Electrical box stomp boxes

I’ve been building some guitar pedals recently, and to prototype them I’ve been using electrical junction boxes for the enclosure since they are really cheap (~1USD) compared to 12 dollars for a Hammond aluminum box.

Although they are cheap, junction boxes have some drawbacks. They are harder to drill for jacks and switches. They typically have knockout panels for wiring that interfere with jack positioning. Trying to drill through one of these knockout panels can cause the bit to jam and twist out the panel. I’ve had good luck clamping the box between wood blocks before drilling, and then drilling down through the wood. This will keep the knockout panel in place if the drill bit binds in the hole.

Another thing is that galvanized steel is hard to paint. According to the Rustoleum FAQ, using aluminum primer or using an acrylic paint is the best way to go. I’ve used enamel spray paint in the past and while it looked good initially, the paint didn’t adhere very well and scraped off easily. I cleaned the surface with acetone and used a wire brush to dress the surface before painting, but this didn’t have much effect. I also use a clearcoat lacquer over the paint and baked it in the oven to dry it. None of these had much of an effect on the durability of the finish.

Here is one of my finished pedals, dubbed “Will it Blend”. It is essentially a single-channel send/effects loop. I use it for mixing a distortion pedal in with the clean guitar before I send it into my slightly overdriven amp.