Repairing Unitec Flight Cases

[groundbeef]

Good evening all,

- I will be traveling to Amsterdam in a couple of weeks, and a studio colleague has been gracious enough to allow me to borrow his Unitec flight case for my trip. However, the only problem is, the case doesn't have working latches. He has never used it either, since they were given to him, if I understood that correctly.

- I was typing this up to see if anyone knew how I would be able to fix that? Would a hardware store fix the problem, would I need to call Unitec, etc.

Thank you in advance!

[Tom]

I buy case hardware from TCH.
http://www.tchweb.com/tchstore/category ... tches.html

I have a commercial account with them for the orchestra I work for, but I believe they will sell to the public as well. In fact, I ordered about $400 worth of casters, latches, and rivets from them just yesterday.

They have a good website with detailed PDF blueprints of all of their case hardware so you can check it in detail to ensure it is exactly what you need before ordering. If you are unfamiliar with case hardware, I'd highly recommend calling them rather than just ordering and hoping you got the right stuff - their shop guys and gals know their stuff.

[joh_tuba]

If you don't view yourself as up to the job, carry it off to a luggage repair place. Ohio Travel Bag, Ferree's Tools, and (likely) the company itself that makes those cases can supply the replacement hardware you require.

Most people find my suggestion stupid, but - were I to put my instruments under a plane (and I would not do that, unless touring with an orchestra that owned a trunk to fit my instrument), I would put it under the plane in a gig bag and packed in a sturdy/fresh corrugated cardboard carton with packing materials appropriate for shipping. Particularly with a single-destination trip (and not a "tour") this (in my view) is safer than any hard case, the carton can sit (just as a hard case would sit) and be reused for the return trip home.

security...??
See if you can seal up the carton in front of them, post-inspection.

I once 'shipped' a tuba to a friend overseas in exactly this manner. The round trip ticket was markedly cheaper than any shipping method by a shockingly large margin. I had planned to use my personal flight case until, last minute, we worked out that the weight would exceed the euro airline standards. The cardboard box was 2'x2'x??' ??=minimum height I needed to make it work. I lined the interior of the cardboard box with 2" thick pink rigid foam purchased from home depot(sold to insulate homes). This gave the box tremendous rigidity. I then placed the tuba in the gig bag with a basketball inflated in the bell. Around the gig bag I put rolls of bubble wrap wedged as needed to keep the tuba from flopping around. I taped everything shut except the top and made it easy to open and close for inspection. Worked perfectly for the trip there and back but was a huge source of worry the entire trip.

I would do it again, but only if I didn't have a proper case.

To the original question:
Most any instrument repair shop *should* be able to install new latch hardware, hinges, handles, reglue interiors, etc.

[groundbeef]

- Thanks to all for the replies! I have a couple of repair shops near me, so I guess I'll test that method out and go from there.