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In a recent post in the WTB section, Wade said something about building a case. I'm not about to do that but I thought it would be a great discussion if anyone would like to blather away about how they would do it. For non-travel, I'd be inclined to use a wheeled garbage can and some spray foam. I remember a guy actually made a flight case for his MW 182 3/4 F that way and was happy with the results.

Oh well on the lack of interest. But Hovey's case seems to have worked for air travel, which is impressive.

You may be disappointed with spray foam. It does not do well in any real thickness more than an an initial layer of spray because it won't dry (harden) and will instead stay gooey in the middle [yes, I just know there are so many jokes in there... ].

At one time I was actually going to build myself an equipment truck & under-the-bus worthy case (not a flight case). To me the best balance of available materials, ease of construction, and cost was to build it out of wood. My intention was to build essentially a hard shell that I could put a gig bagged tuba inside of. The interior plan for mine was pretty minimalist: I was going to use some dense egg-crate type foam on all sides so that the gig bag fit snugly, but I was not trying to do anything fancy beyond that. It would have basically been a big plywood box, though I wanted to have more of a wedge shape such as that seen on Meinl Weston and Unitec travel trunks. I was also driving a pickup truck at the time, so I wasn't really worried about actually getting it into my car without killing myself or destroying the interior. I've since realized that most homemade cases I've seen have been way overbuilt and are extremely heavy. I knew that would be a problem, so I was going to build mine of of some pretty thin plywood and then paint it, but it would have still been bulky and hard to transport by anything other than a pickup or large SUV.

In the end I was able to find a commercially constructed GWW / DEG style wood case for that tuba and traded a used tuba mouthpiece for it (I think it was an early Monette). So, I never actually built one for myself. The current crop of tuba cases, the plastic ones, are just so dang bulky I don't know how most people manage with them. My wood cases are much slimmer and can actually fit into the back seat of a typical sedan if necessary and even in the trunk of larger cars.

I did have Calzone (Anvil) build a flight case once that I designed. It worked very well. It was for Getzen G-50 and was a small rectangular box that the tuba loaded into from the top. It was built so that the tuba in the gig bag sat sideways, not on it's back. The entire middle of the tuba (valve section, leadpipe, etc.) wasn't touching anything - it "floated" freely. The tuba was held in place in a foam channel for the bottom bow and by the bell end being snug as well.

Tom wrote:You may be disappointed with spray foam.

I sure was.

I was also disappointed in another way with a type of foam that I used in a couple bags. I don't know what it was, just soft open cell foam cut into slabs; I was able to get "foam skins" for a modest price that I guess may be the surface cut of a vat of foam or something like that. It was great for a couple years, but eventually deteriorated into a nasty crumbly and probably unwholesome mess.

Keeping the stylistic motif going with that garbage can idea, maybe it would be good enough to just pad it with "rock wool" insulation, paper side in, duct taped, and maybe an old quilt or blanket. Fill big spaces with tin cans; with both ends removed, they should absorb shocks pretty well.

I've built a flight case using this plywood, with success:

http://www.halexcorp.com/underlayment.html" target="_blank

It's thin (6mm), and very strong (5-ply, versus the standard 3-ply lauan 1/4" stuff). I'm 185 lbs., and I can stand on the large side without caving it in. You can order it at any place that sells flooring.

I would think that foam filler is a terrible idea - not only is it heavy, but it dries too hard to absorb shock. You'd be better off going to an upholstery store, buying some foam, and cutting it to fit. I used a cheap electric carving knife to cut the large pieces.

I also used Reliable Hardware, and they have everything you could possibly need.

I think, theoretically, the safest way would be to wrap the horn in bubble wrap and put it in a cardboard box, but this would undoubtedly cause difficulties when being inspected by the TSA (which you can expect will happen).

For non-travel, there are so many options already available that I wouldn't bother to build one.

Tom wrote:You may be disappointed with spray foam. It does not do well in any real thickness more than an an initial layer of spray because it won't dry (harden) and will instead stay gooey in the middle [yes, I just know there are so many jokes in there... ].

I tried to build a airline proof case when I took my little helicon to Tuba Christmas in Chicago. The foam will harden, but you need to put down thin layers. Too thick and it's goo under the first couple of inches. I cut down and riveted a car top case. Even put wheels on it. But I could never get it down to the size that I could avoid paying a huge surcharge. So I sewed a backpack out of some moving blankets and bought it a seat on the plane. Frankly, it was cheaper and I could keep an eye on it.

It might have worked if I had to load it under a bus.

Note to futue self: think outloud in this thread.

More for entertainment purposes, but what do folk think of an inflatble tuba hampster wheel as a case idea?

humBell wrote:Note to futue self: think outloud in this thread.

More for entertainment purposes, but what do folk think of an inflatble tuba hampster wheel as a case idea?

Might work. Probably too big for a car.

Hmmm...

Roll into a pickup truck bed? Or onto roof. Strap Down? How would it stand up in case of accident?

Or have a mechanism to partially deflate?

Er, give it slightly more focus (and as silly as it sounds, i think it is useful as practice vetting such bad ideas for useful elements) I postulate sphere version: a 4-5 foot diameter beachball with the tuba in the middle, that i now postulate you deflate by horizontal sections so it can be a cylander 2'+ wide and same diameter, thus on edge, rolling through a common door...

To be further absurd, do you inflate it with helium to lighten the load? How would you go about maintaining the right mixture to keep it from floating away?

Anyway, my apologies if i took the OP's use of the term "blather" seriously.

Haha. You can't get enough helium in there to make it float...and you'd have to have a really, really good seal anyway. If you left the beachball round, you could roll it into rehearsal from the parking lot instead of having to hoist it or drag it. But you'd have to have it cinched down in the truck bed. Headline: TODDLER KILLED BY RUNAWAY ROLLING TUBA