Advice on keyboard flightcase construction?

[geoff]

Proper music ...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Go larger. Cut foam about an inch, round everywhere..maybe a shade less on top/bottonm where the force per unit area will be less. Use dense rubber foam, and cover in velvet etc. A

Very sound idea.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Pretentious crap actually, but it was fun.

Looking back on it, I think the keboards I enjoyed most were on the moody blues, barclay james harvest, collosseum and curved air..

[NoSpam]

No, it's a Roland RD700SX stage piano. The weight is going to be about

40kg (25kg keyboard + 15kg case) so a couple of small wheels seem like a reasonable idea.

... snipped

It weighs 25kg and is 1400mm long, smooth, slippery and expensive. The idea is that the case can be lifted onto the stand and then the top lifted off (attached to 3/4 of the sides) leaving the piano easily playable on the base of the case. Obviously it's still possible to lift the piano out if there's any need to do so. There's no provision on this piano for screwing-in a stand.

Agreed, it needs to be low.

Sorry, I don't quite see what you're suggesting, can you explain that a little more?

[teddysnips]

Back in the 1980s I was a pro keyboard player - my main instrument was a Yamaha CP70B electric grand piano. Not really used much nowadays as sampled digital machines are so good, but this was a cut-down boudoir grand with no soundboard and piezo pickups under the strings. Fantastic tool, with a proper piano keyboard (as a pianist this mattered). Anyway, this beast weighed about 100kg fully assembled but luckily for the roadies split into two pieces. I had flight cases built for it - they were astroboard or something similar - not wood, very strong, very slightly flexible. It had about 2" of foam lining, which I then covered with material because putting the beast into the case started to "fray" the foam. Both cases had wheels - two strongish men could lift a case onto the back of a truck, but both were too heavy and unwieldy for one man.

Having seen how road crews treat equipment, I'd say that the hundred or so pounds I paid back in 1982 or whenever was money well spent. Now I play a Roland XP80 - what a joy (shame about the keyboard)

Edward

[Andy Dingley]

The front seam line needs to be little more than the thickness of the bottom of the case, to allow clearance around the keys. If you did this full width it would be easy, but a weak joint onto the corner blocks.

So at some point wider than the keys themselves, but narrower than the overall case, foam padding and somewhere around the end cheeks of the piano, rasie this front lip up at a diagonal, such that it reaches the end plates at the full height of the bottom of the case. You'll get a stronger corner this way, even if it's quite a steep angle.

BTW - Where are the cable jacks on this thing? On our piano they're in the back panel, and you'd need access through the case to get to them.

[NoSpam]

Light has dawned! Thanks for taking the time to explain; it's a good idea.

The rear panel has a double slope design. From the base it slopes back/up, then turns through about 90 degrees and slopes forwards/up; the jacks are on the second section. The "corner" is 45mm up so I plan to split the case here (no holes needed); the keys are 45mm higher. There's a pic here:

[NoSpam]

Job now done and the case has been admired at its first gig.

In case anyone else is needing to buy bits I can recommend Mike at Valley Flight Cases for Adam Hall hardware

Swanflight for Penn hardware and "wood finishes direct" for dyes and varnishes.