https://imgur.com/gallery/VM5EqVl
I got back into school (yay!), which means I'll probably be moving halfway across the country. So I decided I needed a flight case, since I'll probably be living a more mobile lifestyle for the next few years. I could buy one, but, that's no fun, and I've never seen one that's made like mine to accept racks like this. So I'm going to list off the specs, do a bit of cost analysis, then go into my design reasoning and finally some tips.
Specs:
-2x84hp using threaded inserts to accept tiptop rack ears and z rails
-2x removable (velcro) 4ms bus sticks
-3/4" baltic birch plywood, latches, handle, feet on bottom and skids on back, metal corners on edges, reclaimed deck wood on the dark wood parts. All glue, with the only screws being those to attach the dark wood bits.
-Finish: General Finishes Milk Paint, Basil color, or stained and poly'd wood on the inside.
-weight: a lot. This won't be breaking anytime soon, and it doesn't wiggle when patching or wiggling.
Cost ($) as if everything bought new right now
- 2x 84hp z rails = 80, 2x rack ears = 40
-2x 4ms bus sticks = 80, row power 35 = 145
-case hardware ~ 50 bucks in corners, feet, latches, handles etc.
-wood 75 bucks or a 5'x5' sheet. Note I also made the table it's sitting on out of that piece of wood.
-Paint was like 25 bucks, and I had other wood finish stuff but let's call that like 40 bucks if you had nothing by way of finishing
-Tools: I have tools, and this cost will vary a ton so it's hard to put a number to it.
-Time: actual hands on time is probably somewhere less than or equal to 20h.
So total we're looking at like like 510 dollars ish if you bought everything new right now, but note that I also got a table out of this deal.If you subtract power out it's cheaper, obviously, but I believe you need power to run the rack so...
Design reasoning
The case accepts rack mount racks, rather than just having the rails screwed onto the inside of it. The bus sticks are also attached to wood, which has velcro on it. So this lets you build outside the case, then just drop the entire assembly into the case. The racks are held in by threaded inserts and machine screws, so you can just take them on and off as you'd like without stripping any holes. To me, this is substantially easier than trying to mess with all this power crap while everything is in the case. And if for any reason I just need to take the whole thing out, I can. One could even interchange racks this way, if you had a large setup and wanted to just travel with two sections.
Otherwise, it's pretty standard flight case stuff. You can put the lid on while it's patched, though it does press on the cables a little bit. It's got feet, corners, a tough built and is easily refinished with a commercially available paint. The handle and latches are solid hardware, the handle being rated for like 75 pounds.
I intentionally left gaps between the middle and top and bottom, so some airflow can occur. I assume hot air will leave the top and cold will go in the bottom. I can't see it developing heat issues but if it does I can always add a vent at the bottom.
Stuff I learned
-Design around your level of precision and accuracy available. Don't try to make a part of 1/64" tolerance if there's zero chance you can do that. I already knew that, but some people get on the computer an design stuff to like micrometer tolerances then go out there with a hand saw and have at it.
-Measure actual, physical parts. Computer stuff is great, but don't start building until you have your rack stuff ready to test fit and measure with. Imagine if you went through all this effort only to find it's 5mm too narrow to accept a rack.
-Errors propagate/grow with the length of your cut. I needed 4 pieces x" tall. So I figured I'd just cut one long piece that was like 50" by x" so all pieces will be x" tall. Well, what really happened is my guide was off by some small angle, so by the end of the cut the pieces are like x + 1/16" or so. It'd actually have been better to make more shorter cuts where I can assure the angle of my guide was perpendicular to the reference such that my cut will have a high degree of straightness over the length of it. When trying to make a box, that extra bit makes nothing fit right. Easily fixed with a belt sander, but, probably would have been avoided if I made shorter cuts.
-Make a box then cut it in half. I saw this on the internet somewhere, and prior to reading that I was going to try to make two halves. In retrospect, I can't imagine any good reason to do this in two halves. I cut the box in half with a jigsaw, cleaned up the cut with a belt sander and the two halves mate well, no tongue and groove or other joints needed.
-You can do this with a circular saw, straight edge, belt sander and jigsaw. Maybe you could cut the box with the circ saw but that seems dangerous. If you use a lot of screws you could get by without the belt sander lol.
-Also, you can do this. It's just a box. People have been making boxes for a loooooong time.
-It's not exactly cheaper than buying one. If you don't need a flight case, there's a lot of nice cases out there that are like 2x 84hp or whatever. You probably save more buy going bigger too. If I built a 4x104hp or something, I'd probably not spend much more in wood and stuff, whereas buying such a case would be very expensive. I think a flight case like this would still be more than I've spent, but not that much more. I like making stuff though.
-I see why cases are the price they are. It's a lot of work. People who actually do this for profit have probably thousands of dollars in tools, workshop stuff, clamps, finishes, glue etc. They've probably spent a lot of time making jigs and guides to streamline their process and reduce errors.
[link] [comments]