I’ve just customised my pipes case and also thought I’d learn how to put some pictures up.
I started off with a Consort pipecase, removed all the rivets from the lid and removed about 3cm of depth, then rivetted the rim, hinges and clips back on. This make the lid more like a lid rather than the second half of the case.
I then hot glued hardboard in to make the compartment and lined it all with foam and imitation leopard skin. (That’s the controvertial bit, hopefully it won’t cause too much vitriol).
The top was cut through using a band saw with a fine blade, mainly because I have access to a work shop and can be impatient with jobs I am doing myself. It was cleaned up using a belt sander and then a file.
It could be done by hand using a fine toothed saw like a dovetail saw or razor saw. This would take a while but give the required clean cut. The amount to remove was scratched on with a marking gauge to ensure an even straight edge to fit back into the aluminium extrusion. One minor point to note was that the internal part of the extrusion needs to go over the washer/rivet of the case “feet”.
The internal rivets were first filed to remove the rough edges, I am sure you realise filing too much would weaken them. Then I just made sure each rivet had foam padding over it or at least 3 layer of “leopard skin”.
The whole job; resizing the case, fitting partition, fitting foam rubber and the “leopard skin” was about a day’s work.
Would clipping the rivets on the inside be OK. Also, any ideas for a system or technique for adding on a shoulder strap? Mostly trying to figure what type of rivet or whatever and best way to do it to the case.
The major part of each rivet on the inside must be left or the case will fall apart. Padding of some sort is the only answer.
(The rivet could be put in backwards but that would leave the unpleasant bit on the outside where it can’t be readily disguised).
I did think about a shoulder strap but decided to leave it for the moment for a couple of reasons:
It would probably need bolts rather than rivets in the same way the handle is bolted due to the extra stress of taking the full weight of case and pipes.
And (I take you have a Consort case) more importantly you will notice Consort have put in an extra extrusion which extends about 12" either side of the handle to stop the case deforming under stress whilst being carried. The shoulder strap fixings would have to tie into this but because they would need to attach at the ends would cause some deformation of the case. It would have been better if Consort had run this strenthening the entire length of the case.
In short a shoulder strap would require extra reinforcement to the relevent rim of the case to stop it deforming. I’ll try and work on that one over the next few weeks.
