AX84 Hi Octane with 2x12 cabinet

I never got around to posting a final picture of this...

Getting closer

The time has come!  I removed the two 12'' speakers from a Crate GLX212 that I purchased about 10 years ago, and secured them to the baffle.

I used #8 Brass screws and Tee nuts to secure the back plate

Connect the speakers!

Screw the baffle on.

Amplifier put in it's case.

Booyah!

So... there's a problem already.  That cabinet is enormous.  I can barely get my arms around it.  I brought it upstairs from the basement and wasn't able to get my hands on the side handles.  I had to just squeeze either side to get a hold of it.  By the time I got it up two flights of stairs, my forearms were like jelly.  I could barely play a bar cord.  I have a looper pedal that has some stuff recorded already, so I just turned on a loop to see how the amp sounds.  There's something off about it...  I think I hooked up a speaker backwards.  There's some point where ones head is directly in front of the speakers where it's very quiet, but it's quite loud a foot to the right or left.  Hmmm...

Vinyl! Vinyl!

Vinyl finally arrived from backorder!  Wooo!

My phone was out of batteries so I didn't take any pics during the vinyling.  I found some tutorial videos online and got at least an idea of how this should be done.  I used 3M Super 77 spray adhesive, which was recommended on every tutorial I found.  I ended up running out of it and switched to Super 90 adhesive, which I happened to have.  The odd thing is, the super 90 seemed to dissolve some of the adhesive between the vinyl and the backing, and it caused some bubbling.  Lo and behold, a few hours later the bubbles were gone...  suspicious... closer inspection to follow...  

Also annoying, I completely screwed up the vinyl covering on the corners.  I thought the corners would extend farther, but I was wrong, and had to cut off some of the vinyl and add some tiny squares... oh well.  Without a close inspection, it shouldn't be noticeable... I hope.

Anyway, I got the vinyl and most of the hardware on the head and cabinet, but I ran out of time, so here's where I leave you!

Amplifier head case... looking pretty!

Notice the corners... extra square of vinyl

Soon...

This is so close to being done... I can taste it.  I'm terrible excited.  The time for guitars is nigh!

AX84 Hi Octane build Part 3: Ruining the finish

A word about finishing metal...

This is the third metal enclosure I finished.  The first two were metal stompbox effects units.  I'll start with the worst; a compressor from Build Your Own Clone.  It's a nice pedal, and he sound is great, but I tried to hand paint, and it was a miserable failure.  It's terribly ugly.  It would have looked better had I just left the aluminum bare and written the knob labels on the thing with a sharpie.  Once I saw how terrible it was, I said screw it, globbed a bunch of paint on it, and embraced the ugly.  It is a nice compressor though, so maybe I'll refinish it at a later date.

The first one (the Tube Screamer), I spent a long time on the finish.  I sprayed very thin layer of paint every 15 minutes or so, and then I let it sit over night between the primer, the color, and the clear coat.  Between the color and clear coat, I also baked the case in a toaster oven I bought at thrift store.  The baking isn't necessary, but if you bake the unit for an hour at 300-350F, the paint will almost completely cure, and when you handle it, you won't get finger prints embedded into the soft pain, or mar the surface.

I rushed through finishing the AX84 chassis.  I put the clear coat on too thick and got runs in the paint, and then I didn't let it cure enough before I installed the pots, switches, transformers, etc.  The toaster oven won't fit this chassis, and I don't want to bake it in my cooking oven, so I just left it outside over night.  I thought 9 hours of drying time would be sufficient for curing, but I was wrong.  I really dinged up the finish.  It looks pretty bad in places... and goes to show the importance of patience if you want your piece to look nice.  I'm going to build this amp into an enclosure of some sort, either a combo amp or a stand alone guitar head, so I'm not too concerned with how it looks.  A few coats of clear coat would have been fine to prevent corrosion, but I gave it color on a lark.  If nothing else, I learned how important the patience I used on the tube screamer pedal really pays off.

So here it is!

Doesn't look too bad, eh?

Parts installed

Inside

Oh no! The finish!   I killed it!

That texture there is from the a seam in my pants.  Seriously

Tightening nuts ruins your finish

That's a finger print and a few nicks.

That's probably from my heavy paint layers

Took a nice ding out of the side there... oops.

Oh well, I'm going to wallow in shame for a while, and then finish up the wiring.