Hi,
I have a new Terry McGee keyless Ruddal Perfected, but don’t have a case for it yet. Does anyone have any suggestions on where I could buy a case for it. A Canadian source would be even better.
It seems many of the cases offered by flute makers are very expensive at $200 USD or more. Seems a bit excessive, but I do want something that will protect my investment.
Cheers,
Rob.
For a keyless (or Baroque 1 key), i recommend a good padded roll. Look for Cavallaro flute rolls, they’re good. You can probably find them in most online stores or directly from them:
http://www.cavallarocasecovers.com/priclist.html#i
(try the Baroque flute roll).
If you must have a hard case, you can try searching the Web for “pistol cases” or “rifle cases”, or go to a gun shop. These are nice too, just hard boxes filled with foam, and the foam will naturally adapt itself to the contours of your flute.
I buy flute cases from a company in Texas called Cheaper Than Dirt. They are actually for pistols, but they work very nicely for Irish flutes. The brand name is Doskocil, and the price is less than $10 + shipping. The internal dimensions of the case that I use is: 12 1/2"x 8"x2", and the inside of the case has eggcrate foam. The case is strong enough that you can stand on it. You can see a picture of this case at my website. Just click on the photos of my three-piece flutes.
http://home.earthlink.net/~life2all/dougswebspace
Best wishes and happy fluting,
Doug Tipple
I put my McGee GLP flute into the Gun Guard Deluxe 2-pistol case. It
has better latches than the cheaper gun cases. So far, I like it a lot.
I got it on-line at:
http://www.holstersupply.com/gunguard.htm
item # 10402
…also, the flute is super !
If the flute has seperate left and right hand sections, it will fit nicely into a pretty cheap pistol case. (Can you buy a pistol case in Canada??), but if it’s a one piece center section, it probably won’t fit. This gives good protection, but makes the flute rather bulky to carry. Not a big deal if that’s all you have, but not ideal to pack for travel.
I have a leather roll type case from Mark Hoza that’s pretty nice.
What I don’t like is a case that you load from one end. Like a flat narrow bag that you slide the flute pieces into from the narrow end. If you have threaded tenons and keep them well slimed (like you should!), there’s no way to clean the slime out of those long narrow case pockets. My Casey Burns flute (that I otherwise like) is in a case like this.
Thanks for the replies. I already have a roll-up case that I use for my whistles, but I really want a hardshell case for the flute especially with temperature and humidity extremes through the seasons here. I’d even like to have a case that I could put a small humidity sensor in.
The gun cases look promising. It’s funny how many gun supplies are adaptable for flute making/maintenance/care. 
I think you’ll be happy with a pistol case. I have one of the smaller doskocil cases, and it has room for my antique German flute (which has the long, one piece bottom section - right hand and foot are one piece of wood) as well as space for a humidity reading thingie (hygrometer?), a tube of cork grease, and a small homemade humidifier (pill case with holes poked in it and piece of damp spong inside). It keeps my humidity just above 50% in the winter (with nice, dry indoor heating) and about 60% in the summer when the ambiant air is like living in a sweaty armpit…so it doesn’t totally keep out the outside air, but it keeps it steady enough and I’m pretty sure that keeps away any mold problems, too, since it’s not perfectly sealed like tupperware.
Also, it makes you look tough to be carrying around a pistol case…
Eric
Terry McGee himself offers a wooden case that is a beauty (I have one), but I noticed the price is at $207 now. If you can swing it, I would say it is worth it to buy the best.
Steve
If you would like a wood case at a reasonable price you should contact forum member Lark, a Canadian, as I know he has been making some nice flute and whistle cases amongst other items.
His website is: http://larkwoodworks.com/
For any of you that have Sweetheart two piece keyless flutes, I found a cheap pistol case that works perfectly for it. It’s the Plano Protector series model 1404. It cost all of $12.99 at my local Popular Outdoor Outfitters. The flute body fits perfectly across the diagonal of the eggshell foam. It’s designed as a four pistol case, so it has an upper and a lower compartment. I keep my high whistles in the lower compartment. It’s a little bulkier that I really wanted, but it’s great protection and it’s cheap!
Bob
Gun cases make great cases like Ulleann Pipes fit into shotgun cases real well.
Swinger, both Crappy Tire and Home Depot regularly sell empties of the type of plastic case you would normally buy electric hand tools in. These are excellent cases for carrying your flute. Get one big enough that will accommodate both the parts of your flute plus a bottle of bore oil, rag, and reamer. Supply your own foam. If you don’t have foam on hand, you can buy a roll of the stuff from Crappy Tire that they sell as a ground roll for sleeping bags, or visit any furniture restorer for scraps.
djm
Crappy Tire! WOW do I HATE their ads.
