It's beginning to look a lot like Case-mas!

The box, mostly assembled!

Loads of progress made tonight!

Which is good, because this is really the last night I have to work on the case for about a week.  Tomorrow night my wife and I are going to go see Lincoln at the Oaks dollar theater, and then the rest of the week will be busy with Easter weekend stuff.

Earlier today I placed my order with Reliable Hardware, which will supply me with almost all of the rest of the materials I will need to finish this project.

Today I was also able to locate plank foam for half of what it costs through either DIY Cases or Reliable Hardware.  I may end up throwing some 1/2" thick polyethylene foam in the bottom of the case to help cushion the stands and protect the bottom from gear being dropped into it.

After a lovely dinner, tonight I managed to finish up cutting all of the double-angle rails that will attach to the outside corners of the case.  Until I have the panels riveted together for the sides, I won't be able to get a totally accurate measurement for how long the tongue and groove extrusions need to be cut, so I'm holding off on doing anything with those for a bit.

All twelve side edge rails

I need to file down the burrs on the edges

Since I had the rails done, I decided to do something whacky: put everything together!

I used one of my ratcheting band clamps to hold it all together

The side rails don't go up all the way; there's a reason for that

You may notice in the pictures that the vertical rails don't extend all the way up the sides of the case.  That was no accident or mistake.  The lid will be three inches tall, and the side panels for the lid will be cut off the tops of the larger side panels next week.  The point where the vertical rails stop is where the tongue and groove extrusion rails will be.

The warp of the panels is also fairly visible in these pictures.  Again, once the wood panels have been riveted to the aluminum rails, the curve should all but vanish.  Once I have bonded the ABS laminate to the plywood, I can begin the following tasks: measuring, marking, and drilling out the holes for the rivets along the aluminum rails, marking and cutting out the spaces that the recessed handles and latches will be set, and start riveting everything together.  

Now imagine a hard foam padding on the bottom

As of this evening, the construct is technically functioning as a case, as I took some of my drum stands, and placed them inside the walls of the box.  It's already doing what it's supposed to!

It's technically a case at this very moment

Now that I have seen the interior space of the case, I'm seriously considering inserting a divider wall to break up the inside into two separate compartments; one for the bases of the stands, and the other for cymbal boom arms.  Obviously, the section for the boom arms would be significantly smaller than the main chamber, which will hold the larger, heavier pieces.  I haven't completely decided yet.  Doing so would require ordering another special extrusion piece, which is designed to hold dividers in place and secure them firmly to the case walls.  This of course costs more money, and I'm going to be just squeezing this endeavor under budget if I do end up getting foam to line the bottom with.

Another thing I'm debating on is whether or not I will spray paint the interior of the case black, or leave it as the unfinished wood.  While I will likely put polyethylene foam on the bottom of the case to support the stands and protect the bottom, I am probably not going to line the case walls with foam.  

Since I won't be working on this project for the next few days, chances are good that I won't be updating the blog until I resume construction.  When next I post, I will be in possession of the last few components I need, and should ideally have everything finished up within a week to two weeks at the most!