Making a Lightweight Case

[Stuart Ablett]

I posted this in the Designs, Plans and Sketches forum, asking some questions about how to make it etc.

Anyway, I wanted to post it here, to show what I'm doing, and hopefully get some ideas and comments from some of you.

This case will be for lightweight aluminum training weapons, for a friend of the family. He needs some way to transport them around, without attracting the attention of the local police.

I want to make the case lightweight but strong, and durable.

I ended up using 4mm thick plywood and Ash on the corners and such.

I made a mock-up of the corner joint.....







I think this will be fairly solid and lightweight............

Cont.........

[Dave Richards]

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Maybe you should be making it in the shape of a cello case. That wouldn't attract the local gendarmes would it?

[Stuart Ablett]

..........

Dave Richards and Art came up with the idea of putting a cove on the inner corners of the box to dress things up..........


The cove on the horizontal pieces worked well.........


......on the vertical pieces,this was not going to work.
It was suggested that I try a stopped cove to match up with the other two coves at the corner, but I decided the that square piece looks fine....


I think this will be OK.

Now on to the glue ups, I want a nice tight joint, so I took as much care as I could in getting a nice fit, and then used lots of clamps, very nearly every clamp I own!!



ONe thing I've been made VERY aware of is that I need to work on my collection of clamps, I need some deep reach ones and some that open wider. I've taken steps to rectify the latter problem, with an Amazon purchase, but the deep reach ones are going to need some work.

Here is the problem.....



My clamps, ALL OF THEM have a throat that is too short to clamp this properly, so I had to make up some small blocks that help me clamp the joint.

It works but man, what a pain.......

I also round out, much to my chagrin, that the last 12" clamps I bought are just a hair too small for this job......



Man that was frustrating!!

Oh well, I'll get it done!

I'm also thinking of putting some ribs on the inside of the case...?

Cheers!

[Stuart Ablett]

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Maybe you should be making it in the shape of a cello case. That wouldn't attract the local gendarmes would it?

Actually, we looked at a guitar case, but the weapons he uses for training would not quite fit into the case.

I'm figuring those corner protectors on the corners, and even painting the outside black, but I'll leave that up to him.

Cheers!

[Dave Richards]

Looking good Stu.

I ran into the same problem you had with the throat depth on your clamps when I was building the cradle boat. In that case, because the planks are 1/8" thick pine, an clamps I could find with deep enough throats were also heavier. I ended up designing and making my own. I should probably take some pictures of them and post them.

[Stuart Ablett]

Hey, pics would be good!

[Steve Richards]

That wouldn't attract the local gendarmes would it?

It's not the gendarmes, it's the Yakuza.

Anyway, I'll be interested to see the final product also.

[Stuart Ablett]

Well the Yaks generally leave us Gaijin alone, as we will fight, and the Yaks are generally just bullies.

The local plod, on the other hand, often seem to delight at bothering us over the most inane things

Ah........... life in Japan

[Stuart Ablett]

..........and my wife says to me...........

"Waddya mean you need MORE CLAMPS..........??"



I have 4 LONG pipe clamps, 4 of them quick grip clamps and a spring clamp or two left, otherwise, that is ALL of my clamps in use.............

I think I'll be ordering those 500 clamps from Taiwan, I'll keep 30 or 40 for myself and sell the rest on Yahoo