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Wooden Flight Cases vs Laminate Flight Cases


DanSteely

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Hi All,

 

I've been browsing some of the photos on the Skan PA Facebook page and note their preference for plywood trunks and racks over more usual laminate type cases.

This seems to be the case for racks and cable trunks although desks are in laminate cases.

 

Some other rental companies use wooden cases too. I would have thought that comparing the two types, the ply would be heavier and appears volumetricly larger for a given task. I'd also be interested to see the results of dropping a full cable trunk on a corner and compare the resultant damage.

 

From a trucking, air cargo, warehouse storage point of view laminate would on first glance have the advantage but there must clear gains otherwise Skan and others wouldn't use them.

 

Any thoughts on this?

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I've got one wooden case in my collection that looks similar to the Skan ones. It wouldn't be my first choice of design as it's heavier and generally more clunky than the equivalent laminate cases. However for the sort of touring that they tackle, the weight isn't such a problem and the people specifying the cases are not the ones doing the bulk of the lifting.

 

One advantage of ply is that it can be refurbished easily - Skan have a few photos etc. of theirs getting repainted, and they do come up looking like new. Hard to do that with a laminate case.

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The material used is much less important than the quality of construction when it comes to durability and protection. Double channel, rivets every 100mm and proper full length rivets with washers for the corners and catches will be infinitely more durable.
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...their preference for plywood trunks and racks over more usual laminate type cases...I would have thought that comparing the two types, the ply would be heavier and appears larger for a given task.

 

I'm confused by what you mean by 'laminate' as the coloured/textured case panels you see are nothing but a layer of phenolic or pvc over a sheet of ply. It's there to provide a protective surface to the underlying ply. So, given the same thickness and size it'll be the same weight.

 

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...their preference for plywood trunks and racks over more usual laminate type cases...I would have thought that comparing the two types, the ply would be heavier and appears larger for a given task.

I'm confused by what you mean by 'laminate' as the coloured/textured case panels you see are nothing but a layer of phenolic or pvc over a sheet of ply. It's there to provide a protective surface to the underlying ply. So, given the same thickness and size it'll be the same weight.

 

I was confused too, but I think they are referring to the use of aluminium extrusions and corners with sheets of laminated ply, as opposed to the completely wooden construction with no aluminium joining bits.

 

Although I've seen some cases where the sheet material is some sort of plastic all the way through (a bit like a thin version of conservatory roof material) and doesn't have any wood in it.

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The 'laminate' cases I'm referring to are your usual cases made from phenolic type boards with extruded aluminium reinforced corners etc.

 

The 'wooden' cases are usually made from 18mm birch ply and do not have aluminium reinforced corners etc.

http://www.skanpa.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Closed-box.jpg

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I had some years ago designed to look like the Turbosound cabinets in the system. Pushing was fine, stacking took more muscle, but conventional flight cases are cheaper and much quicker to produce. 18mm ply isn't a cheap product any longer, and unless you have CNC kit, making decent boxes take a fair amount of time and effort. When properly designed like these ones, they look damn good though!
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The wooden boxes were a turbosound / aps thing. APS still make them, if you have a bunch of chippies in a workshop and are churning out amp racks and speaker cabinets, why not make these as well? Brit row, Skan and Audio Plus all use these type of boxes, all 3 are or were turbosound/fk1 houses. They are solid boxes, I've seen them dropped and survive
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Blimey.

 

I remember Skan being Pete and Grizzly with a transit van

 

Loved sharing a FOH tower with Pete. Even while being disconcerted by him mixing the show looking across at me, pointing his good ear at the PA.

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Those Skan cases are heavy though. We've got some of their 9U Amp Rack shockmount ones and have just swapped the contents into newly made BCS shock mount frame inside laminate/ali ones. Both (for us) perform the same function but the Skan case is almost 70kg empty whilst the BCS ones are less than 35kg.

 

Josh

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Thanks Josh for that information.

 

 

An empty 9U rack weighing 70Kg's. that's just crazy.

 

 

I remember tipping a big Britannia Row cable trunk and it was daft and then trying to lift one onto another in the back of a tight artic... Horrible.

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  • 2 weeks later...

From a lighting point of view, PRG stock these kind of boxes. They are easily double if not triple the internal volume of a standard trunk.

 

Good for long feeder looms, powerlock sets and long heavy mains that wouldn't fit in a standard case. They need to be made of something solid purely because of the size of the box.

 

You need very good access or forks to move them

 

 

I've seen the noise boys/girls with these wooden boxes and just assumed it was a fashion thing so they looked like speakers. Allways thought it was a bit silly as it made them unnecessary heavy for their use, as the size was similar to a standard road trunk. I'm sure there's a good reason

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