the DIY cases thread!

[ersatzplanet]

I wonder if the position of the hinges is ideal as depicted.
Shouldn‘t the hinge axis be aligned with the gap?

When I us those types of hinges, I put the alignment to of the cross bar to the gap. I think it opens easier.

[Yodhan]

Got some finish on the case and got the rails mounted permanently. I should have it mostly full this weekend. I have a couple diy modules I’ll be putting in there that I need to finish up. Overall I am pretty darn happy with it. Next up will be redoing my big case. I want to give it more of a contour and make it look better. That light wait until spring because my garage is not heated and working out there for much more than an hour is pretty rough in the great where north.

[colb]

I've bought some rails and ordered a low end brick/module type power supply. The intention is a simple skiff with a slightly angled top as a control skiff.
My plan is to install some panel blanks between the rails in order to ensure the proper spacing. But I figured I would ask in case this is a bad idea, or there are better ways to ensure correct rail spacing. I have some old 10mm ply to cut up for the main box and will probably use dowels and glue to make the joints simple and relatively secure.

So any tips, tricks and particularly gotchas when building a basic skiff type case?

Any additional thoughts or ideas about the simplest way to make a lid for a skiff - how to get it to align correctly and stay in place, fasteners etc?

I have hand saws, a plane, a drill, clamps and various other hand tools. I also have a router, but have never got around to using it, so I don't know if that would be useful or not?

[MARK27]

You can buy side brackets that the rails screw into that have separate holes for mounting the whole thing into wood or other materials.

I usually buy mine from Modular Synth Lab, but there are lots of people that make them. I usually buy from MSL because they typically carry black brackets, while most are just naked (or coated) aluminum.

[stk]

Built this a few months ago, with some help from my stepdad, who has a great workshop.
My first attempt at woodworking. Looking forward to building another for my larger (mostly) Make Noise rig.

[Repstegen]

Just finished this 6U 84HP case based on the Doepfer A-100 kit.
Made with oak (120mm deep) that i stained.

Im happy with the way it turned out. Looking forward to building a bigger one (which we all know will happen sooner than i think)

[colb]

You can buy side brackets that the rails screw into that have separate holes for mounting the whole thing into wood or other materials.

I usually buy mine from Modular Synth Lab, but there are lots of people that make them. I usually buy from MSL because they typically carry black brackets, while most are just naked (or coated) aluminum.

Thanks. I've seen those brackets. Trying to minimise costs though - also now that I have rails, I would have to be sure that any brackets were the correct ones for those rails...

I guess I will have to take loads of measurements tripple check all the calculations, and super concentrate when drilling those pilot holes . Was hoping for some clever tips'n'tricks to protect me from general inexperience with having to locate holes perfectly in wood.

[EASYBOY]

Just finished this 6U 84HP case based on the Doepfer A-100 kit.
Made with oak (120mm deep) that i stained.

Im happy with the way it turned out. Looking forward to building a bigger one (which we all know will happen sooner than i think)

Beautiful

[muleskinner]

Thanks. I've seen those brackets. Trying to minimise costs though - also now that I have rails, I would have to be sure that any brackets were the correct ones for those rails...

Having built one case without the brackets and one with I would say - get the brackets! Well worth the cost (which is minimal compared to everything else in euro-land).

Of course, your woodworking skills may be better than mine (a pretty low bar tbh) but I'll never build a case without brackets again.

[Pelsea]

I guess I will have to take loads of measurements tripple check all the calculations, and super concentrate when drilling those pilot holes . Was hoping for some clever tips'n'tricks to protect me from general inexperience with having to locate holes perfectly in wood.

Tip 1: Use a drill press, not a hand drill. (If you must use a hand drill, mark and drill from the inside of the case.)
Tip 2: Use drills with proper tips for wood. (Brad point.)
Tip 3: Drill at medium speed, do not press hard.
Tip 4: Use the brackets!

[BlinkyLights]

Buy the brackets.

Vastly less hassle for very minimal cost.

[Cornerman]

Nice case Repstegen ! well done. And indeed you should just build a bigger one

[colb]

Thanks. I've seen those brackets. Trying to minimise costs though - also now that I have rails, I would have to be sure that any brackets were the correct ones for those rails...

Having built one case without the brackets and one with I would say - get the brackets! Well worth the cost (which is minimal compared to everything else in euro-land).

Of course, your woodworking skills may be better than mine (a pretty low bar tbh) but I'll never build a case without brackets again.

Did anything go wrong without the brackets, or did they just make it easier?

I guess I will have to take loads of measurements tripple check all the calculations, and super concentrate when drilling those pilot holes . Was hoping for some clever tips'n'tricks to protect me from general inexperience with having to locate holes perfectly in wood.

