I'm not having much luck with google today. Lee Valley's hardware catalog
seems a dead end.

I could rig something up, surely, but it would be easiest to replace the
original latches with similar parts. I have two old trumpets here with bad
cases. One of the cases (from '48) is fugly, and I'm not worried about
fixing it because I plan to build a new one. The other one (from '69) is
in good enough shape to send the boy off to school with it (as long as no
one in his class notices the gorgeous orange shag carpet lining it...
ugh!), but the latches that keep it closed are broken. Well, one of them
was broken. Now they've both been removed.

I mention the fact that there are two cases because by the look of it, the
parts are of an identical form factor (slightly different locking
mechanisms), even though the two trumpets are from different decades, and
different manufacturers. It looks like the rounded brass-plated steel edge
guards are identical too. These look like off-the-shelf parts from the age
before high-impact plastic (though curiously, the '69 case has a styrofoam
insert... did they have styrofoam in '69? I guess so... I ain't that
old. Sorry all you geezers.)

Anyway, anybody got a clue here? The more stout half of this is 1/2 plywood
with about a 2" long oval hole routed in it (with a 7/8" bit it looks like)
to accept the locking part. The other end just has a little spring loaded
flippy thing that engages with the locking bit, and the part where it
attaches is only about 3/8" thick. Hard to describe, innit?

If I can't come up with something for this, I'll have to come up with a
whole different plan. It's covered with mottled faux leather brown vinyl
stuff. The wood is too thin to do anything creative with, but I'm thinking
walnut might look OK against the vinyl. Maybe attach some kind of extra
mounting pad and use some other kind of hardware on it.

In the latter case, any good ideas (with URLs, preferably) for some kind of
non-OEM rig-something-up replacement hardware that would make for a good,
very secure, spill-free closure of an instrument case? Preferably with
some kind of locking mechanism. (My flute case was always flying open in
middle school. I don't know how many times I dropped that thing on the
stairs. It's no wonder I was 13th chair. I don't want the boy doing the
same to his trumpet.)

And finally on this subject...

That one case is seriously, seriously fugly. I have a dent bag... Um... A
gig bag I can use for the time being, but I want to build a new case for
that horn. I started off with some plywood I have on hand, and by the time
I cut out the parts, I had a 40 pound monstrosity. 3/4" oak ply with birch
faces. (Why birch on the outside, oak on the inside? I'll never know.)

It's too heavy, and it's too light too. Oak wouldn't be much better. What
Daddy really wants for his precious baby trumpet is something done up in
walnut and brass. Oooooh, ahhhhh.

I could use some joinery ideas. I'll never find boards wide enough, so I
figure start by gluing up 3" wide strips or such. Then I have six pieces
to make a box, more or less, but beyond that I'm not quite sure what to do.

I could actually use a gasp plan, I think. I don't want to get too fancy
(no dovetails or anything) but I want it strong and well-built.

I have a long time to think this one over, since I have a walnut budget of
$0 at the moment. Any nifty ideas?

What about hardwaring it up? One thought I have is to do simple double
rabbet or whatever joinery (two interlocked L shapes) and hide the end
grain under brass angles running between brass corner plates. Dremel up
the brass and make it spiff, then cover the whole thing in... well,
probably poly I guess. (Yes Monsieur Jacques, I'm thinking about polying
walnut, because poly is indestructible, and this thing might see some nasty
substances spilled on it.)

That could look seriously cool if I pulled it off right. I want people to
go "holy crap dude, that's an instrument case? why? why on earth do you
have such a gorgeous, ridiculously ornate and spiffy looking thing as an
instrument case?"

Blah blah blah. Thanks for listening.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

Subject


"Silvan" writes:

I'm not having much luck with google today. Lee Valley's hardware catalog
seems a dead end.

I could rig something up, surely, but it would be easiest to replace the
original latches with similar parts.
snip

Pick up ye old trumpet case with trumpet enclosed, secure with a couple of
rubber bands, and head for a musical instrument dealer.

They should be able to point you in the right direction.

Here in SoCal, there are lot of these places, since there are a lot of
professional musicians who live here.

HTH

Lew

Lew Hodgett wrote:
Subject


"Silvan" writes:

I'm not having much luck with google today. Lee Valley's hardware
catalog seems a dead end.

