Progress!

Friday afternoon my aluminum extrusions and hardware from DIY Road Cases arrived!

4 Double-Angle Extrusions, 3 Hybrid Tongue & Groove rails, 300 rivets and 200 washers

When I got off work, we headed over to Home Depot to pick up my manual rivet gun that had been delivered, as well as a 3/4" piece of wood to use for the caster boards that the casters will be bolted onto, and then attached to the bottom of the case.

Hand riveter

I also picked up some Rust-Oleum matte black to paint the caster boards.  Once I got back home, even though it was already dark out, I set up the mitre box and cut the caster boards down to size, and cut angles off the outside corners of the boards.  The angled corners will sit up against the ball corners of the case once mounted.

Making cuts for the caster board

It didn't take long to finish up the two caster boards.

Finished caster boards

All that is left to do with the caster boards is sand down the sides, and then drill out holes for T-nuts to be sunk into them (which the casters bolt into), and then paint them black.  I'll hafta wait until next week when I pick up the casters before I can drill out the holes.  I can sand them down in the meantime, but for now, these are on hold.

As it was dark and getting colder out, I stowed everything away into the garage and went in to make some dinner.  But before I closed up shop, I couldn't resist sliding one of the panels into the rails to see how it all looked.

Rails attached to the panel

This afternoon, I mounted the mitre box onto a board to help me better clamp it down to my work table.

New mitre box assembly

After I was done with that, I finished cutting up the rest of the second half of the panel into smaller pieces.  All six major sides are now cut: front, back, top, bottom, and the two sides.

Since I bought the CDX grade of plywood, it means it is unfinished, and I need to spend time sanding down the better side of the panels to make them smooth enough to accept the adhesive to bond the ABS laminate to.

I started off with 100 grit sandpaper, and moved onto 220 grit to get it ultra smooth.

Finally got to break in the sander I bought nearly a year ago

Once sanding was done, I moved onto marking the first of the four aluminum rails with the necessary measurements.  The extrusions are gonna take a while to cut, and doing so makes an annoying enough noise that I'm gonna have to cut them inside the garage with the door closed in an effort to not make the neighbors hate me.

Measured and cut rail

A yellow jacket ended up making a temporary nest on my framing square, so I spent time working on another approach to correct the still nagging curve of my boards - clamping down every corner with the bends facing apart.  Hopefully sitting overnight with additional pressure will help straighten the panels out a bit more.  Once the rails are actually riveted onto the pieces, the bend should be fixed, but getting the boards to flatten out before then will greatly assist when it comes time to glue the ABS laminate down on them.

Give 'em the clamp!

At the end of a productive day, a tasty dinner awaits!

Annie's Mac is simply the best

I'ma Cut You Foo!

DIY Road Case Instructional DVD

It arrived!  My bestest bud Craig ordered me the instructional DVD from the DIY Road Case web-store.

There are a number of free instructional video series available on YouTube that offer the basic information needed to begin crafting your own case, but they aren't quite as comprehensive as the educational suite offered by the DIY Road Case site.

The weather tonight was absolutely gorgeous, and my wife ended up going out to dinner with a friend, so I took the opportunity to begin cutting out some of the panels while I still had daylight.

Safety first!

Remember: before you ever begin working with any sort of power tool, safety is key!  Even though I wear eyeglasses and technically have sufficient eye protection, I still opted to wear plastic safety goggles anyways.  This helps prevent any debris from flying at my eyes and causing any injuries.

While the jig saw that I am using is only 4.5 AMP and doesn't make nearly as much noise as a full size rotary table saw, it's still a good idea to wear hearing protection.  I've done enough damage to my ears from attending multiple Rush shows sans ear plugs, which is something that any good concert-going fan should do to preserve their hearing, so I don't have any desire to cause further harm.  What good is building a road case for my drum hardware if I won't even be able to hear my own drums when I play them?

Work Area

Like I said in the previous post, our garage floor is unsuitable as a level work area.  This means I have to drag everything I am working on out onto the driveway.

Since I don't have a proper workbench at the moment, I'm using two 6 foot folding tables to support what I am working on.  After clamping down the panel, I marked out on the board where the shoe around the blade on my jig saw sits, and clamped down the aluminum guide that I am using as a cut rail for the saw.  This ensures that I will get a good, straight cut.

It took a few adjustments to get the cut all the way through the four foot width of the board.  The clamps I have had to be rotated a few times to allow clearance for the saw to pass.

The warp of the panel has posed a minor problem in keeping the piece flat while I cut.  The smaller panels have way less bend to them, but I will probably switch to using the ratcheting band clamps to strap the second large panel flush with the table the next time I make some cuts.

