Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Instrument Case Rack

#21

Good thoughts mark. That’s exactly why I haven’t used edge banding… I glue up boards to make bigger pieces (used to anyway, I haven’t made furniture in years). I might be wrong, but I assumed that cost was a factor in Larry’s proposed project. If cost is a major player, plywood is tough to beat.

Larry, you may have created a monster. My wife has been after me to organize my office/music room/place of residence about 60 hours a week. I am thinking I might make something built in… the wheels are turning.

#22

My original idea was to edge glue the leftover red oak planks I already have, but when i took inventory, I realized I didn’t have enough lumber to complete the project, and started considering plywood. In additon to being less expensive, plywood seems a lot easier. I don’t have a biscuit joiner and I’d be hand planing, so it would take a bit of effort for me to edge join planks.

#23

Although you’d probably prefer to go “au natural” Larry, you could always use plywood, whack some filler on the edge grain, sand and paint it!
Then you could also customise with little cartoons of your picker mates on the ends, just like the Christmas card :mrgreen:

#24

And by the way:

— Begin quote from ____

I’m getting nothing done right now, though, what with the distraction of the holidays. I haven’t even got around to restringing my dobro.

— End quote

Dobro restring, dobro solo,** much higher priority Larry**!!

#25

doh! :blush: man larry sometimes i forget not everyones a toolaholic like me.my wife says i have more tools than sears!the last time i bought a new tool box she bought a new car and said we paid the same. :laughing: btw,still got the box cars gone].

#26

I probably have more tools than I deserve, given how little I actually use them, but there always seems to be one more that I need!

#27

Did you guys build any case racks?

I’m getting to where need one. I haven’t priced one yet, but they don’t look cheap.

#28

It’s still on my to-do list, but I haven’t found any time. I am probably going to have some cabinets made that can house instrument cases. I am thinking I will also have a couple removable shelves made in case it needs to find another use in the future. I haven’t priced it yet, but I suspect the local cabinet guys can do it about as cheap as I can get materials.

#29

Not a bad idea. Saw someone on another forum ( UMGF I believe) that had a cabinet built for cases. Probably put 20 cases in that thing. It would also be nice to have the option to lock it. I just wish I had more woodworking tools to make something nice to my specs.

#30

The other thing that made me think the cabinet would be good is that I could humidify the cabinets in the winter. I keep the house humidified, but when it gets real dry out, I have to go to case humidifiers to supplement.

It doesn’t take much tools to make enjoyable stuff. I made some of my favorite pieces with the crudest tools. I made my bike rack with just a few tools in the kitchen of our little apartment when I first got married. It makes it all the more special to me. Now I have a decent amount of tools and they just sit there :frowning:

#31

You got me thinkin’ Mike. Gut an Armoir? Lockable!

knoxville.craigslist.org/fuo/3794730277.html

#32

I never got around to making a rack, either.

I intended to make the rack for my local jam, but I was advised that it would probably disappear from the pickin’ shed between jams. A lot of people use the park and I guess we aren’t the only one with a key to the shed.

#33

I came across this nice guitar rack today in a different forum and it made me remember the BanjoBen forum thread:
theunofficialmartinguitarforum.y … kMiMNJJOfU

I’d love to do some woodworking, but life keeps getting in the way. It’s just not going to happen in the foreseeable future. I think I am going to have a local cabinet shop make something like this (not trying to be as fancy):
accessnsight.com/vintage.html

and I’ll get hardware like this:
stringswing.com/product/cc2 … ase-hanger

And put it all together and be able to keep 3-5 guitars easily accessible and control the humidity. I was originally wanting to do a case rack, but I think I’d rather do something to hold the guitars ready and then put the cases away in storage.

#34

That Access n Sight cabinet is pretty fancy. Would be a great display for vintage guitars, but it’s not too economical space-wise.

#35

My thoughts changed over time… I was originally going to make a case cabinet for my office. My thought was it would be good storage and handy for supplemental humidity when I have to typically start adding in the case humidification as well. The problem with that is that I have to take the time to get the guitar out and put it away (I like being able to play for a minute or two if the mood hits me). The reality of it is that I typically have several instruments out of their cases (hanging on the walls), but I can’t do that when it gets real dry. The access N sight version would allow easy access and I could also humidify the whole thing. I’d like to build it, but that’s not likely to happen soon, so I’ll call a local cabinet shop. The glass is pretty, but it’s not my main motivation to have it for display. If the glass doors are problematic, I’ll just have him do the whole thing in wood. If he can do the glass, then all the better. If that’s the case, I’ll probably put some lights in it. While I have electric going to it, I may as well run an outlet for the tonerite (or whatever else I might want plugged in there).

