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Damaged baggage is a part of going by air in Europe these days so I want to reinforce my case around the bell area.

It's a std. MTS (yeas they ruin those too) and ABS plastic, IOW a non fatty plastic -> can use glue and/or weld

So any ideas? Fiberglass is one solution, though I hate working with epoxy
I remember using some moldable ABS for car parts. Could that ABS bind (weld) to the case?

I don't have an answer. Just sadness that this seems to be a worldwide problem. What do baggage handlers do, try to run over instrument cases with their trucks?

I do not know what they do, but the luggage sure faces some serious abuse.
Insurance covers it all, but to me it is understandable why they want many thousands of claime from repairs for saving 30 seconds???

In some way you might say it's a good thing for the musical instrument industry as they get to sell new instruments/part and it's paid for by all the airlines customers

Reinforcing the case serves to make it harder to crack or pierce, but that's only one part of the problem.

Of course you don't want a flimsy case that can easily be crushed or crack, but the bigger problem, I think, is what I will call "shock protection" for the case contents in the event of tumbling or being dropped. Most airline damage is not caused by cases being cracked or pierced (although a pierced case would obviously be bad)...instead, damage is usually the result of the case contents (in this case the instrument) slamming into the front/back/top/bottom/side of the case during a drop. Making sure that the instrument won't move around and abruptly stop during a fall is how to avoid damage. Absorbing the energy of a drop and designing the perfect case interior is something case builders have struggled with forever. I am not here to say that I have the answer (I don't), but just to say that this is something to think about vs. reinforcing the case exterior.

All of that is to say that you can glue, rivet, and weld on all kinds of things to protect the case but none of that will necessarily protect the instrument from being damaged.

Lectron wrote:So any ideas? Fiberglass is one solution, though I hate working with epoxy
I remember using some moldable ABS for car parts. Could that ABS bind (weld) to the case?

Yes, I'm pretty sure - ABS can be "solvent welded", so unless there are different types of ABS or something like that, that would be very effective.

Though maybe not very effective at protecting your instrument. After the airline destroyed my SKB bari sax case, I got a look at how the ABS shell works structurally. It's really pretty flexible, but attached all the way around at the metal edge thing that I'm going to call a "valance", which with the effective dome shape makes it fairly strong. But the impact ripped the valance loose on one end, and it isn't strong at all then. I don't have any suggestions about what to do about that. And of course, following what was pointed out above, the damage to the saxophone was that the body was very slightly bent - because of its own weight and momentum, not because the case was compromised.

well....ordered 500 of these 5x3 stickers...

Guess it's a start......

I'm almost convinced that they see Fragile stickers as a challenge.

Dave Gannett told me he put "Boston Symphony Orchestra" in big letters onto his helicon case and never had a problem.

Tom wrote:Reinforcing the case serves to make it harder to crack or pierce, but that's only one part of the problem.

Of course you don't want a flimsy case that can easily be crushed or crack, but the bigger problem, I think, is what I will call "shock protection" for the case contents in the event of tumbling or being dropped.

I know theat, but two times this year the ABS has cracked and chipped off around the bell area

Art Hovey wrote:Dave Gannett told me he put "Boston Symphony Orchestra" in big letters onto his helicon case and never had a problem.

Pardon me for not knowing, but was he a member of that organization?