Metal case as single ground point ?

[Wierin]

Hi everyone !

I'm a total beginner in the wonderful world of DIY pedals and I'm currently trying to build my first circuit.
As a lot of people, I have some issues understanding the ground in electronic circuits.

I looked around the internet quite a lot and I'm starting to get the hang of it, but here is my question: is there something wrong with connecting everything that needs to be grounded directly to the the metal case, therefore using the case as the "ground center" of a "star ground" wiring style ? It seems to me that it would reduce the amount of long wires of ground connecting everything. All you would have to do is use a short wire and solder it directly from your component to the case.

Obviously I'm feeling that there is something wrong with this solution, since nobody seems to be doing that, but I can't figure out why...

So if any of you guys have an explanation to give me, that would be awesome !

Thanks a lot !

[Travis]

It would be possible if your iron has enough power to adequately heat the enclosure for the solder to flow on correctly

There are many reasons why I wouldn’t consider doing something like that

You may wish to remove the circuit from the enclosure for a repair or modification at some point, soldering everything to the enclosure would make that a problem.

You may have a finish inside the pedal which you wouldn’t want to solder to. You may have a finish outside the pedal which may be damaged from the intense heat

You will not benefit in any way that I could think of by doing this

[Wierin]

I see, that makes sense. Thanks a lot !