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Out of curiousity, a tight budget, and a desire to encase my tuba in something that doesn't let it rattle about. The soft case I had made for it just doesn't do enough for my sanity. I know I'll need wood, foam (of some kind), and something to cut the foam with, a few latches, hinges, and corners, wheels, but I'm completely at sea about the foam, wood, and forming tool. Help?

I suspect the cost of materials, time, and the medical bills for the back problems caused by hauling around a homemade case would total what a cheap case would cost from WW&BW or one of the other vendors.

I made cases for two of my horns - one for a very small Eb tuba and one for a Sousaphone (this was before the SKS case was available for Sousaphones.)

I was inspired by the fiberglass road case for Allan Jaffe's helicon I saw in the early 1980s - it was a very big ugly lump on wheels, but he said it worked great when he toured with Preservation Hall.

I had some experience with making fiberglass stuff in college and it was a bit tricky, but both cases worked well - the Sousaphone case survived trips to the UK, Germany and Japan but it was awkward and took some time to open and close. Airport security being what it is now, I don't think they would like it very much!

The Eb case is still in occasional use after 20 years (I sold that horn & case quite a while ago.)

I could provide more details off line, but you are probably bettah-off with a good, well designed "pro" case...

bloke wrote:1/4" plywood, h.d. wheels, two handles (available: crummy to indestructible), piano hinge, latches (available crummy to indestructible), screws/bolts (w/washers and nuts), one or two sticks of 2X2 lumber, some carpenter's glue, medium-duty sheet metal corner material, a (c. $65 - ultra-supreme grade) gallon of (black) satin exterior house paint (or epoxy boat paint), one or two very large pieces of dense (charcoal grey) foam rubber, some plush to cover the foam rubber, (opt) stuff to build an interior storage compartment, 2-3 cans of spray adhesive, some high-grade 1/8" thick material to cut into 2-1/2" wide long strips for the enclosure overlap...

...tools and skills to work with all of this stuff

bloke "...probably more stuff...and 2-3 days of messing around..."

Sounds heavy

3/4" thick Chrome Moly steel plate
Plasma cutter
Mig Welder
Welding helmut
Welding gloves
Bank vault hinges
Bank vault time locks
Bags of packing peanuts
Fork lift and crane to move case

Name of a good general surgeon to repair hernia

Will you fly with it?

If not, Joe is right on. His 2-3 days will result in a near perfect case. In 4-6 hours you can build something like I built (provided you do some drafts ahead of time), which is serviceable in a pinch.

I would qualify this with stating that I bought a tuba that I specifically knew I could fly with. It was an old York top action Eb with the 19 inch bell and was about 37 inches tall. The body was fairly slim, which allowed for a "wedge" shaped case. It was circa 22 inches on the bottom end where the bell sat and about 8 inches on top where the bottom bow would be. The case was 26 inches wide, IIRC.

The case was built out of 3/8" CDX plywood. When the case was laying in its back, it very much resembled a bulkhead door. There was a "kickplate" in the bottom end where the bell was that was about 8 inches tall. The tuba entered the case through a "door". The bell would go in first and find of slip in, and then the bow would be placed. The door was hung on a piano hinge. The case was assembled with 1-1/2" wood screws. This also required only a single latch. There were two 6" ball bearing wheels at the base, and I used some brass corner protectors at all corners, easily found at a hardware store.

The interior was lined with eggcrate foam from a mattress pad. The tuba, because it was flying, was wrapped in bubble wrap, and an old bedspread was also employed to give extra padding in the case. The end result was under 70 pounds with tuba, under the oversized baggage dimensions (w/e they were at the time under a year after 9/11), and worked well enough to survive the two flights I needed it too in fine shape. I could have used it to carry the horn around to other gigs, but as this horn was a beater, I never carried it in a case.

In all reality, a homegrown case will probably be overbuilt and too heavy, or somewhat heavy and flimsy. I can appreciate the DIY incentive here, as I have done this myself, but if you aren't needing a specific case (flight case) that has to fall under specific dimensions, take bloke's advice into consideration and buy one already built.

Besides, I probably spent about $125 8 years ago in addition to a good half of a weekend day. If $275 is indeed a current reality, then I would think it to be a good bargain.

To build an *excellent* case, I think it's necessary to carefully consider where the tuba will actually contact the case. When I took apart my Yamaha 621 case, I was impressed by how simple it was - and how sophisticated. That case is nothing more than a huge blob of styrofoam (cost $5) molded into exactly the right shape (priceless).

I've become convinced that the standard wisdom involving padding is mis-guided. I want most of my tuba to be touching air. Lots of air. At least an inch of pure, unadulterated air on all sides. Of course, *some* of the tuba must be very firmly held, in very specific places, by the case (more or less...the top and bottom bows). Imagine a nice, firm, set of padded clamps holding the top and bottom bow stationary. You want the clamps to be able to exert force in every conceivable direction, without causing a dent.

Once you have the top and bottom bows clamped down tight, you need to build a skeleton to hold the two clamps stationary with respect to each other, and to distribute any impulse forces evenly.

The Yamaha case does this by molding an egg shaped (on the outside) blob of styrofoam that perfectly fits the top and bottom bows. The blob of styrofoam is big enough to hold everything together. Finally, you just need to put a wrapper on the whole thing to hold it closed, and perhaps guard against penetration, wetness, etc. Building this into something that looks like a piece of luggage and lining everything with woft fuzzy cloth finishes the job - and probably triples the price.

I think you could probably design a gig-bag to zip up around the styrofoam blob that would work very nicely - although I'm having trouble figuring out the ergonomics of loading/unloading such a bag.

Once you have the innards designed - the usual luggage-like case is pretty easy. You start with the hinge and clasps - just like an old-fashioned flip-open suitcase. Everything else can be just about any shape you want (but, avoid the error made by Yamaha and don't try to make the outer shell hug the outlines of the tuba too closely. No narrow parts, and no small curvatures. Egg-shape is good (this also prevents stacking!)

Building a coffin and then completely filling it with packing material approaches this problem from the wrong direction, I think.

Again - I don't want *anything* (not even a soccer ball) touching the bell, or the valve section.

Sounds like an excellent design contest problem. Start with the clamps on the top&bottom bows - extend and connect these with an exo-skeleton (the hard part is making the exo-skeleton open up so you can get the tuba inside), and wrap it in nylon, or canvas, or leather...according to taste. Definitely shape the outside to look like a gig bag, with (detachable) backpack straps.

But, sorry...no plywood and screw&glue.

An ability to reason and a firm grasp of the English language.

Here's one that I made a few years ago:
http://www.galvanizedjazz.com/tuba/tubacase.html

Obviously I can't claim to be a skilled craftsman, but this case has worked for me.

Bill Clark (leader of the Queen City Jazz Band) had a case constructed for his big Holton using 1/4" sheet carbon fiber, which is much lighter and stronger than plywood. I wish I knew where it was obtained.

Skateboard wheels work pretty well. But no matter how well you mount them the airline baggage guys will find a way to break them off. You can get a lightweight folding "hand truck" to carry separately, with bigger and better wheels.

Also be aware that the airline security folks will open the case and poke around with their bomb-sniffing gadgets. If they can find a way to smash your tuba when they close it again, they will. Sometimes they allow you to watch; I have been lucky in that way so far.

How would one go about making a soft case? I have a Tuxedo gig bag that's pushing 20 years old and falling apart. I want to make a case similar to an Altieri bag (no zipper).