Anatomy of a Case

Now that our audio shows are becoming few and far between due to the season, Rob has started to take case orders again. One of the most difficult parts of building a case is finding uninterrupted time to do it. Everything about the construction of a case has to be very precise because even a simple error can cost upwards of $100 (or more). Now, I've admitted I can't cook, but if anyone needs to know how to build an ATA flight case, I'm your woman. I've watched Rob build hundreds of these and on many, many, many of them, I've been Rosie the Riveter. I also paint caster plates, drill and rivet handles and locks, as well as man-handle chop saws and drill presses. Maybe it's nothing to be proud of, but I kind of am. :)

(Day 1 of 3) Rob always tries to get the most out of the case material so he draws up plans not only for the measurements but to see how many cuts he can get out of each sheet of ABS with the least amount of scrap. These measurements are for 2 plasma cases that need to be built and on a truck in a few days:

After the plans are drawn up, he cuts the pieces on the table saw. My job here is to quickly remove the cut pieces, sending the ones that need another cut back to Rob and stacking the others in like piles.

I always bug Rob about double and triple checking his measurements, but he's usually quite accurate on the first try.

He has several different templates that he made way-back-when that he uses to route out handles and locks. This is a template for the large locks that this case requires:

These cases will each have 4 large locks and 4 large handles.

This is the template for the handles:

The cutting and routing took about 2 hours.

(Day 2 of 3) After the pieces are cut and routed, more measurements are taken and all of the extrusion is cut that will hold the cases together. The extrusion is glued onto each piece and the pieces slide right together:

The corners are drilled and riveted on and the cases are set aside for another day. This will be one case- a base and a lid:

Lucy loves the table saw. She follows Rob around the shop and is curious about everything he does.

Rob enjoys having company when he works.

(Day 3 of 3) Now the fun really begins. After the handles, corners and locks are drilled and riveted, carpet has to be cut to cover the insides of both the base and the lid as well as two dividers per case. (28 sections of carpet). I help with the cutting and then tape off the cases so the glue doesn't get on the extrusion:

Meanwhile, we paint the caster plates and install the casters on the 2 base pieces.

We use a very stinky, toxic glue to hold the carpet so it cannot come loose no matter how much the case gets tossed around and abused.

It's nasty stuff:

Each case is taped off and ready to be sprayed:

This is the time when I hand Rob a face mask and I vacate the room closing several sets of doors behind me. . .

. . . and hang out with the kids for awhile. Yes, this is a case that Gloria is pretending to sleep in:

The kids love it when Rob puts them in this case and spins it until they want to throw up. (Please don't call CPS, they beg for this!)

It's highly amusing.

This case offers hours of amusement!!

Gluing in the carpet is one of the longest parts of the process. These cases have to be delivered by 10:00 tomorrow, so it's going to be a late night. Zach and I play PS2 while Gloria uses up all my camera memory and my batteries.

She even snuck in and took a picture of Rob spraying glue!! I hope she held her breath!

Emma's expression says what we're all feeling:

The dividers are finally cut and carpeted. On to the foam:

In order to give the equipment the best protection possible, lots of foam pieces have to be cut to specific shapes and sizes:

I lost track of what's what and what goes where early on in the process. Luckily, Rob totally knows what he's doing (even at 3 a.m.):

Before gluing anything down, we put the plasma in the case with the foam squares in place to make sure it fits snug, but not too snug.

Come to find out, our 2" foam from the factory is closer to 2 1/8" wide and has to be shaved down a bit. Good thing we have a planer:

Once again, I tape off the case so Rob can spray the glue in exactly the right place:

More gluing for Rob, more leaving-the-room for me. . . The foam is glued into place and we carefully lower the monitor in. It's a perfect fit.

The lid is a mirror image of the base, so it slides on perfectly, too.

The finishing touch is to add a Committed Casework's label so more people can order more cases. This label (and word-of-mouth) has been our only form of advertising over the years.

We finished the cases at about 5:30 a.m and headed for home. The kids had fallen asleep snuggled on the couch sometime between 1 and 2 and dropped right back to sleep when we got home. As I was helping Zach into the house at 6 a.m., we had to acknowledge that many of his friends were just getting up to go to school. We really do have a crazy life. I wouldn't trade it with anyone, though.