# Amentum & Kliché Mini



## jstreetny (Jan 24, 2020)

These are my first builds - ever - so I want to start out by saying this is an amazing forum! The Workflow is a game changer. Unbelievably helpful. So thanks!

I started with the boost, obviously. Sushi Shoestring is a tongue twister that my daughter made up (or at least, we'd never heard it), so that's what I named it. I made the mistake of completely housing it before I added the decal, so I had to go back and add it later, which was a huge pain. I didn't really plot out the layout for the waterslide very well, so it's hard to read the text, but it says "wasabi". Also - just to say it - I _hate _waterslide decals. Hate. Maybe it's because I bought cheap ones? Hands-down the most frustrating part of this whole process. I'll probably switch to a skinnier knob later on.




I fixed the insulation around the jack after I took this photo, btw.



That feeling when you plug it in, hit the switch, and the light goes on - and then it actually works... damn. I'm definitely hooked.

When I moved on to the Kliché, I made a few changes. 1. I actually bought some helping hands with a magnifying glass after I melted some blue tack, and that was a game changer. 2. I switched from a pencil to a chisel tip, and my soldering got a lot better, I think.






My shoddy drilling messed me up a little here. The pot soldering trick from the Workflow only really works if your holes are symmetrical (which it says). Something I didn't think about until I was trying to fit it inside. My other cottonheaded-ninnymuggins moment was when I cut the wires for the jacks too short... all of them. Had to improvise there. It's always easier to manage more wire than to not have enough. That said, the sheer joy when this one worked was incredible.
I used a 1N270 and a 1N34A for D1 and D2, respectively. But they're socketed, so I'm going to play around with those. May get some D9s to try out.

I'm also going to get some tall skinny knobs and switch them out.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jan 24, 2020)

Not bad for a first build.  Nice artwork.  On your next build, scrape or sand off some of the paint on the inside around the switch, pot and jack holes so they can all make electrical contact with the chassis.  I had problems with two pedals on account of paint on the inside.


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## phi1 (Jan 25, 2020)

Chuck - confession, I don’t usually do that, but haven’t had any problems. Like he did, I always run ground wires to the sleeves of the jack. So in that case, making sure the jacks ground out to the chassis is for the purpose of shielding with faraday effect?


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## phi1 (Jan 25, 2020)

Also, great work on your first two pedals!


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## Barry (Jan 25, 2020)

Good job!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jan 25, 2020)

phi1 said:


> Chuck - confession, I don’t usually do that, but haven’t had any problems. Like he did, I always run ground wires to the sleeves of the jack. So in that case, making sure the jacks ground out to the chassis is for the purpose of shielding with faraday effect?



Correct.  We want the box to make a nice Faraday cage to keep electric fields (mainly hum) out.  We also want the pot bodies and shafts all connected to circuit ground.  I had a pedal with intermittent oscillation problems because the chassis was floating and was coupling signal from one pot body to another.  If you have metal knobs, they will conduct hum from your fingers into the pot if the shaft isn't grounded.


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## Mourguitars (Jan 25, 2020)

Very cool graphics and congrats !

Mike


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