I made three cuts total; one down the middle of the board width-wise to more or less cut it in half, and two shorter cuts to separate the three pieces I needed - the top of the case, the bottom of the case, and the panel for the front of the case.  Two of the panels came out perfectly square; the third panel has a deviation of about 1/32" in width from one end to the other.  I don't think this will ultimately pose too large of a problem; the panels are being riveted to the aluminum extrusion rails, and do not need to sit perfectly against the rails the entire length of the case.  If I was making mitre cuts for the panels to join together, this deviation would be unacceptable, and I'd have to re-cut a new piece.

Three Little Panels

All told, it took me about an hour and half to get everything done, between setting up the tables, clamping my pieces down, drawing out the guide lines to cut, and making the cuts.  This first set of cuts taught me a number of lessons; namely how to better secure my pieces to the work surface and what the best angles of approach are for cutting into pieces.

Assuming the weather is good tomorrow evening, I will be back at it again - cutting the other three panels that I need: the back of the case, and the two sides.  Once those are done, the front, back, and two sides will be cut once more; three inches of material will be removed to make the side panels for the lid.

With any luck, my aluminum extrusions will arrive tomorrow and I'll be able to begin cutting the rails down to size to fit.

In transit!

Last night I got an e-mail from the folks at DIY Road Cases: my order had been picked up by UPS and I have a tracking number!  This morning when I checked, it says it is slated to be delivered tomorrow!  Woohoo!

The pieces I ordered from them are as follows:

• 3/8" Double-angle aluminum extrusion
• 3/8" Hybrid Tongue and Groove extrusion
• 300 rivets
• 200 washers
• 2 nylon lid stays

Double-angle extrusion

The double-angle extrusion, seen here, is what joins the panels of laminated plywood together at the corners.  The boards slide into the channels on the inside of the extrusion, and then are bolted together using pop-style rivets.  While they sell single angle extrusions that don't have the fancy channels for half the price, I went with the double-angle extrusions because they provide more strength for the case, and don't require me to mitre the edges of my panels to assemble the box.  It will cut down on the amount of time spent actually assembling the case itself.  No wood glue is needed to secure everything; just the rivets, which are drilled through both layers of the aluminum and the plywood.

Tongue and groove extrusion

This piece sits along the edge of the lid and the top of the case walls that will join with the lid.  It's unique in that it mates with itself; instead of needing to order two separate pieces that are a dedicated tongue and a dedicated groove, I can cut this one extrusion, flip one piece around 180°and they will sit perfectly together.

Unfortunately it was drizzling again last night, and I couldn't spend any time marking/cutting the plywood.  Since the floor of my garage is cracked and pitched (and therefore NOT level), all of my woodworking will need to be done out on the driveway, which is level.  Rain and power tools don't really seem to go well together, so I held off working on stuff.  Also, it was movie night, and my wife made a kickass awesome delicious dinner.

I did however go back out and re-measure my car trunk, and it turns out I actually have 1'6" of clearance.  This is important, because originally I was planning on buying 2" casters for my case, and while they would be sufficient to carry the combined weight of the case and the contents, when I went to Home Depot and saw some 2" casters firsthand, they seemed a bit small.  Part of the point of putting my case on wheels is that I can easily lift one end of the case up into my trunk, and to make it even easier, I think larger casters would work better.  Even when I add an extra 1/4" to the 1" height of my case (to account for any protruding from the extensions), and a 3/4" caster board bolted on, I still have four inches of clearance to safely play with as far as the case fitting in the space it needs to. 

(technically, I'd have 5", but I'm trying to keep at least an inch or more clearance between the top of the case, and the speakers in my trunk)

While the 3" casters are actually 3.75" in total height, I still have more than enough wiggle room to slap those on and make it still work.  The only drawback to using larger casters: they cost more.

I'm going back and forth as to what I ultimately will do.  While saving money is good, I'm already saving a ton by not having the majority of my hardware be shipped to me, and I'm still under budget on this project.  We'll see.  I have about a week to decide before I place my order for pickup on Monday April 1st.

I might possibly do a few cuts tonight, weather permitting of course.  It's supposed to be sunny and gorgeous this afternoon and evening, so if that's the case, I may take an hour or so after work to at least cut the 8x4 panel into two smaller, more manageable pieces.  The sooner I do this, the sooner I can begin sanding the surface of the smaller panels so that they will accept the ABS laminate better, and begin marking out the spots I'll need to cut out for the latches and handles.

Welcome!/Road Case Part 1

Greetings, and salutations!  This blog is intended to chronicle my progress as I work on building a number of different projects in my home-based woodshop.  I hope you will find enjoyment in reading about my many exploits as I construct various useful things and modern day solutions out of dead trees.

