Hey Brian,
Thanks for the link – this is the good stuff - Milspec foam my buddies who are serious shooters use (FWIW, these guys spend more for long gun optics than I spent for my first car - again likely an analogy that's not very helpful – my bad).
This is some of the material I was referencing when I mentioned that total costs for foam for these 2 rifle cases was around $400. That's probably misleading description by me – 2 cases to store 2 rifles each (total of 4 rifles) uses an extraordinary amount foam; 1" thick full surface area for the top and bottom of the case with 2" thick intermediate layer cut to the profile of the weapons.
I'm no expert, but I'm thinking there are very few other French fitting applications that wouldn't require much less foam -YMMV.
Best, Mike
Hi Derick,
I appreciate your very kind comments. For those of us amateurs who build things primarily for people we care about, your insight about the relative importance of the thoughts/intent, versus any kind of technical execution is very wise indeed!
Per your specific suggestion, based on my challenging experience with the foam, if I had it to do over again I would definitely use white pine. I'm certainly a lot more comfortable cutting/shaping white pine and the durability is clearly superior. The only thing I can't comment on is I don't know anything about "flocking". I'd appreciate any additional information/advice you think would be helpful.
Cheers, Mike
Will, I appreciate your advice and suggestions. I don't have much experience working with leather or felt, but your suggestion makes a lot of sense. I'd love to see an example that helps me visualize how to do this.
Regarding your very reasonable questions about the durability/practicality of hinges//latches and airport baggage handling, I have to say I'm not really sure. the joinery and hardware are solid, however ultimately in the interest of a manageable weight, the case is built out of pine which could be easily smashed under a boot. The pictures are little bit premature – I'm still waiting on delivery of some hardware which will include a handle and a key lock. I'm hopeful these will make the case easier to handle, but I realistically I can't know if that's true until those steps are finished.
At the end of the day, your absolutely right,a Pelican/Halliburton is a much better practical solution. For personal reasons, I wanted to build something less practical but perhaps, hopefully more personal. FWIW, the older I get, the more I'm interested in personal/sentimental motivations and the less I care about practical considerations.
All the best, Mike
Thanks!
It's way easier than it sounds
Marking (I just used a black ballpoint pen on the white foam) and cutting the two pieces of insulating foam from the home center was pretty easy (just use a serrated knife) --- once the two pieces were laminated together, they were pretty sturdy. You don't strictly need to use the adhesive --- just tuck the cloth in loosely (ISTR George Wilson showing a beautiful piece thusly done using velvet). I'd just suggest the two extra pieces of cardboard top and bottom (or a third piece of foam for underneath if your case is thick enough).
I did just work up a CNC tutorial for this sort of thing --- If you search for "shapeoko carbide create photo tracing" it should pop right up --- the specifics are for a tool for Nomads and Shapeoko 3s, but the basic concepts of it should work on any CNC machine.
Hey Jason.
Thanks for your question. I hope I can provide a straightforward answer (and perhaps include a wee bit of background information that might be helpful for my fellow Neanders also interested in including some customized details into their work).
The names on the rifle cases were actually fairly simple/easy to carve into the pine panels using a gouge I believe is typically described as a "Viener" (certainly the spelling is horribly off).-typically used to create the fine detail "veins" in floral carvings. The tool I use is #11 sweep, probably around 3/16" wide.Once it's sharp, it's very easy to cleanly cut both across and down grain elements of lettering, particularly in soft woods like pine.
I would encourage any of my fellow Neanders interested in adding some details to their projects to give it a shot - most carving/inlay elements are easier than you think.
All the best, Mike
Another option besides paint for coating foam that I didn't see (but very well may have missed) in previous responses is the aerosol can of plasti-dip. It is void filling, builds up to a stout thickness with enough layers, remains soft enough to not damage the item being protected, comes in a few different colors (so if cutting multi-layered foam, you can have a red void for the item with a black final french-fit layer, etc) and since it is flexible, it won't chip off.