Guitar Flightcase Design

[Pieter-Jan Drouillon]

Hi all

I am new to SMC and an enthousiast guitar player. I am also in my second year woodworking. As an assigment we have to design something and build it.

I choose a guitar flightcase and since I couldn't find an example in that direction, I made a construction in SketchUp as an exercise. The upper part is a cabinet that contains my amplifier, the lower part is a drawer for cables, screwdriver, strings, and some other tools.

I am also looking for some tricks to easily draw joints, such as peg-hole joint.

My teacher hasn't seen it yet, so there will be some changes. If you want the latest version feel free to send a pm.

Feedback would be nice, since this is a first try at sketchup.

Cheers
Pieter-Jan, Belgium

[Dave Richards]

Pieter-Jan, welcome to the Creek. I hope you'll enjoy it here.

I looked at your model and it looks pretty good. I did make a few changes, mainly by converting the case parts and drawer parts to separate components. Notice between that and purging some unused colors from the In Model materials browser, the file size is now about half of what it was before.

As far as drawing joinery, it is really just a matter of laying out what you need as if you were doing it on the wood. Use Guides, the new term in SU6 for Construction Geometry to do the layout. Think of Guides as pencil lines or marking knife lines on your wood. Trace the Guides to delineate the waste and then either erase or Push/Pull as needed to eliminate the waste.

Will your flightcase have lifting handles on the sides or on the top? If on the top, you might consider reversing the joint between sides and top. In any case I would consider reversing the joint for the bottom. If you are using solid wood, you might use sliding dovetails to hold the shelf in place as this will add a great deal of strength and keep the sides from trying to bow apart.

Would you actually fly with this case or is that just a term for the sort of case you're making? If you will travel with it, I would do something about the drawer. Maybe add a door over it or make the drawer front overlap the edges of the case. I think you need something to prevent the contents from going on hoilday without you.

Do the front and back panels come off or are they hinged? If they come off, you might consider a rabbet on the inside faces that fits inside the case. If fitted tightly enough, they would add some strength to help prevent the case from racking.

Of course you know that you are now required to make and post photos of the construction and completion of your case because we'll all want to see it. If you don't take pictures, Tyler, the chief of the Picture Police will put you on double secret probation (Or something like that. He might have invented a new term for it.) And there are others who will tell you, "No pictures, it didn't happen."

[Steven Wilson]

Pieter, I don't have sketchup so I can't view your design. But part of building a flight case is to use the appropriate hardware. One of the suppliers to the flight case industry is Reliable Hardware Company. They have a web site and you should check them out. Their catalog contians the necessary engineering measurements you'll need for handles, latches, corners, etc. They also have sheets of ABS plastic that is typically used for the outside of the case. I use to make flight cases back when I was playing and I would typically use baltic birch plywood finger jointed for the case corners with ABS plastic laminated on the outside. All corners and edges would be treated with aluminum angle (and corner hardware) rivited to the case. Pretty bullet proof construnction. I had my Alembic Series I bass fall off a baggage train and run over by another baggage train with no damage - case was worth it.

[Pieter-Jan Drouillon]

Pieter-Jan, welcome to the Creek. I hope you'll enjoy it here.

I looked at your model and it looks pretty good. I did make a few changes, mainly by converting the case parts and drawer parts to separate components. Notice between that and purging some unused colors from the In Model materials browser, the file size is now about half of what it was before.

As far as drawing joinery, it is really just a matter of laying out what you need as if you were doing it on the wood. Use Guides, the new term in SU6 for Construction Geometry to do the layout. Think of Guides as pencil lines or marking knife lines on your wood. Trace the Guides to delineate the waste and then either erase or Push/Pull as needed to eliminate the waste.

Thanks for the tips and the changes!

Will your flightcase have lifting handles on the sides or on the top? If on the top, you might consider reversing the joint between sides and top. In any case I would consider reversing the joint for the bottom. If you are using solid wood, you might use sliding dovetails to hold the shelf in place as this will add a great deal of strength and keep the sides from trying to bow apart.

Would you actually fly with this case or is that just a term for the sort of case you're making? If you will travel with it, I would do something about the drawer. Maybe add a door over it or make the drawer front overlap the edges of the case. I think you need something to prevent the contents from going on hoilday without you.

Do the front and back panels come off or are they hinged? If they come off, you might consider a rabbet on the inside faces that fits inside the case. If fitted tightly enough, they would add some strength to help prevent the case from racking.

The case would have handles on the sides. I will not use solid wood, but multiplex (I don't know if this in the right English word). For the drawer, I should add a lock in the middle to prevent losing the content.

It is just a term for the case. I am not a professional musician so I don't have to travel that far. It is just to transport it easily from the car to the building without breacking my back.

The front and rear panel would not come of, I would cut the upper part and use latches to hold them together, just as a professional flightcase.

Of course you know that you are now required to make and post photos of the construction and completion of your case because we'll all want to see it. If you don't take pictures, Tyler, the chief of the Picture Police will put you on double secret probation (Or something like that. He might have invented a new term for it.) And there are others who will tell you, "No pictures, it didn't happen."

I certainly would not want Tyler to hunt me down , so I will take pictures during construction and put them online.

Cheers
P-J

[Pieter-Jan Drouillon]

Pieter, I don't have sketchup so I can't view your design. But part of building a flight case is to use the appropriate hardware. One of the suppliers to the flight case industry is Reliable Hardware Company. They have a web site and you should check them out.

Hi Steven

I already knew this, but I didn't find the latches and corners in the Sketchup component library and I don't really want to lose time with this, as this is not as important as the case itself.

Nice website, although it is out of my travelling radius, as I live in Belgium (Europe) . It was very handy, I do now know the English term for 'vlinderslot'. It is Dutch, and literally translated it means 'Butterfly lock'.

I had my Alembic Series I bass fall off a baggage train and run over by another baggage train with no damage - case was worth it.

Well quite a solid case

Cheers
Pieter-Jan