Tip 1: Use a drill press, not a hand drill. (If you must use a hand drill, mark and drill from the inside of the case.)
Tip 2: Use drills with proper tips for wood. (Brad point.)
Tip 3: Drill at medium speed, do not press hard.
Tip 4: Use the brackets!

All good advice, thanks. What if a person was stuck with hand tools and no brackets though - any tips/tricks/suggestions for that particular situation?

[inner_light]

Just wrapped up this case.Second one I have built.
Monorocket style with some old Gibson tolex I had laying around.
Some parts are a little wonky, but not too bad!
Modular Synth Lab power and synthrotek rails.
Just needs modules now!!

[Pelsea]

Did anything go wrong without the brackets, or did they just make it easier?

I guess I will have to take loads of measurements tripple check all the calculations, and super concentrate when drilling those pilot holes . Was hoping for some clever tips'n'tricks to protect me from general inexperience with having to locate holes perfectly in wood.

Tip 1: Use a drill press, not a hand drill. (If you must use a hand drill, mark and drill from the inside of the case.)
Tip 2: Use drills with proper tips for wood. (Brad point.)
Tip 3: Drill at medium speed, do not press hard.
Tip 4: Use the brackets!

All good advice, thanks. What if a person was stuck with hand tools and no brackets though - any tips/tricks/suggestions for that particular situation?

It's all about getting the case correctly dimensioned and perfectly square. A Master woodworker in a well equipped shop could do that with dovetails cut with a chisel, mere mortals have to resort to shortcuts.

• Consider building your case out of prefinished particle board shelving instead of the ubiquitous sheet plywood. It's easy to cut and has nice square edges, which are essential to this project.
• Use a guide when you cut the wood. When I cut with a jigsaw or Skilsaw, my guides are 1" iron or aluminum angle stock held with C-clamps. (Test on scrap wood to find the correct offset from the guide to the cut.) I guess you could do that with a handsaw, but it won't do the saw any good.
• Metal corner brackets can pull the box into shape. The triangular kind, not L brackets. Short blocks of 2x2 can be used instead, but check that they are actually square. Some woods warp with a twist.
• Drill the holes for rail mounts oversize to let the bolts find the rail ends. If your case wood is 1/2", this won't look too bad with round head bolts, but if the wood is thicker you may need washers.

Here's a case I built in a hurry recently, with no brackets:

It's not pretty from the side, because I had to munge out the mounting holes to get the rails right, but it does keep the modules off the floor. I used a jigsaw with guides to cut the wood.

[colb]

It's all about getting the case correctly dimensioned and perfectly square. A Master woodworker in a well equipped shop could do that with dovetails cut with a chisel, mere mortals have to resort to shortcuts.

• Consider building your case out of prefinished particle board shelving instead of the ubiquitous sheet plywood. It's easy to cut and has nice square edges, which are essential to this project.
• Use a guide when you cut the wood. When I cut with a jigsaw or Skilsaw, my guides are 1" iron or aluminum angle stock held with C-clamps. (Test on scrap wood to find the correct offset from the guide to the cut.) I guess you could do that with a handsaw, but it won't do the saw any good.
• Metal corner brackets can pull the box into shape. The triangular kind, not L brackets. Short blocks of 2x2 can be used instead, but check that they are actually square. Some woods warp with a twist.
• Drill the holes for rail mounts oversize to let the bolts find the rail ends. If your case wood is 1/2", this won't look too bad with round head bolts, but if the wood is thicker you may need washers.

That's a help thanks. I did wonder about drilling slightly over sized and using washers, and it's good to have that confirmed. I also thought about corner brackets, but the ones I have lying around are the L-brackets. I do maybe have some plastic ones intended for small shelves. I'll check those out - should be good for squaring things up a bit, but won't provide a lot of structural strength. I think I also have a 90º picture frame clamp which might be usable - not sure...

In the past I have always sawn wood close to a mark, then used a hand plane to finish off, but I've been watching vids about using a router, and it looks like that might be useful for that task - and also to make both ends identical.

Thanks again, I think I have the info I need - just enough rope

[skinpop]

I'm building a 9u x 110hp case. I'm going to install a switching power supply(Trogotronic m15) and the total draw once the case is full should be roughly 2500 mA +12v and 1400 mA -12v. I'm wondering whether I should put in some ventilation holes. The case is curved and has quite a bit of space in the back so it isn't super tight or cramped.

[noisewreck]

I'm building a 9u x 110hp case. I'm going to install a switching power supply(Trogotronic m15) and the total draw once the case is full should be roughly 2500 mA +12v and 1400 mA -12v. I'm wondering whether I should put in some ventilation holes. The case is curved and has quite a bit of space in the back so it isn't super tight or cramped.