I could rig something up, surely, but it would be easiest to replace
the original latches with similar parts.
snip

Pick up ye old trumpet case with trumpet enclosed, secure with a
couple of rubber bands, and head for a musical instrument dealer.

Yup.

Another possibility is the band teacher. When I broke the latch on my
t-bone case, Mr. Getzgo put a new one on in about 5 minutes -- holes, rivets
& everythng. ;-) I guess I wasn't the first or the last who needed that
repair.

-- Mark

Pick up ye old trumpet case with trumpet enclosed, secure with a
couple of rubber bands, and head for a musical instrument dealer.

He keeps weird hours. I can never catch him "at home" when I am. (Probably
because he's 425 years old, and has been repairing band instruments for 375
of those years. I think he plays a lot of golf or something these days.)

(Yes, "he" as in "the one." I only know one place around here I would trust
to sell me anything more complicated than a pack of guitar strings.)

Yup.

Another possibility is the band teacher. When I broke the latch on my

Don't have a band teacher yet. That comes next year.

What he thinks he's going to be taking to band next fall is a 1948 Getzen
Super Deluxe with **** poor valves, severe pitting and red rot problems
that I fixed as well as I could, dings galore, with most of the intra-valve
tubing caved in somewhat. It's been stripped, and all the pretty tri-tone
metal stuff turns a pukey brown if you breathe on it twice. It sits in a
hideous "tweed" green case that's covered with cigarette burns, gouges,
scratches, and has been to hell and back at least six times. (He's playing
it now. Or, well, he's making really horrible noises with it anyway. He's
taking good care of it, and has no idea it isn't his new baby after all.)

What he's actually getting is a '69 Olds Ambassador with a 95% intact
original epoxy lacquer finish, only one itty bitty ding that's not remotely
worth having taken out, perfect valves and slides, in a comparatively much
more tasteful brown faux leather and orange shag carpet case. Except for
the orange (I hate orange) it looks pretty cherry. It has seen some use to
be sure, but the thing is like a Rolls Royce compared to the battered,
crappy looking thing he expects to be taking with him.

Don't tell him he's getting it.

I'm trying to fix the original case, but I could always just suck it up and
buy him a new one I guess. It seems like this is a difficult thing to make
well at home if you want to keep it light and strong. Maybe I'll keep the
case for me and not send him off with orange shag carpet inside. That's
bound to get him beaten up by someone, don't you think? It looks tres
Austin Powers bayyyyyyybe. Still need to fix it either way though.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

Hey Michael,

Try this: http://www.fillmoreco.com/

Google keywords "luggage hardware".

HTH

Rick



"Silvan" wrote in message
...
Pick up ye old trumpet case with trumpet enclosed, secure with a
couple of rubber bands, and head for a musical instrument dealer.

He keeps weird hours. I can never catch him "at home" when I am.
(Probably
because he's 425 years old, and has been repairing band instruments for
375
of those years. I think he plays a lot of golf or something these days.)

(Yes, "he" as in "the one." I only know one place around here I would
trust
to sell me anything more complicated than a pack of guitar strings.)

Yup.

Another possibility is the band teacher. When I broke the latch on my

Don't have a band teacher yet. That comes next year.

What he thinks he's going to be taking to band next fall is a 1948 Getzen
Super Deluxe with **** poor valves, severe pitting and red rot problems
that I fixed as well as I could, dings galore, with most of the
intra-valve
tubing caved in somewhat. It's been stripped, and all the pretty tri-tone
metal stuff turns a pukey brown if you breathe on it twice. It sits in a
hideous "tweed" green case that's covered with cigarette burns, gouges,
scratches, and has been to hell and back at least six times. (He's
playing
it now. Or, well, he's making really horrible noises with it anyway.
He's
taking good care of it, and has no idea it isn't his new baby after all.)

What he's actually getting is a '69 Olds Ambassador with a 95% intact
original epoxy lacquer finish, only one itty bitty ding that's not
remotely
worth having taken out, perfect valves and slides, in a comparatively much
more tasteful brown faux leather and orange shag carpet case. Except for
the orange (I hate orange) it looks pretty cherry. It has seen some use
to
be sure, but the thing is like a Rolls Royce compared to the battered,
crappy looking thing he expects to be taking with him.

