Cases, Cases, Cases. . .

We (mostly Rob and Kurt) have churned out a lot of cases over the last couple of weeks. Even after almost 9 years (and several hundred cases!) I still find the process very interesting. We are almost finished with the big case order we took a few months ago for the Army Band with one more case and a few details to finish up out on the base in a couple of weeks.
My pictures really don't do the process justice but they show a little bit of what goes into the making of an ATA flight case.


This is a guitar pod:


These are the cases that protect the pods. . .

I already posted the pictures of the construction of these pretty cases but I didn't have a photo of the finished product. . .

The guitar player that will benefit from this case pointed out that the strap we custom ordered and riveted onto the case is the exact same color and material as the belt on his camo uniform! He was pretty happy with the whole thing!!

The pod cases went out early in the week and we got to work on the other 7 cases that had to go out the door on Wednesday morning. This is one of 4 amp racks - 2 for a customer and 2 for our second system:

The amp rack cases had already been cut out a couple of weeks before so they just had to be assembled and finished. . .

These are the lids to the 10 amp racks that will be built eventually. . . :

This rack is finished except for the caster plate. . .

. . . which has to be measured, cut and painted before being attached to the case:

This is a mace:

We've never built a case for a mace before but this one turned out pretty nice:

Most cases, including the mace case, have to be custom foamed to protect the gear inside:

This case is for a bass drum. It was almost finished last week but it still needed the custom foam work to protect the drum:

It's a BIG drum!


Measuring is so crucial to this process and one little mistake can cost time AND money:

This next case is one of the most interesting cases we've ever built. It will house and protect this lovely marimba:

The pieces all had to be carefully measured, cut and routed. . .

The extrusion had to be measured, cut, snapped apart and fitted onto each section. . .

This type of case construction is called a "clam shell":

Lucy likes to "help" build the cases. . .

It takes awhile to put in this many locks and handles. . .

. . . especially when you have so much "help". . .

It was definitely a two person job. . .

The caster plate is the length of 1 sheet of plywood plus about a foot of a second sheet:

After the case was assembled, it was divided into it's three separate parts so it could be carpeted. . .

Measuring and cutting carpet is a long, tedious process. . .

. . . The glue is REALLY potent and stinky. . .

. . . But it looks really nice when it's done right. . . :

Meanwhile, the racks also had to be finished. . .

They turned out just beautifully. . . :

All of the cases were scheduled to be picked up on Wednesday mid-morning. . .

It was kind of a relief when the first truck arrived to load them up. . .


. . . The only problem was the size of the truck. . .

. . . We solved that problem by putting the LARGE case inside the HUGE case so they would both fit in the truck. . .

In the past when Rob and I have had a morning deadline for a case order (or two) we've been up all night in order to finish them up. With Kurt's help, we actually got a little sleep and still sent both orders out on time. . .

After the customer cases were out the door, we started to prep for several upcoming shows. We now have our (existing) "white system". . .


. . . And our (new) "black system". . .

The black system had to be wired up to match the white system so the two systems can be used seperately, for small to medium shows and, together for larger shows. . .

All of this work was done Monday through Wednesday with late nights and early mornings. On Wednesday night, we loaded the truck for the 6 shows we would have in the next 3 days. Since I'm obviously writing all this in retrospect, we survived, but there were moments I thought I might not. . .

. . . to be continued. . .