is a shot of the finished tap tempo box:

When my friend came over he brought his Boss RC-3 Loop Station to test the tap tempo switch, I was blown away by this pedal. I’ve played with loopers in the past. They’re definitely useful, but really fall short for me. I guess I should clarify why/how I use a loop pedal first. I don’t really think of using them in performance.. well.. not now at least, but the reason why I get excited about loopers is for writing. I think it’s an incredible tool for writing parts or leads to songs and is super easy to get going vs. playing with a recording, etc. For a while now I’ve been using my Line 6 DL 4 to loop parts, but the downside is when the pedal is powered off, you lose the loop, so I would have to record the loop idea to wav via my Tascam so I don’t forget it. This is where the RC-3 Loop Station takes it to the next level. You can record up to 3 hours on it! You can have up to 99 memory slots (vs. the single loop with the Line 6). There are some handy drum loops and tempo adjustments there too, so to hear the idea sped up is not a problem at all. The other cool thing, there is a USB jack on the back where you can pull your loops or upload files to the pedal.

After checking this guy out, I pulled the trigger and it’s on the way as I write this post. You can pick up the Boss RC-3 Loop Station for $198.00 at Amazon.com.

If you’re interested in a tap tempo switch shown above, shoot me a email.

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Wow. First off, this is the 700th post on EffectsBay.com. Crazy! For the 700th post, I’m super stoked to post this guest post by Mojo’s Army out of San Francisco. A couple weeks ago, I saw his video on putting together a DIY pedalboard, and asked if he would be interested in writing a guest post. That goes for you readers out there. Have a interesting tip, story, review, etc. Let me know, and I would be happy to post it. Obviously, needs to be about guitars, pedals, etc.

Like many musicians on a budget, I look for bargains and take on DIY projects whenever possible. Faced with the need for a pedalboard, I thought it would be fun & frugal to put together my own using scrap wood and a hardshell suitcase. The whole project cost me less than $25 and only took about an hour and a half! Some basic tools and materials are assumed to be on hand. It’s a good idea to lay your essential pedals out in as small an area as you can fit them to make sure the size you’re looking at will work. You can also make this project without the case.

Now, I’ll admit I had a harder time locating a suitable suitcase than I expected. Definitely a case of something disappearing as soon as you start searching! After looking everywhere I could think of, I found one that was just the right size in my in-laws’ garage (they never throw anything away). Luckily they were willing to part with it with a little persuasion. I had expected to spend $10 at a thrift shop.

Once I stripped the lining out and cleaned the inside, I measured the case for the largest rectangle that would fit. Rounding down to account for the foam, I came up with a 15″ x 22″ board size. I cut & lightly sanded some 1/2″ scrap plywood and then cut a piece of 1×4 scrap for the heel. I didn’t want it to be too steeply angled, accounting for the depth of the case and also too much of an angle would mean that the large diameter rubber feet I bought for $3 wouldn’t grip as well at the top of the board.

The low-nap carpet was just a scrap from a remodel at work. I had intended to pick up a $5 doormat for this use. A yard of felt or the type of fabric that covers amps would work well too, just wrap around the back of the board and staple before screwing on the heel. The foam was from electronics shipping boxes from work (free). You could get clever and get a bed egg crate a size bigger than your bed and cut it down, then use the big piece on your bed and the cutaway part in the case, giving you a net zero cost for the purposes of your project.

The assembly of the board is straightforward: wood glue and 3 screws for the heel, polyurethane adhesive ($5) + staples for the carpet, then the drawer pull handles ($3 each) were centered on the sides to get the board out of the case easily. For the case, I thought I was going to use the poly caulk adhesive for the foam, but it was too thick so I went with 3M spray adhesive instead. Definitely dry fit the foam before gluing!

If you’ve used your pedals much you’ll want to clean the bottom with alcohol before attaching the stickyback Velcro ($9 for 15′). The rest is just putting your pedals together in the order you want them. Seriously, if you have a couple of hours you can put together your own board easily in less time than it took me longer to put together the video and write up the description! Hope you find this helpful. Rock on!

Materials List

case:
used Samsonite suitcase
foam
3M spray adhesive

board:
1/2″ plywood
additional wood for heel
carpet/felt/doormat to cover board
polyurethane adhesive caulk (or spray adhesive)
“wire” style drawer pulls (2)
roll of Velcro
rubber grip feet

Bio:
Mojo’s Army is a San Francisco Bay Area music project consisting mainly of music-obsessed Mojo, a drummer and graphic artist turned songwriter/guitarist/producer. Mojo first appeared on the independent online music scene in 2008 with the release of his wicked industrial cover of Malvina Reynolds’ classic “Little Boxes”. Mojo’s Army has continued to release music steadily ever since, with a full length album “It’s Hard” in 2009, an electric cover of Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy” and an EP of originals in 2010 (“Summer’s End”), along with a few remixes and other tracks thrown in along the way.

The project’s heavy, groovy sound is a true Bay Area blend of genres – hard rock, punk, pop, and industrial with just enough blues to bring it all together. Major influences are early heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, and modern hard rock / industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails and Rob Zombie. Find them online at mojosarmy.com.

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Yesterday I mentioned the Planet Waves Cable Kit being on sale, I also noticed the CoreX2 DIY Cable Kit is also on sale at Musician’s Friend. It normally sells for $59.95 but is on sale for $45.38.

Here are the details on the CoreX2 DIY Cable Kit:

This CoreX2 Cable Kit contains cables, connectors, and hardware for do-it-yourself pedalboard cabling. The cable kit comes with 20′ of shielded cable, 2 straight connectors, 8 angle connectors, a cable cutter, and a hex key.

