Formica...

[Bloomfield]

Makes a nice circuit board. I was looking for generic eyelet boards and had a hard time finding them. I thought I'd make my own but couldn't find any material around here and shipping from the US cost as much as the material itself. I figured that countertop laminate (Formica, Arborite, Pionite etc.) being made of phenolic resin would work well, but at around .040"/1mm was too thin, so I tried laminating some together with epoxy and it worked great. The end result feels very solid and the price is right, especially if you have offcuts to work with.

I'm sure I'm not the first to do this but I didn't see anything in the archives so I thought I'd post it in case it's useful to someone. I just took two pieces slightly oversized and buttered one piece with epoxy, taped them together so they didn't shift too much, folded some wax paper over the stack and clamped between two flat pieces of ply or MDF or whatever was handy, and then cleaned up the result with a belt sander and tablesaw.

[mozz]

Looks good but seems like a lot of work. Hoffman sells some but once again, shipping costs may be the problem. I just bought a few of these, http://www.apexjr.com/images/tagboard.JPG price was right $3.95 and quality was decent, better than the other stuff i ordered.

[Pdavis68]

I know some people have used Formica, but I don't think I would. It's just not as good a product as the alternatives. Formica is a paper fabric in melamine resin (not phenolic) and it can absorb water. Not quickly (unless it's resting in water), but over time in a humid environment, it can. Phenolic resin would actually be worse for this.

It's not as good an insulator as FR4 and it may actually alter the tone of your amp because of that (though that's not necessarily a bad thing), but that tone will be changed by how much moisture the board has absorbed. It's also prone to chipping...

I don't know, as cheap as turret boards, I don't know why you'd bother.

[Bloomfield]

No, it is phenolic; I just checked the manufacturer's data. It's only the finish surface which is melamine. Certainly a better insulator than vulcanised fibreboard for example, and as we know, that has a long history in tube amps (admittedly with problems on occasion.) Formica is actually quite strong, especially doubled up like this. As millions of kitchens can attest, moisture isn't really much of an issue.

Why do I bother? Partly because I like to make things myself. Partly because I don't want a bunch of glass dust floating around in my shop from drilling FP4. That board cost me nothing, apart from the cost of the eyelets and a little bit of epoxy, and 20 minutes of my time. Maybe it's hard to understand when you live in the US, but the rest of us don't have all this stuff available to us with fast, cheap or free shipping. A board that size would end up costing me close to double what it would cost in the US, and I'd have to wait. So really it makes sense to me to be resourceful and use what I have on hand.

Mostly I just posted that because I thought it might be of use to someone else, and hopefully it will be.

Andy

[Mick Bailey]

Well, I had a Two-Rock amp in for repair that uses the same wood-grain Formica as Dumble uses.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Well, I had a Two-Rock amp in for repair that uses the same wood-grain Formica as Dumble uses.

See, they know where the mojo is! Who can sound their best, without some wood grain Formica in their amp?

[rjb]

See, they know where the mojo is! Who can sound their best, without some wood grain Formica in their amp?

For more sparkle in your tone, use vintage Wilsonart glitter laminate.

[catalin gramada]

Hey Bloomfield. Very nice result but do yourself a service and test it before how much heat resistent it is. I found from my little experience somef nice materials which burns or pops under heat of a hot eylet /turret ruined all my work

[Leo_Gnardo]

For more sparkle in your tone, use vintage Wilsonart glitter laminate.

And if your taste tends towards pop hits of the 50's there's the old boomerang patterns.



And you don't have to hide them inside your amp.



See you at the Olde Malt Shoppe, Jughead!

[Bloomfield]

They still make some of those boomerang patterns but I don't think you can get sparkle or the fake mother-of-pearl ones anymore. Too bad, I have a few furniture ideas that would look good with them. That guitar looks pretty good too, although I'd worry about the edges coming up at some point. Hopefully they used epoxy and not contact cement.

Catalin, I have to admit that thought crossed my mind. I haven't actually tried soldering on it yet, so it remains to be seen. I got sidetracked with other things and haven't got back to that build. Hopefully it won't burn, but if it does I'll use something else. I did order some phenolic board off ebay but it never showed up so that's how I ended up using the formica.

Andy

[rjb]

They still make some of those boomerang patterns...

You may have missed it. I'm pretty sure that was a Formica limited edition... last year, or the year before.
Part of the "Jonathan Adler Collection", IIRC. I've got a red sampler that I use as a coffee cup coaster.

This year, you can go psychedelic with blue amoeba (uh, malachite) or blue-period Jackson Pollock.

Ho-hum. Enough with the interior decorator talk.

-rb

PS- Leo, that guitar needs a pair of gold foils.

---

EDIT:
Just did some searching & found I was wrong.
Formica still has boomerang, but only in charcoal.
Wilsonart has a full "retro" collection.
Organic and Abstract Designs|Custom and Digital Laminate | Wilsonart

Have fun.
-rb

[Leo_Gnardo]

ps- Leo, that guitar needs a pair of gold foils.

Right you are, I can imagine that. And Dave Lindley to play it. I'm sure he has a couple of shirts to match! "Dressed in my finest polyester..."

[Bloomfield]

Just finished soldering up a little rectifier board made with the same red formica, and no problems with discolouration or scorching. So far so good.

It's the matte finish formica I'm using, if that makes any difference.

Andy