~  ~  ~  ~

EXPOSITION

Sixteen years ago, I took an interest in playing drums, and began studying and learning how to play properly, and hone what seems to be a rather natural skill of mine.  Flash forward to a couple years after that, when in 1999, I bought my first (and so far, only) drumkit.  She’s a 5-piece Yamaha Stage Custom in Cranberry Red finish.  Three floating toms (10”, 12”, and 16”) with a 22” kick drum, and multiple snare drums (myfave being a Pearl 3”x14” wood piccolo). Additionally, I have a number of cymbals:  14” Zildjian New Beat Hi-Hats, a 16” Zildjian A Custom Fast Crash, a 15” Zildjian Thin Crash, a 10” Zildjian A Custom Splash, a funky 10” off-brand Splash that sounds more like a larger Trash/China, and a 22” Sabian Paragon Ride cymbal.  The cymbals and the drums all require a comical amount of metal stands in order to be supported and positioned to my liking. Anything that isn’t a drum or a cymbal is referred to as hardware.

My Drumkit

 All of this stuff requires cases to be able to be transported. The drums themselves are in Road Runner soft cases, the cymbals are in a giant Zildjian cymbal bag, my snare is in a Humes & Berg case, and the stands have been shuffled around in a now ten year old Guitar Center soft bag.

When I bought the hardware bag ten years ago, it served its purpose well; storing my drum stands and keeping them safe from damage, while allowing me to (somewhat arduously) haul my gear around.

However, a decade’s worth of schlepping 82 pounds of metal stands around takes its toll, and my current bag is falling apart.  Since it’s not rigid or sturdy, lifting it up into the trunk of my car by myself is a rather burdensome annoyance.  In the past several years, I elected to throw a furniture dolly under the bag to help ease transport, but this obviously has done nothing to address the rapidly deteriorating nature of my bag.  At this point, there are several holes and tears in the fabric, and the plywood base at the bottom of the bag (which was originally sealed into a stitched pocket) has worked its way loose and occasionally slides out, meaning I have to empty out the entire contents of the bag in order to place the support back in.

Which brings us to about two years ago.  It was becoming painfully apparent that I was going to need to replace my current method of storing and transporting my stands.  However, I didn’t want to buy another fabric bag; it would just fail after ten more years or so (really, my current bag began to fall apart in five).  There are plastic hard shell cases, but generally I feel that these look ugly and/or are also not terribly sturdy.  Most of the less expensive cases aren’t all that well made, and tend to chip and crack after only a moderate amount of abuse.

This led meto seriously consider getting an Anvil ATA road/flight case to keep my stands in.  Anvil is one of the top manufacturers of road/flight cases.  Road/flightcases are built out of plywood panel walls that have an ABS laminate coating bonded to them, joined at the corners by aluminum extrusions (usually withridges along them), held together with rivets, and feature a combination of handles and latches.  They are tough,well built, and designed to withstand the rigors of being moved from place to place.  Throw some casters on the bottom, and even the heaviest of loads becomes far more manageable for a single individual attempting to push gear about. After contacting an Anvil rep and describing the nature of my needs (a custom sized case that needs to fit in the trunk of my Corolla), I was soon disheartened to learn that this avenue of solution would run me about six to seven hundred dollars – far more than the two hundred dollars I originally spent on my first hardware bag.

A little while later, after pouting at how my plans had been foiled, I began thinking to myself – I’ve been known to be handy with hand/power tools.  There is a coffee table in our office and a bookcase in our bedroom that are both projects I made in shop class my freshman year of high school.  It’s been a while since last I got all handsy in a woodshop, but I was betting that building a road case wouldn’t be that difficult a proposition.

The Googles proved me right.  Lo and behold, the first link that came up when I searched for “build your own road case” was for a company called DIY Road Cases, founded interestingly enough by another drummer years ago after he decided to make his own cases since Anvil cases were too expensive for him.  They offer all the parts, instructions and guidelines on how to construct a road case of your very own, and when I did a rough price estimate, I realized that making my own case would run me less than half the cost of purchasing a custom made case from Anvil. 

The only problem after that was money.  While this project would certainly net me a substantial amount of savings over buying a pre-made Anvil case, I didn’t have the capital to pursue this endeavor at the time.  I had to bide my time and wait.  When I become fixated on something, it nearly dominates my entire being. It’s fair to say that I have steadily become more than obsessed with this task over the past month or so.  As my wife says, it’s good to want things.