Don’t you think the wife is doing the neighbor guy, thus cuckolding her stupid husband? I bet she is. I saw how she looked at Bob in that commercial for the stupid gasoline-can-cum-tool-rack thing.
For the Americans out there, Canadian Tire is like . . . hmm. It’s like a Home Depot ripoff that, in comparison with Home Depot, fulfills all the negative stereotypes we might have about Canadians. I’m trying to think of a good analogy. . . Oh, OK. How about (Canadian Tire)::(Home Depot) as (Old Milwaukee)::(Stella Artois)? The good Canadian version of Home Depot is Rona.
So OT, I know.
OK, so to be ON topic . . . there are a lot of nice pistol cases that make good flute cases. You can even go crazy and get a waterproof pistol case; if you’re good about swabbing your flute, it would really help protect the flute from drying out. Canada’s climates are pretty harsh on timbers.
Stuart
Another option for hardshell cases is an old flute or clarinet case. I bought two old clarinet cases from my local music shop for a total of $5. I’ve already refurbished one (with foam and fabric from a craft store), and it holds my 4-piece Copley (whcih doesn’t fit well in most standard flute cases) along with two long bore swabs, cork grease, hygrometer, and all the other junk I like to keep with the flute. The total cost for materials was about $10, including some high-quality fabric glue. It took about 3 hours to gut the case, design the layout, install the foam and interior framing (1/4-inch pine slats to separate the flute pieces), and fabric. Give it a day or two for the glue to cure, and you’ve got a custom fit case for $12.50 USD. I like having two inches of foam cradling my flute, inside a bomb-proof shell, with extra storage space, and the vintage case looks cool, too.
Michael Cronnolly of M&E Flutes makes nice wooden hardcases for $40. Worth checking out. It will probably fit your flute without a problem as Michael’s flutes are R&R modells just like yours, but you should probably check in with him and ask, he is the nicest guy.
I have some hard-shell cases left over from silver flutes. They are made of cycolac, are indestructible, and are just the thing for wooden flutes. I remove the plastic form from under the velvet liner and then add paper to flesh out the divider between the spaces for the flutes. The velvet liner is not glued down so you can adjust it however you want to by moving the paper around.
There are two very secure latches on a case. The cases are used but look good and are very serviceable.
I bought these cases in the event I didn’t have a case when I sold a flute but now I’ve too many of the cases.
I have some wooden cases as well, but these will be more expensive. I can send pictures if anybody is interested.
I have Johnny Gallagher making me a cocobolo R&R 6 key flute. So I started thinking about cases. 10 years ago I bought 10,000 board-feet of quality cherry and made doors and trim for my house. I have a lot left and was thinking about taking my router rig and I can router out the inside of two cherry pieces, run the outside through a planer machine and vuala, a nice cherry box. But it takes 2 hours and then you have to buy a small piano hing for the back and clasps. A really gorgious case but the point I want to make is that I would have to sell them for $100 to $200, depending on other costs.
So the point is that no one would get rich charging that much for a case. As a result of the recomeneation above, I bought the $15 (including postage to WV) gun case that is 13 inches X 2.5 inches inside. If a truck runs over my flute case, it won’t go to smitherens as a cherry one would. Cherry would look nice with a cocobolo flute, though.
Nelson
Maybe you coould veneer the pistolo case with cherry? Or just keep it in the cherry case in thehouse and use the pistol case for travelling with the flute? How do you like the flute?
This thread won’t die, will it? (going since 2001!)
I also use a hard-shell plastic case from a silver flute. I peeled the velvet off the plastic tray where the silver flute would fit (the velvet is stuck on with a sticky contact glue) and set it aside. Then I pried the tray out and discarded it, replacing it with a new tray cut from balsa wood and carved to fit my wooden flute. Note, you have to cut away enough wood that once you replace the velvet covering, the flute will fit snug but not too snug. Balsa is easy to carve and soft so I wasn’t worried about it hurting the flute, but I took care about where the keys of the flute would go so they didn’t get bent by closing the lid. David’s suggestion of using paper for padding to finesse the fit is a good one. Once the balsa tray was glued in place, I pushed the velvet into place on top of it. It has worked fine for over 3 years and looks like it was made for my flute. I have a brass push rod from a silver flute that I use for swabbing and it, of course, fits the case fine. The only thing I forgot was to carve a niche into the balsa to accommodate my cork grease, but it pretty much stays put inside the case anyway.
I just received a pistol case from the internet, as suggested above, to use with a 5 key, 5 piece flute. The flute, divided into 3 parts, fits perfectly into the soft egg-crate interior with no modifications. The cost with postage to WV was $15. The case is very sturdy and professonal looking, 13 1/2 inches by about 7 inches inside. Delivery was 3 days. Absolutely perfect case.