#36

Is that the story you told your wife to justify your purchase? :laughing:

I’m like you, though, I like to have a guitar sitting out with easy access. Fortunately, humidity isn’t much of a problem for me.

#37

I took down an old entertainment center and had it all in the back of my truck to take to the dump when I thought I would try to make a case rack out of it. I had just a pile of parts to work with and had to figure out a way to cut it all to size while trying to leave the finished edges where I could.

http://s596.photobucket.com/user/90RCnTN/media/IMG_0345_zps0a0b0941.jpg.htmlhttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/90RCnTN/IMG_0345_zps0a0b0941.jpg

I didn’t have a piece wide enough for the bottom, so I had to make it in two sections. The trim on the bottom use to be at the top of the entertainment center. :laughing:

http://s596.photobucket.com/user/90RCnTN/media/IMG_0344_zps108e9618.jpg.htmlhttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/90RCnTN/IMG_0344_zps108e9618.jpg

I’m not that happy with the seams in the trim along the top but that’s all I had to work with. It’s not too bad, the camera flash makes it look worse.

http://s596.photobucket.com/user/90RCnTN/media/IMG_0340_zps2dca6716.jpg.htmlhttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/90RCnTN/IMG_0340_zps2dca6716.jpg
http://s596.photobucket.com/user/90RCnTN/media/IMG_0342_zpse9e68397.jpg.htmlhttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/90RCnTN/IMG_0342_zpse9e68397.jpg

I need to figure out a way to attach the to bottom pieces together. I’m thinking just a flat plate that I could screw on both sides. The bottom will be covered with something eventually. I’ll probably put some padding in the bottom to protect the cases too.

http://s596.photobucket.com/user/90RCnTN/media/IMG_0348_zps483f93e7.jpg.htmlhttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/90RCnTN/IMG_0348_zps483f93e7.jpg

I think it may need some case dividers. I left some room above the cases for a shelf and was going to run some dividers off the bottom of the self but I think with the height differences of the cases, that wouldn’t look right.

http://s596.photobucket.com/user/90RCnTN/media/IMG_0350_zpscdd491db.jpg.htmlhttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/90RCnTN/IMG_0350_zpscdd491db.jpg

It’s far from perfect and I may add some things here and there to make it better. It definately gives me some ideas how I could build one in the future with some good wood and stain it all. If I built the top out to match the bottom, I could easily glass the front and part of the sides. The possibilities are endless! Anyway, you can’t beat the price of this one, $0. :laughing:

#38

I’ve been having a lot of computer problems lately (lucky to be on here now) and couldn’t resize the pics so some of them got cut off due to the size.

Here are the dimensions of the rack:

4’ 8" high (56 inches)
3’ 3" wide (39 inches)
1’ 4" deep at the top (16 inches)
2’ deep at the bottom (24 inches)

#39

Excellent. Great thinking Shawn. I drew up some rough plans and sent them to a local cabinet shop and I never heard back from them :confused: This thread reminded me that maybe I need to check in with them.

#40

Thanks Mike. That seems strange that they wouldn’t call you back. Of course, these days it seems like everyone is remodeling. They’re probably just really busy.

Well, I got her in place and loaded up. Now when guests come over, they actually have a bed to sleep on. :smiley: The inside looks pretty bad with all the shelf holes and the wood colored cardboard back with holes in it. I think I will eventually buy a couple sheets of that egg crate foam and glue on the inside and then find some kind of fabric to cover the foam. Basically upholstering the inside. Maybe buy some good looking trim and re-do that top trim. After I remove all the blue carpet from the upstairs. :confused:

Two D28 cases, two banjo cases, two mando cases (one hard one soft) and a fiddle case.

http://s596.photobucket.com/user/90RCnTN/media/IMG_0351_zps1c7491e0.jpg.htmlhttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/90RCnTN/IMG_0351_zps1c7491e0.jpg

http://s596.photobucket.com/user/90RCnTN/media/IMG_0352_zps3ca9306e.jpg.htmlhttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/90RCnTN/IMG_0352_zps3ca9306e.jpg