Full Metal Stick

Tech Talk
#1

Hi my roommate and I just started making sticks a little while back. My roommate happens to be pretty good with working with metal so we thought we would go with a full metal box. If you were at evo west, you might have seen me carrying around a bare metal one with green buttons.

We’ve gone through several revisions of designs since then and here are some shots of one of the more finished ones. (The newest couple in the works right now are actually much cleaner than this one and the holes are more perfect) The size is the usual printer paper size, with height about 1.75 inches.

any comments or suggestions are appreciated :lovin:

#2

Oh yeah and here is a shot of the insides from the first one we made.

#3

thats sexii

#4

pretty nice. only thing that would bother me is the screws used to mount the stick.

#5

I think that’s pretty cool. A few more revisions to streamline, and you’ll have a sexy piece of hardware. Are you planning on selling them when you get them perfected?

#6

Very nice. It’s pretty cool as is, but yeah, it’d be amazing with the screws hidden.

#7

You could always mount an Art and a Plexi ontop to hide the screws.

#8

um looks cool and all but how much it weighs?

#9

I wouldn’t imagine too much more than a standard, majority-wood, custom. Wood is heavy, depending on what type and how thick. Metal is heavy too, but you’d be surprised at how durable, yet lightweight a thinner piece of metal can be (also depends on what type)…

#10

looks quite nice :o

#11

you painted over the buttons?

#12

How much?

#13

nah they are 2 seperate sticks read his first post closer, he said there were some revisions.

#14

don’t they make a lot of noise?
Damn, those look good.

#15

Should maybe try mounting the stick like i did on My aluminum stick otherwise looks good. All my screws are either hidden or countersunk.

#16

thanks for all the comments and suggestions guys.

the screws won’t be visible. there’s art and lexan that would go on top of that. you can see the holes for mounting the lexan. those pictures just happen to not have it on there cause i take forever figuring out what art i like. the screws are already counter sunk so that it is flush with the top. and actually you would never use it how it is pictured because without the lexan, the stick height is not perfect anyway.

it weighs about 5 - 6 pounds, which is about 1 pound more than the wooden one i have but that one is mdf. i imagine a hard wood stick would probably weigh almost the same. the thickness of metal used changes the weight a lot so we can make it lighter or heavier using that method. we have also considered putting metal bars or something on the inside to increase the weight a lot (it really wasn’t necessary for the seimitsu and sanwa sticks we’ve made so far but i think it will be a necessity when we get around to making a happs stick). i’m curious how heavy we could make one actually.

the sound is almost the same as any other stick. all you hear is the button clacking. i think it sounds very slightly different from my wooden (koi) stick and pretty much identical to my finkle. this is probably because you’re hammering on lexan in all 3 cases anyway.
tony when we play some 3s at your house i’ll bring one of them over and you can tell me what you think.

djfunkshun… i love that aluminum stick man! looks sexy as hell. the box seems to fit together perfectly. i guess you can get all the cuts pretty exact since you work in a shop huh? what method did you use to attach it all together? we used a combination of folding metal and welding it to put ours together.

as for selling. we were making them for fun and for our friends originally, but my roommate has gotten pretty efficient with how long it takes to make them so i think theres a good chance we will be selling them at some point. we’re still experimenting with different designs right now and every one we make is a lot cleaner than the last. i’ll post pictures of one of the newer ones after evo.

speaking of evo. i’ll be there all weekend, i think i’m going to bring a stainless steel one that’s in the works right now. if you see me carrying it around feel free to come up and try it out or just bull shit with me in general. it won’t be painted, just bare metal so it should be be easy to spot me.

holy crap sorry for the long post.
just a quick question though. does anyone have experience painting metal? we have pretty good results so far but i’m curious if anyone has any advice in this area? like for example any tips for metal primer that dries fast (san diego conditions) and what different types of paint people like to use? djfunkshun what paint process did you use?

#17

Well like you guessed earlier i work in a shop. so yes i used lots of metal working equipment like a shear and a welder. The shear allows for precise cuts hence no seams except for bottom plate. Welding it all together just makes sense although I have access to some really strong glue that cand hold metal together as well. As for the paint i think it is called lacryl it is a blend of latex and acrylic paints. The paint job on my stick is actually more candied than the signs that leave the shop. It is a mixture of Metallic Silver used for metalizing and blue with a standard silver base coat.

Quick edit: Sprayed by one of the guys at work that helps me with my custom projects.

#18

thanks for the tip djfunkshun. we’ll give lacryl paint a try on one of the revisions. currently we are using laquer paint which is good because you can work with it after it dries. hopefully after the painting process is perfected, the finish will be automotive quality or close to it.

#19

since the screwheads are recessed, the screws make it look very post-modern industrial.

Might as well add pressure gauges and random tubing to make it look steampunk.

#20

um actually my roommate is a big fan of steampunk. we’ll actually at some point try to make one in that style.