  

A rather generous amount of money was bestowed on me this past holiday season as a gift from my wife’s grandparents, and building a road case finally started to appear like something that I might actually have the ability to take on.  Before I began assembling anything, I spent a considerable amount of time measuring and re-measuring; the optimum size confines that my stands can fit in, and the amount of clearance I have in my car trunk (both for when the case sits on casters, and the diagonal clearance when loading the case in and out of my car). Finally, I arrived at a set of measurements that seemed ideal and would work perfectly: a case that is 3 feet long by 1.5 feet wide, and 1 foot tall (1’4” is the total space I have from trunk floor to the bottom of the speakers that hang from the rear deck of my car). The lid will be 3”, subtracted from the total height of 1 foot to give the actual container portion a height of 9”.

The past couple weeks have been spent gathering and collecting various tools and items that I will need for this project:

• A jigsaw
• Framing Square
• Mitre Box and saw
• Ratcheting band clamps
• Wood/metal files
• Rubber mallet

I already had in my possession a sander, screwdriver, and ratcheting bar clamps.  Throw in a few extra items such as a manual medium duty riveter (I don’t have an air compressor, otherwise I would have got a pneumatic one), and some essentials like carpenters pencils (which are flat, to prevent them from rolling off the table while you work), and I am getting closer to my dream.

Last Friday, I was finally able to source a piece of plywood to use for the case walls.  Since my cargo is slightly heavier and bulkier than ¼” thick walls can really support, I was advised by the folks at DIY Road Cases to step up to 3/8” thick wall panels.  The unfortunate thing is, hardly any hardware store carries any wood in 3/8” thickness. The closest I was able to get was 11/32”, which I was assured by DIY Road Cases would still work just fine with the double-angle corner extrusions I will be using.  I only found this after searching for a week and a half for 3/8" plywood - one lumber yard had some in stock, but it was too expensive for the budget I set for this project.  Lowes finally came through with some 11/32" triple-ply CDX, which I will need to sand on one side to provide a smooth enough surface for the ABS laminate to be bonded to.  I would have rather kept the weight of the case down by using thinner walls (as the drum hardware to go in it is already stupidly heavy), but I also would prefer that the case be able to withstand the nature of the cargo.

By Friday evening, I had an 8 foot by 4 foot 11/32” sheet of plywood sitting in my garage.  The only problem is, I had leaned the plywood up against a storage shed and a file cabinet, and discovered to my mild horror on Sunday when I went out to the garage to clean/organize asuitable workspace that the panel had warped in the interim.  I don’t know if you are aware, but plywood warps faster than the Starship Enterprise. The only ideal storage arrangement for plywood is for it to be lying on the ground, with loads of weight on top of it.

After our garage had enough space cleared, I took our two 6 foot hard folding tables, my drum hardware bag and dolly, and a number of other heavy items and distributed them at key points around the plywood pressed against the floor in an effort to help reduce the amount of curl that the board was exhibiting.  

Cut sheet for the road case

In the meantime, I have been carefully laying out my cut sheet for the panels, and getting ready to make the first several cuts. Those cuts were held off from this weekend in the interests of working on various cleaning projects around our house, and appeasing my wife (who hasbeen steadily tolerant of me obsessing about this).  Ideally I was going to begin carving up the panel into the various parts that will form the walls of my case tonight, but impending rain is threatening to delay me until at least tomorrow, or even Friday.  In lieu of actual cutting, I went out to my garage last night to begin marking out some of the cut lines, and flipped the panel over to apply weight to it in the opposite direction to help straighten the panel out further.

Yesterday I finally placed my order through DIY Road Cases for the aluminum extrusion framework pieces that will make up the corners of the case.  In addition, I ordered 300 rivets, and 200 backing washers that I will need to attach everything, as well as two nylon lid stays that will be used to help keep the lid in place when opening the case.  The rest of my components (latches, handles, ball corners, piano hinge, and casters) I am picking up from a shop called Reliable Hardware in North Hollywood (NoHo) the day after Easter, rather than having them shipped.  My wife and I had decided that we would be spending Easter weekend down in Los Angeles, and if I’m gonna be close enough to where most of my hardware will be coming from, there is no real need to have it shipped and spend any extra money that I otherwise don’t need to.

Other stuff that I still need to get:

• ¾” boards to use for caster boards
• Can of Rust-Oleum matte black spray paint (forthe caster boards)

Keep checking this blog for periodic updates.  In time I will include more pictures and illustrations as well to help better chronicle my progress.  The goal at this point is to have the case finished and in use by the end of April. 

Additionally, I will be using this blog to showcase and highlight other projects that I will be tackling in the coming months.  Next up on the workbench will be a corner linen pantry for the hallway outside our bathroom (since we have no linen closet in our house), and shelving/cabinets to install over the machines in our laundry room. After that, I might begin the custom desk unit I want to build for the home office.  Loads more coming soon!