Are you casting steel and aluminum in your oven? How's the SO feel about that? How can I get adequate heat levels and keep the peace around here? Precautions for spall, slag, and food contamination?
 
(With your mic building thread and this, you might wanna search "Yves Chouinard" for one business model that went from the trunk of a beater at Camp 4,Yosemite, to the 8 figure revenue Patagonia label in a few short decades!)
 
Good luck!

Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback. :-)
 
Hi Jay, the metal is aluminum bar stock that I "carved" into with a mill. That's how I made the basic shaping. I then spray painted the metal black and surface sanded the tops so the lettering shows as silver. I baked them at 170 degrees Fahrenheit to harden the paint.
 
I didn't have to deal with slag etc.
 
There was a slight smell of fumes... it's a gas oven so it burns them fairly effectively. It smelled far less onerous than using something like EZ Off as an oven cleaner.
 
My wife makes stuff too so it's not hard to get permission to do stuff like this at my place. :-)
 
 
Patagonia has done some fantastic things with the success they have had. I admire their work.
 
I'm just making stuff to feed my curiosity, to share with friends, and to express my enjoyment of no holds barred construction quality.
 
best regards,
mike

can I ask how much it costs you per to make?
 
They look awesome!

Yes you may... but I'd never let the cat out of the bag. :-)
 
It's actually hard to say; The chunk of aluminum is dirt cheap... 3 or 4 dollars. The machine I made it on costs more than I want to admit. I break that machine with regularity. It usually breaks my heart when it happens. The only reason I fix it rather than throw it out the window is that it costs more than I'd like to admit. :-)
 
It also took a long while to figure out how to program the machine so that it doesn't auto-robotically cut it self in half.
 
The guitar amps them selves have about $400 in parts in the "head'. They are similar to the $2500 boutique amps that a 100 other guys make and sell but I'm not making them to sell so I spend extra time making them as if I am making them for me. The speakers and speaker cabinets are an additional expense. I build my cabinets with finger joints, and use my favorite speakers because, as they say... you only live once. :-)
 
best regards,
mike

I figured you were baking paint, but the mental image of an open oven door, hammer, tongs, anvil, sparks, mitts and clouds of black soot rising above a Stewart worthy, dual stainless (quench)  sink was too sweet to pass up.
 
Because you can design.
 
Can't think of a better philisophy.