2 tier pedalboard for looping

Started by Psychadelia, March 31, 2014, 12:19:40 AM

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Psychadelia

Hello to the friendly chaps at the forum!

After some in-depth review of my setup, I have come to a conclusion that I need to be able to have my pedals in a case for both performing where there may or may not be much floor space, and for speedy packup and lugging around. ;)

I have settled on a two tier design; RC-50 on the bottom and GT-10 on top, so I can have all pedals in front of me and easy to reach.

My question to you guys is, would it be worth taking these ideas to a local aluminium worker and getting them to craft me something, or perhaps should I hunt down some kind of existing case and modify it for my purposes?

Here is a quick sketch of what I aim to make;
thanks

sean_b

hi, if u are anyway handy you could knock this up urself. you would need a range of electric tools. you can get all the parts you require from penn elcom, google them. if you get the part drawings from their website you can extrude them in sketchup and make the case virtually b4 you do it for real. i make cases for a living and reckon, at a guess,that case would cost £80-120 in materials. thats for touring quality case. could make it cheaper if you use ply instead of hexaboard/diamond board.

regards
sean b

Psychadelia

You seem to be the right person to ask about this then... But have you ever made a case from metal?
I am probably the least qualified person on the planet to be building this kind of stuff, nor do I have the time for it between gigs, so what do you think of me taking some designs to a metal worker here in Australia and getting a more professional board? I would probably opt for a sturdier case since I do as many as 50 or 60 gigs in a year and maybe some busking on the side.

Thanks for your help sean_b

sean_b

dude, if you want a metal case you should take the design to a metal fabricator but i think its overkill tbh. i make cases for a PA/production hire company and they are all touring quality cases. my own cases for my gr55 and rc300 are made with 9mm thick timber walls. i dance on top of the cases to show how sturdy they are. you can get 13mm thick timber if you want it more robust. the timber i use is this kinda stuff, very good, almost bulletproof http://www.swanflight.com/flightcase-hardware-laminates/10mm-diamond-board.html

best thing you can do is make sure the case works for the pedals you have, you might want to future proof it as well. what i mean is oversize it incase you upgrade a unit to a bigger unit, dont know if rc300 is bigger than rc50.

make sure you allow for foam inside the case, this can be changed if you upgrade a unit.

i see you have made the unit in sketchup so i would take the pedals off the drawing, once all calculation/sizes have been made and print out various views of the case with as many dimensions shown on the drawings as possible. make sure to stipulate that the internal dims are crucial. get these drawings to a metal fabricator/flightcase manufacturer and anyone worth their salt will be able to make it. a rough guess at cost for me would be £250-300 sterling to build this type of case to give you an idea of cost. hope you get sorted dude and let us know the outcome and some pics ;-)

any probs just shout back,happy to help

Psychadelia

Thankyou so much for your help sean_b!
After some tweaking of the designs I adapted it into a more acheivable raodcase, like the ones you make.
I do have a few questions though, and I would be be forever in your debt if you could help me out...

1. Would 9mm laminated plywood be acceptable? I see you build with diamond board - I can't get it locally, but is there a reason you prefer it over plain old ply?

2. Do you use pot rivets (pop rivets) along with washers, or just rivets made for wood?

3. How much room do you leave for protective foam around your RC300/GR55 cases?

4. I found a DIY of a similar build... let me know what you think?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Flightcase-pedalboard-for-a-multifx-guitar-process/

5. Any thoughts on my design so far? I'm not sure if having the lid cut on an angle would be too difficult to fir the extrusions, I haven't seen many cases that aren't completelly square...

6. Are you getting sick of me yet?  ;) I seriously cannot thankyou enough!

sean_b

dude, if are getting someone to build it, it will no bother to a pro. if you are doing it yourself its gonna be tricky. with the angle it means you have a double cut angle. maybe you could come out straight/horizontal for a few inches at the top and bottom then angle. hope you know what i mean. i am using a friend comp here and dont have sketchup, i will post a drawing of what i mean.

penn elcom must be in aussieland for the pieces and they also do the hexaboard/dia board. you can use ply if you want but it donts have the same resin hard finish. use birch ply, its more expensive but super hard, paint it

i use regular pop rivets, i only use washers if the rivet is not closing on metal. for 9mm boxes i use 4.8 x 18mm they give plenty of grip.

for foam i use 10mm around the edges, so if unit is 400mm i make the box 423-425mm this allow 10mm either side and few mil to fit snug

your design looks grand, i take it the front hinges down for access. i have made a few irregular shaped cases b4, they do take more time but still very achievable

not sick of at all, glad to help. if you cant get anyone to build it why not pop a wee plane ticket in the post and i'll nip over and build it ;-)