There were several reasons I wanted to build my own - firstly I wanted quite a small board. A lot of the ones I saw to buy were big enough to hold over a dozen Boss pedals. My setup only has 3 pedals (an old Wah pedal I picked up in France, a Zoom 505 multi effect and a Boss RC-3 Loop station), and so I wanted something which would take these without the board looking empty! I also wanted my board to be powered so as to keep power sources and wires hidden away
Secondly, cost - OK so I went wrong here! Whilst the cost of the materials was probably only around £20, I also ended up getting carried away and bought a load of tools and a workbench, so probably ended up paying over £140! But if you have the tools already (which I will for my next attempt!) then you'll avoid these costs. But I would say I wouldn't have managed to do the job without the right tools...
Thirdly? Because I can and it made a good little hobby for a couple of weekends!!
So here are the main steps I took, along with a little advice on what went right and what went wrong
The Plan!
I would definitely sketch out an idea of what you want, and get some measurements on paper. I went for a wooden frame, using dovetail joints (more on that later). I didn't want to use any screws or nails, rather relying on these joints and a little wood glue to do the job
In terms of measurements, obviously you'll need to check your pedals will fit onto the board, plus some additional room for the leads to come up from under the board through drilled holes, same for the power cables
You'll see further on that I ended up adding a third "side" section down the middle, which is not on this drawing, to support the cover board to stop it from buckling under the weight or when stepping on the pedals
I got the wood (and pretty much everything else) from B&Q. They have standard size wooden planks which I cut to size. Think it was 68mm wide for the side and back sections and about 38mm for the front section which gave the right kind of incline angle for the board to be at a comfortable position to play
Measuring up
I measured the side sections (2 side, 1 middle) using the back and front sections. There are a lot of YouTube videos which explain how to measure up for dovetail joints. Shade out the areas which are coming off to make it dummy proof! The sliding bevel pictured is a great tool to help with getting the angles just right
Here is how I made the markings to measure up where the cuts were to be made and where each piece was going to join up, having got the lengths cut already
Cut it up and put it together
You might notice the dovetails on the back section aren't the same on both sides. That's because I found doing proper dovetails quite difficult and not actually a perfect fit - I had to use a little sawdust and glue to make it flush.
The other side has straight cut shoulders. These are easier to cut, fit perfectly and are just as strong. If I build another one, I'd definitely use this method
By the way, the wood I used is just pine. Not by choice really, would have prefered something nicer and less brittle. Pine does tend to splinter and rip if not careful. But it is all they had in B&Q, I'm sure you can get better quality wood in other woodyards. Having said that it came up nicely onc I had thoroughly sanded each piece. Spend a bit of time on this it is well worth it!
I used a jigsaw to cut most of it and a hand saw & hack saw for other bits
Injuries and lessons
I learnt that you should not sand your arm, sanding paper is indeed abrassive, and that chisles are sharp & your finger is no match!!!
Power & cables
On the original drawing, I intended to have a kettle lead style socket coming in on the right hand section, which would be soldered onto a multiplug which would sit inside the casing and be used to plug in a daisy chain power supply. However having cut everything to size, I realised that the multiplug (which is as small as they come) is too wide to fit inside! Bummer!
So as you can see, I drilled a hole in the back through which the lead feeds through from the mains transformer to the daisy chain
I also bored a hole large enough to fit (well eventually using a jigsaw to widen it) a Neutrik Locking Jack socket for my line-in. The same was done for the line out the other side
Lastly I drilled a hole in the central section so the daisy chain power lead could feed through to the left side of the board in order to reach the left hand pedals
Electrics & soldering
I cut a small standard lead I had in half, to solder onto the Neutrik socket
I Struggled to find the wiring details for the Neutrik socket. Thre are 3 prongs but only 2 are needed: the main lead wire connects to the top prong, and the small inner wire connects to the right-hand prong. The left prong of the trio is left alone
It was pretty fun soldering these, I'd not done it since school! Yet another cost, as I didn't have a solder lying around!!
So the idea is that these come up from under the board, through the board cover and in/out of the pedals on the extremities
The board cover
I was lucky to find an offcut in B&Q of nice sturdy hard board. Cost? 10p!!! bargain! definitely go to where they cut wood to order and ask the guy, best bargain of the project! I cut it further to the exact size of the frame, it was a very snug fit but actually it has to be. Careful too as you'll no doubt not have a "perfect" rectangle once the joinery and glueing is done
I later spray painted the board cover matt black. Again really easy and it gave a great finish! I just ordered a can from Ebay. I used it all doing 3 coats mind you so if you are doing a bigger board, then get a second back up can or you may well run out!!
Varnishing
I chose deep red mahogany wood stain, I thought it would contrast well with the matt black of the cover (oh and the reason I chose matt black for the cover was that I was using Velcro to secrure the pedals and didn't want to see the Velcro strips)
If I'm honest I could have done a better job on this with a few more coats, and there were a couple of drip marks
And I was going to do the inside as well, but as one side has to be toching the floor, you need to wait a fair amount of time before you can turn it over... So I lost patience!!
Next time......
The finished article!!!
So here it is! I'll throw a few photos below to show you the finished board, having drilled through the cover to make room for in/out lines and 3 power cable entries for the daisy chain, and then spray painting the cover. I didn't pin the board down, as it is already a snug fit and pops right in, and also I wanted to be able to pop it out should I want to get to the sockets or electrics in the future, but you could do easily
One thing I did do was glue (using Gorilla wood glue) some supporting wood off-cuts just where the board would sit, so that again it does not buckle, around the edges of the frame (I did about 6) - unfortunately I've not got photos of this, if I remember I'll take a couple and add later on
Last job was sticking the Velcro strips onto the cover board - I'd advise using Gorilla glue as well as just the self adhesive strips, so you don't have to worry about pulling your pedals on and off without the strips coming off (I couldn't bring myself to glue the other part to the pedals, I've just used the self adhesive of the tape on the pedals)
Anyway have a look, any comments are welcome along with any questions I've not answered! And of course if you want one building.... let's chat!! ;-) Cheers!