CoreX2 pedalboard cabling provides wide-band, accurate sound with the finest audiophile-grade materials and construction techniques. Made for harmonic detail, low signal loss, and flat extended frequency response it is perfect for keeping your signal kickin’ while it winds its way through a jungle of circuitry.

Different gauge conductors are combined to provide accurate reproduction of all frequency ranges, and they are quad-balanced for the lowest possible noise.

CoreX2 DIY Cable Kit Features:

* Custom-built cable system for your pedalboard
* Includes: 20′ of shielded cable, 2 straight connectors, 8 angle connectors, cable cutter, hex key
* Hex screw for ease of use
* Hex is 24k gold-plated and preset depth for perfect ground
* Tinned braided copper shield
* Wide 20Hz-40kHz ±0.5dB frequency response
* Quad-balanced construction for lowest noise and fuller sound.
* Carbon impregnated PVC shield for low microphonics
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* Multi-gauge wire for widest possible frequency balance
* Precision machined brass connector bodies for maximum durability.
* 24k gold-plated connectors offer superior corrosion resistance
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* Industrial grade outer jacket for maximum durability and long life
* Lifetime warranty

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So, I just got an email letting me know that Amazon is having a sale… 25% off soldering equipment. So I figured there were a few guitar effects nerds like me out there, that may need to upgrade a soldering iron or score a new tip or two. Looks like they have a few soldering irons (Weller, Sinometer, Mastech, etc) and a few other items like Heat Guns, Desoldering Wicks, Tips, Stands, etc.

If you’re needing some gear, check this page out.

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This was a fun project for me. I’ve been messing around with Vero boards while working on circuits for pedals for myself and friends. Vero is easy transition from breadboard to a working board, but it’s sort of a pain. You have to add your break out points with a drill bit, so you need to really make sure you’ve measured properly, or you’re going to have to start over, etc. If you need to make more than one, a PCB or printed circuit board might be a good direction. I’ve never designed my own board, but figured I would give it a shot last weekend.

I use the program DIY Layout Creator which is fantastic for laying out components and getting your traces from schematic to board. Like I said, vero is super easy to convert from schematic to board, but PCBs have a bit more difficulty since the lines have to be continual (actually, I’m sure you can add some jumpers, etc.. but I wanted to avoid it). It was fun challenge.. like building a maze. After a couple of revisions, I had a design and it looked like it was going to work.

The technique I ended up using was the lazer paper (not transparency). The concept is to print circuit on a piece of lazer paper then transfer the toner to the copper clad. I had a old workhorse lazer printer, so I figured I’d fire it up again. I’ve seen people talking about paper, and that some paper does not transfer the toner very well. I’ll describe what I have so you can get close. The printer I used was a HP LazerJet 1100 and the paper I bought was Staples brand color laser paper (96 bright, 32lb item# 633215).

After creating your circuit layout in DIY Layout Create, you would print on the paper. I first had to open up the rendered PnP in photoshop (change the scaling) to get it to the right size on the paper. Don’t reverse the diagram, but if you have text, you’ll need to reverse the text so it will transfer correctly on the copper clad.

I used double sided copper clad from Radio Shack (if you can, find/use single sided copper clad). I used double sided.. because that is all I can get here. I’ll be ordering some thinner single sided copper clad in the future via eBay.

Cut the copper clad to size. My piece was 2.25″ by 2″. Some people score the clad and snap it. I chose to use a bandsaw with a metal cutting blade. Cut it like butter.

You will need to clean the copper with Isopropal alcohol to remove any grease, fingerprints, etc. Next lay the image face down on the copper.

Now we need to apply heat to melt the toner on to the clad. I used a iron on a high setting. I would press hard for about 30 seconds then press on different areas. Be careful not to dislodge the paper. That will smear and you will need to clean the copper and start over.

The paper will actually bond with the copper. Let it cool for a few minutes then submerge it in a container of cold water. I left it in there for about 15 minutes. The paper began to wrinkle.

Look for the paper to be wrinkly. The paper should be naturally be pulling away from the copper clad

Gently (I repeat gently) pull the paper away. If you do this too quick, you’ll pull the transfer off of the clad which causes a break. Once the paper is off, you’ll need to clean off the rest of the small pieces of paper ‘hair’ that is still bound to the clad. Gently wipe those off with your finger.

Here is a shot of my clad with the print freshly removed. I did have two breaks on the upper left corner. So I needed to fix these before going to the acid phase.

You can fix the broken traces by marking them with a fine point Sharpie. Make sure your copper is dry before fixing the traces.

Now, we’re ready to apply acid to remove the exposed copper. I used Ferric acid from Radio Shack. You can use Mucaric acid, but I believe that is bigger mess, including ventilation and corrosion issues. I wanted to start with Ferric since it seems a little easier to work with.. but is more expensive. I used rubber gloves and a plastic container.

You don’t need much acid. I used about 2 cups or so. I tip the container so the acid pools at one end.

Put your piece of copper clad in the acid and let it soak for about 15-20 minutes or so.

With this shot, you can see the copper being eaten away. It’ll look like black mist pulling away from the copper clad. You will start to see the yellow mustard (depending on the copper clad you bought) of the plastic PCB.

The edges are the first to go. Here you can see the yellow starting to appear. When it’s all done, I poured the Ferric acid into a jar to reuse on the next etch project. Not sure how many times it can be used. Wash off the PCB with water should be yellow with black traces. I wipe off the toner with more alcohol, and if it’s really stuck, I used a S.O.S pad (gently!)

When you’re all done, you’ll need to drill the holes. I used a #60 drill bit on a drill press. I might go a little smaller next time, but it worked. Also, I’ll probably be looking at some tinning solution next time. Soldering direct to the copper took more work than I thought.

Hopefully this little how to will help on your first etching project. I was surprised how easy it was.

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