Anyone into building custom road cases?

[sparkyinnc]

I'm looking into a road case for my console monitors (2 LCD 19" or 17") and I'd love to have a single hard case to carry both. I've been looking a bit into pre-built road cases on the internet but a friend of mine who owns a local lighting shop prefers to build his own cases (including custom LCD monitor hard cases for console monitors). Does anyone out there have an opinion on cost vs. benefit for building one's own cases vs. purchasing pre-built? I possess the required design and construction knowledge (and shop equipment) for the custom case but was hoping to hear someone else's opinion on this first. Anyone?

Thanks!

[Footer]

If you build it right, its not a hard thing to do. Most companys get pretty good at foaming in cases and all that fun stuff. Added to that, the hardware is not cheap. If you think you can do it, go for it. However, how much is your time worth?

[BillESC]

Although I built all my road cases when I toured in the 70's and 80's, all of which still work today, pre-built cases today are so inexpensive it's hard to justify the time and expense of making them yourself.

My suggestion is to select a case slightly larger then required and simply add some foam with spray adhesive to customize it to your needs. Both Oddsey and RoadReady offer a nice selection.

[MNicolai]

Hybrid Cases also has some pretty good deals, some of the better ones I've seen.

Hybrid Cases

Not that I've tried building my own cases, but usually these guys are right when they say it's cheaper to buy than build, sometimes even just for the parts, let alone the quality. A guy was asking recently about the feasibility making his own cables and selling them, but these companies purchase everything in bulk ten times over, and it's extremely hard to beat some of the discounts they get that the average person doesn't have access to.

Edit 1: Looking at closer detail at Hybrid, I don't know what's up with their pricing. They sent me a catalog with low prices, but the same products on their website are almost twice the price tag of those in the catalog. Curious...

Edit 2: After scrounging through the entire catalog, it turns out this is the dealer price list, which is only effective with certain requirements on the amount of cases you purchase. Well, it's still Hybrid, and they still make cases, but for twice as much as I thought they did.

[NickJones]

Caces are cheap, especially as most are plastic, you could build yourself a wooden box, stick a few handles on it and then use Dice Foam to make the monitors fit neatly, but the time & effort just isn't really worth it, you can buy a moulded plastic 17x22x4 inch case for just over $20.
Nick

[len]

Pelikan or the other company likely would have something close to your needs.

A custom build would have the advantage of being exactly what you want and give you the satisfaction of building it yourself. Maybe for something that doesn't have a lot of supply (such as you're needing), home built might be the best option. But for something like a cable trunk or for a S4 case which has numerous off the shelf products, I would think buying would be the easier option.

[NickJones]

I could understand making custom Meat Racks, as they wouldn't be to hard to weld and (at least here in Aus) aren't cheap, it's another one of those situations where there isn't much point unless you really want to do it, casters are expensive, but you can get everything you need like handles, twist latches & ball corners, but chances are a pre-made one would be stronger anyway.
I don't DIY unless the price is ridiculous or its something very specific, or I wanna have a fun project,

So if it's for a fun project, knock yourself out, I can help you out if you want to find somewhere that sells road case hardware,
Nick

[jmabray]

Kangaroo Cases out of Dallas has always done right by me....

[ship]

Originally Posted by sparkyinnc

Does anyone out there have an opinion on cost vs. benefit for building one's own cases vs. purchasing pre-built?

Thanks!

I prefer to build my own road cases but don't have time and often hard to say but the case companies out there often do better work. Sure if I'm building a company sized road case that will store battery chargers for say twenty tools and have them cubby holes for cable ties to bolts as a very unique expeienced type of thing I would rather build it and laugh at other attempts. On the other hand, nice to hand over the monitors or half mirror ball to the case company if there is budget and have them build a proper case and storage for them.

For me a question of portable solder station as unique, I have the experience and within the first one or two road case for such a unique thing I'll perfect it as the case company in not using such a thing won't. This as opposed to the case company that encases gear for a living and has often better quality in experience in general and better materials that could do a monitor or less personal storage case in their sleep.

Depends on how personalized to your use such a case needs to be I would think this verses your own skill and need for a look. Case company your best bet if budget.

[ship]

Originally Posted by NickJones

Caces are cheap, especially as most are plastic, you could build yourself a wooden box, stick a few handles on it and then use Dice Foam to make the monitors fit neatly, but the time & effort just isn't really worth it, you can buy a moulded plastic 17x22x4 inch case for just over $20.
Nick

Hate dice foam - easy enough to cut to form, hard to keep them pre-cuts from breaking away and or at times a harder foam is needed to better store gear. Cases often are not plastic though for uses they can be effective.

Price of case verses if it works well great, if not needing to improve or repair and replace later thats' frustrating. An option short of the dice foam as it were I tend to replace with better foam when I make a case. Years of making 4x Little Lite cases amongst other cases. Them dice foam cases were too soft and fell apart way too easily for proper storage, prefer to carve my own foam when making a case out of hard or even soft but solid sheet foam.