Kamiel Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Hello, I'm planning on building my very own custom pedal-board and -case. I'm (loosely) basing my design on this pieces of German pro engineering: https://www.schmidtarray.com/ A friend of mine studies product-design and he was willing to help me make a solid-works design, of which I will include a picture. On the picture the top of the case is rendered as glass just to make the image a bit more clear but it will all be made of wood. The board has a small level plane in front for my loopswitcher, 2 tilted planes for my pedals with nice cable slots, a level plane on the right for my VariPhase expression pedal. The tilted planes will have hinges to make the space beneath them accessible. Outer dimensions will be 674mm x 424mm x 184mm. All wood will be 12mm (hardwood)multiplex. I'm putting quite some plugs in the side of the case: 1 power connection on the left, and on the right I will build my own 'patchbay: 1 bass input, 2 amp outputs, a connection for the channel-switch of my amp, and a XLR out because I'm planning on putting a nice DI inside so I have my own choice of DI when playing live. All these connections will be a plug on the outside soldered to a plug on the inside so I can just use a patch-cable in the belly of my case instead of having to plug my bass directly into a pedal. This way when I'm gigging it's just plugging some cables in the side of the case and rockin' away. Progress right now: - Design is made - Jack-connections etc. are on the way - Extra cables are on the way - I finally found a decent website for 'flight-case-supplies', so I can order ball-corners (is this the right English word for that?), detachable hinges, a lock and some handles. What I still need to decide (and input on this is really appreciated): - Is 12mm (hardwood)multiplex the right choice of wood? - Handles: I'm thinking about one in the front on the lid of the case and two on either side on the bottom of the case. Not really sure though. - I can have the wood cnc'd and have it perfect, or I can do it myself with the help of a friend of mine who is a bit of a woodworker. Pro's for cnc are the quality, pro's for doing it myself/with a friend are the lesser cost and the pleasure/satisfaction of building it myself. It might be a week or two before I decide on the latter matter because I'm having exams and I'll have to wait for a reaction on the pricing of cnc'ing a some plate material... So until then, please give me all the input you can think of greetings from Belgium 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabag Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Interesting build - makes a change from basses. Carry on - we'll be watching Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 Very interesting. I think 12mm ply would be more than stable enough. You could maybe get away with thinner - or it might end up weighing a ton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamiel Posted January 19, 2019 Author Share Posted January 19, 2019 18 minutes ago, Norris said: Very interesting. I think 12mm ply would be more than stable enough. You could maybe get away with thinner - or it might end up weighing a ton Typical measurements I find for ply wood are 12mm or 8mm, I'm a bit afraid that that's quite a big step down. You think it would be sturdy enough? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 (edited) Great project. I'd go for CNC if you can afford it. You will still have some light manual fitting to do anyway. Unless you are confident that you can get all of your mounting points accurately aligned using manual skills, you risk having a finished article that you will be picking faults with. Looking down whilst playing and regretting the fact that there is a misalignment issue, no matter how small, will distract you. If you choose CNC, there is also the option of adding lightness to your cabinet by routing out material from the internal surfaces of your 12mm stock sheet where it does not contribute to the overall strength of the unit. Edited January 19, 2019 by SpondonBassed 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamiel Posted January 31, 2019 Author Share Posted January 31, 2019 I've got mail: Hinges, handles, ball-corner-pieces... arrived. Jack's etc. are ordered from Banzaimusic.com, anyone got experience with that website? I've got a payment confirmation 2 weeks ago but haven't heard from them since... Also I've decided to go with 8mm plywood, the construction is made strong enough so I'm pretty sure it will be alright that way, and I'm saving a lot of weight. A friend of a friend has a (self build) cnc-router that is big enough for all my pieces so that's the option I'm going with. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabag Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 On 19/01/2019 at 10:37, Kamiel said: That shape and the cover reminds me a bit of an old Thorens record deck. Very nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 Reminds me of a glove display cabinet in Field Bros Gentlemen's Outfitters. Sorry! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 Subscribed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamiel Posted February 2, 2019 Author Share Posted February 2, 2019 14 hours ago, Paul S said: Reminds me of a glove display cabinet in Field Bros Gentlemen's Outfitters. Sorry! The glass in the picture is just for clarity of design, in real life it will be just as woody as the rest, and as it all is going to be painted black, I think it will be oké 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamiel Posted February 8, 2019 Author Share Posted February 8, 2019 Final package delivery: Jack-plugs, XLR plug, some cable-management-stuff and a powercable. (Btw, not that it matters that much, but really positively surprised by the amount of packaging material used by banzaimusic.com, the box even seemed right for the amount of stuff that was in it, and not like 4 sizes to big ) Now I'm just waiting for my friend with a router to come back from his holiday and the real work can begin! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamiel Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 We have finally done some routing. All went quite well, except for some small tears here and there. Because of the routerbit being 8mm, the inner corners etc. have to be filed down to straight corners, which appears to be more work than expected, so we'll go on next week! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted February 23, 2019 Share Posted February 23, 2019 Keep us posted. Lots of pics. We like pics! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamiel Posted February 24, 2019 Author Share Posted February 24, 2019 Some mock-up pic's from the internal structures. Still some filing to do to make everything fit really well but it's going to right way! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 Some ideas, maybe: https://soulman.fi/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamiel Posted March 4, 2019 Author Share Posted March 4, 2019 (edited) Another small update: Everything is finally ready for glueing. The lid has been glued together already, the case itself is for next week or in to weeks. And a cool little extra thing: We used the cnc-router to engrave the logo of my band in the lid. I'm thinking I will paint the lid black, and then with a small brush or maybe some sort of sharpie I will make the inside of the engravings white. All holes for jack-plugs, xlr-plug and powerplug are ready as well, unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of that. Edited March 4, 2019 by Kamiel 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 Like the look of this very much 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stylon Pilson Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 Engraving your band's name in the lid? That's a bit like getting a tattoo on the commitment scale. Are you sure you're ready for that? I like your method of putting a sticker on your pedal with your preferred setting. What I tend to do is cut small yellow strips of electrical tape and put them on each knob pointing upwards - after I've found my desired setting, of course. Then, it's always really obvious if one of the knobs is off, because the yellow marker isn't pointing to 12 o'clock. S.P. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamiel Posted March 5, 2019 Author Share Posted March 5, 2019 (edited) On 05/03/2019 at 10:19, Stylon Pilson said: Engraving your band's name in the lid? That's a bit like getting a tattoo on the commitment scale. Are you sure you're ready for that? I like your method of putting a sticker on your pedal with your preferred setting. What I tend to do is cut small yellow strips of electrical tape and put them on each knob pointing upwards - after I've found my desired setting, of course. Then, it's always really obvious if one of the knobs is off, because the yellow marker isn't pointing to 12 o'clock. S.P. 1. Hehe, the engraving in the lid seems way less extreme on the commitment scale, that's kind of why I do it, cause I wouldn't get a tattoo with the bands name I think Worst case, if the band splits up and I don't want to see the name on the lid every day I can fill it up or something like that But to be honest, I can imagine the band splitting up but I can not imagine the band splitting up with me hating the rest of the guy's... 2. Thanks, I've tried some different things and right now I'm using a combo of some... First came the stickers you can see. Then I had a gig where I lost al my sound because of a cable running over my board and changing a knob, so I decided to put rubber washers under the volume related knobs. Then I discovered that with some deodorant 'magic marker' (I mean alcohol based markers, don't know if that's the right translation, English isn't my first language ) is easily removable. So now I also put little dots on the place where the knob should be, cause that's more easy to check than all those stickers... I must admit that your technique of just putting something at twelve o'clock is way more efficient if you have to check in a small amount of time! Thanks for the tip! Edited April 17, 2019 by Kamiel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamiel Posted April 17, 2019 Author Share Posted April 17, 2019 It has been quite some time and yet not a lot of progress. The lid has been glued together, but I need to glue the bottom part at my friend's 'workshop' because I don't have enough clamps etc. Unfortunately he has been very busy, as have I. I did find the time to paint the lid, and I attached the corners and the handle. Hopefully next weekend I can go and glue the rest of the board together so I can finish it 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rk7 Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 I made a similar pedal board some time ago, there is a link to the build diary on here somewhere. thank you please RK7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rk7 Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 There it is! Not sure if the pictures are still embedded though, which may mean the link is useless. RK7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamiel Posted April 18, 2019 Author Share Posted April 18, 2019 2 hours ago, rk7 said: There it is! Not sure if the pictures are still embedded though, which may mean the link is useless. RK7 Indeed no pictures, but thanks for the effort anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rk7 Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 I'll take some more pictures and post them. My board was a shameless copy of a Salvage Customs item, although it remains unused to this day. I enjoyed the build though! RK7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamiel Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 Finally had the time for the final glueing. If I can find some time for painting and assembling next week it should almost be done! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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