You can never go wrong with having some ventilation. Electrical consumption always generates some heat. I used aluminum mesh in some areas on my case.

[skinpop]

I'm mostly (irrationally) worried about bugs crawling in and nesting in my case. But some kind of mesh could be a good idea.

[Octognoma]

Hi all
I ended up buying a set of rails and brackets at the very start of lockdown in the U.K.
Sort of happy with what came out of it, absolutely the cheapest wood I could find, but stained and waxed.
It has not come out absolutely straight , so will be cutting everything on a ban saw next time rather than by hand.
The only thing I’m not keen on is these brass screws, looking at some others builds on this thread I think rivets are the way to go, and have access to a air powered rivet gun. But would need the correct depth.
For the meanwhile this has replaced my pellicase, which although is great, is a little oversized and bulky. I have chucked all my sequencers, samplers and modulation into this skiff along with a doepfer a180-9 multicore , which has cut out so much cable mess!

[ersatzplanet]

I'm building a 9u x 110hp case. I'm going to install a switching power supply(Trogotronic m15) and the total draw once the case is full should be roughly 2500 mA +12v and 1400 mA -12v. I'm wondering whether I should put in some ventilation holes. The case is curved and has quite a bit of space in the back so it isn't super tight or cramped.

You can never go wrong with having some ventilation. Electrical consumption always generates some heat. I used aluminum mesh in some areas on my case.

Onlinemetals.com sells perforated aluminum sheets, cut to the size you want, in a bunch of different hole sizes and thicknesses. I used them in these aluminum skiffs made with metal angle pieces and bars from them -

[revtor]

You can buy side brackets that the rails screw into that have separate holes for mounting the whole thing into wood or other materials.

I usually buy mine from Modular Synth Lab, but there are lots of people that make them. I usually buy from MSL because they typically carry black brackets, while most are just naked (or coated) aluminum.

Thanks. I've seen those brackets. Trying to minimise costs though - also now that I have rails, I would have to be sure that any brackets were the correct ones for those rails...

I guess I will have to take loads of measurements tripple check all the calculations, and super concentrate when drilling those pilot holes . Was hoping for some clever tips'n'tricks to protect me from general inexperience with having to locate holes perfectly in wood.

Colb, use a fine tipped pen to put the marks on the wood. (Run the pen inside the holes in the side brackets)
Then! “Center punch” the center of the hole with a sharp nail by hand. Just push the nail in right in the center of your little pen circle. You can eyeball it and if the nail is sharp (rub it on a cinderblock wall a bunch to sharpen it!) you should be able to by hand make a nice divot in the wood right where you want it. Your pilot drill will follow that divot and you’re on your way. For screwing into wood, all you really need is a pilot hole if you use too big of a hole the screws will not be able to grab much and you will probably stripped them by overtightening. Keep the hole small.
Overall, a tiny misalignment of the brackets will neither be noticeable nor make a difference. Don’t get too anal about it just focus and do your best job.
Steve

[bdkauff]

Hello! First post ever

I'm in the process of planning my first Eurorack case, in a cheap Pelican-style case that I found on Craigslist. Due to the case being 19.5" wide, and after having found Vector rails in that exact size (part # TS195), I've decided to fix the rails directly to the case. I'm going to use Synthrotek brackets as a guide for hole-drilling. It'll be 7U Intellijel-style.

One detail I'm still a little unsure about is what screws to use for screwing the Vector rails into the case. Synthrotek's guide uses 10-24 1", but I have M5 8mm jotted down in my notes (can't remember where I got that from) and perhaps the Synthrotek stuff isn't Vector(?) Anyone have any advice on what would work for Vector rails specifically?

Thanks for any help!

[noisewreck]

Hello! First post ever

I'm in the process of planning my first Eurorack case, in a cheap Pelican-style case that I found on Craigslist. Due to the case being 19.5" wide, and after having found Vector rails in that exact size (part # TS195), I've decided to fix the rails directly to the case. I'm going to use Synthrotek brackets as a guide for hole-drilling. It'll be 7U Intellijel-style.

One detail I'm still a little unsure about is what screws to use for screwing the Vector rails into the case. Synthrotek's guide uses 10-24 1", but I have M5 8mm jotted down in my notes (can't remember where I got that from) and perhaps the Synthrotek stuff isn't Vector(?) Anyone have any advice on what would work for Vector rails specifically?

Thanks for any help!

Don’t use Synthrotek brackets. They’re made for different rails (those with lips). Use PulpLogic’s. They’re specifically made for Vector rails.

[bdkauff]

Hmm. It specifically says on the Synthrotek website that the brackets work with Vector rails. Have you tried this combo and found it didn't work?

Edit: I've reached out to Synthro, too, I'll report back.