Don't tell him he's getting it.

I'm trying to fix the original case, but I could always just suck it up
and
buy him a new one I guess. It seems like this is a difficult thing to
make
well at home if you want to keep it light and strong. Maybe I'll keep the
case for me and not send him off with orange shag carpet inside. That's
bound to get him beaten up by someone, don't you think? It looks tres
Austin Powers bayyyyyyybe. Still need to fix it either way though.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

Silvan wrote in
:

Pick up ye old trumpet case with trumpet enclosed, secure with a
couple of rubber bands, and head for a musical instrument dealer.

Is there a university nearby, with any kind of a music program? They
always have somebody to whom they can turn, when, to pick an absolutely
random example, the trombone player gets his slide slammed in a band room
door. (That couldn't happen, right? :-0 )

That sweet little Olds you found is a lot like the one my folks bought for
me, back in the early Sixties. It got used as a 'parts horn', when the
budget couldn't hack the reapir cost on a silver Benge, almost 30 years
later. And the Benge was traded against the cost of an Olds Double French
horn, a few years later...

Nothing sounds quite like good, old brass, well played and well maintained.

Keep investing in the kid!

Patriarch

Is there a university nearby, with any kind of a music program? They
always have somebody to whom they can turn, when, to pick an
absolutely random example, the trombone player gets his slide slammed
in a band room door. (That couldn't happen, right? :-0 )

Circa 1974. I played a POS Conn trombone for many years before I'd "earned"
a new instrument from the parents. Finally, in high school, I got a new,
good one. A Yamaha Professional with F-Attachment, somewhere in the
neighborhood of $500 (twice what I paid for a used motorcycle. ;-)

THE VERY FIRST DAY I HAD IT I dropped it on the field in marching band
practice!!!! The slide was sprung, and is still sprung. Several people
worked on it but there is still to this day a slight catch between first and
second position.

I had never dropped or dinged the Conn... sigh

-- Mark

If I can't come up with something for this, I'll have to come up with a
whole different plan.

Check to see if your local mafia is having any garage sales. Sometimes you
can get a slightly used instrument case real cheap.

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 09:09:07 -0700, "mp" wrote:

Check to see if your local mafia is having any garage sales. Sometimes you
can get a slightly used instrument case real cheap.

They're not easy to find. A friend of mine, a shooter, has been
looking to get a suitable instrument case for ages.

His latest production was "the Black Russian", an enormous
leather-trimmed papier-mache codpiece / riflecase, to suit an equally
enormous .577 Snider. Laid up with brown Kraft paper over a polystrene
foam former it took a huge amount of effort to produce a device of
surpassing ugliness. It didn't smell much better either, owing to the
quantities of xylene used to dissolve out the foam.


Commercial instrument cases (violins and cellos anyway) these days are
rotationally moulded polypropylene. It has _much_ better impact
resistance than all the alternatives, including aluminium or GRP.
Looks cheap, but it preserves your instrument.

Andy Dingley wrote:

Commercial instrument cases (violins and cellos anyway) these days are
rotationally moulded polypropylene. It has _much_ better impact
resistance than all the alternatives, including aluminium or GRP.
Looks cheap, but it preserves your instrument.

Yeah, there's always the $50 ABS case from Giardinelli, but where's the
challenge in that?

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 00:49:18 -0400, Silvan
wrote:

I'm not having much luck with google today. Lee Valley's hardware catalog
seems a dead end.

I could rig something up, surely, but it would be easiest to replace the
original latches with similar parts.

Look for briefcase hardware. I've replaced several briefcase latches
and I think they are identical to the ones on my son's trumpet case.
(too far away right now to go look)

As for building the case, you might also look at briefcase plans (I
think Rockler has them) the basic idea is similar and it should get
you going in the right direction at least.

Tim Douglass

http://www.DouglassClan.com

Tim Douglass wrote:

Look for briefcase hardware. I've replaced several briefcase latches
and I think they are identical to the ones on my son's trumpet case.
(too far away right now to go look)

Briefcase. Darmnf. I haven't tried yet, but I wager in advance that's
probably the magic word I didn't think to feed google.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/