Building a custom lightweight portable suitcase

sinedied · 2022-07-17T19:29:42.264Z

After finishing my full studio case, I realized that I wanted something more compact and lightweight as a focus setup, to take with me on the couch, bed, etc.

Initially I though of using only a tray to take on 1 or 2 synth at a time, but ended up wanting something more “safe”, so a full suitcase with a lid that I could remove.

As it turned out, a case that is compact , lightweight and with a removable lid doesn’t really exist on the market yet, at least not with my criteria: 38x26x7cm internal space to fit a lot of my synth combinations, ideally less than 1kg and no more than 10cm height.

So I decided to build my own, but TL;DR; it was way more work than what I imagined

I used 5mm plywood as the base material, sturdy enough for my needs and extremely lightweight:

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First mistake: turns out plywood is extremely difficult to cut cleanly without the appropriate tools (which I didn’t have). Second (dumb) mistake: 5mm is too thin to be able to screw inside the panels, I had to search hard for 5mm length screws that would not end up piercing the wood when putting the holding metal plates. Would definitely use 8mm next time for a simpler build!

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To try to make a better finish and make the boxes a bit sturdier, I added some wood paste in all corners and holes. This was a pain in the a** to sand manually!

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Then instead of regular paint, I used a distemper paint. It’s softer to the hand and smell nice, but had to put 4 layers to cover the wood paste properly.

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After that, I used 2 layers of 2mm foam sheets to cover the interior and hide the screws/holding plates:

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Then, I added the detachable hinges, an “eggbox” shaped foam in the lid and a layer of foam on the lid border.

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My idea was that the bottom box could be used placed on top of the lid to save space:

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Last touch, I added metal corners and small transparent anti-slip pads and tada!

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It was mostly built for in-house usage, but I’m considering using it for my vacation setup.

What do you think of my build? Do you have any tips or material suggestions, should I build another case in the future (don’t tell my wife I ever mentioned that ) ?

bodymechanics · 2022-07-17T19:39:44.028Z

Nice work!
I love seeing DIY cases, I’ve built a few but am always wanting to build another with minor tweaks.
The first one never got the patch bay, I didn;t calculate for enough room

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The latest one has yet to be made, my rig has undergone some minor changes, but eventually I’ll dig in.

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sinedied · 2022-07-17T21:15:45.189Z

Wow, that’s another level of case! The big 3 mk1 all aligned look very nice