Insulation for homemade flight case

[bachsteady]

Hello, anyone out there have ideas on material that would be good for the inside of a homemade flight case for an ARP odyssey. The last stuff I had in there would slowly disintegrate and my keyboard tech told me it"s not good at all for the inside of the electronics. So to be clear what I"m taking about is the foam or molded padding that will keep the keyboard from moving around and add the extra layer of protection.

 

Thanks all

[Baldwin Funster]

If they are still open, my former place of employment, Cabbage Cases will sell you foam. Columbus Ohio.

Otherwise, I've seen foam sheets at Joannes fabrics. Or TCH hardware. Or Penn Hardware.

[stillearning]

The only thing I"ve used is foam wrapped in soft cloth. Like you, I found that foam can disintegrate over time into small bits.

[bennyray]

I figured out that foam disintegrates over time into small pieces. What I did was put black gorilla tape over the foam where it wouldn't break off and get on my keyboard but I always use a blanket to cover my keyboard when

 

it's in the case. But most importantly I don't use the road case much anymore since I only play local now. Mine case has been in the basement for about 5 years at least and pieces of foam were breaking off I just

 

removed most of it and covered the rest in tape just for cushioning.

[BluesKeys]

Carpet padding! it is cheap and often a carpet shop that does high volume has a few pieces of scrap they will give you!!!

[ShadowMan]

I"ve had good success with the hard, dense foam that electronics are packed in.

 

I grabbed a bunch from some server cartons that were being discarded and glued them in place in my case.

[Docbop]

If you search for road case foam there are places like Amazon that sells rolls of it.

 

https://www.amazon.com/road-case-foam/s?k=road+case+foam

[bachsteady]

Thanks for all the feedback, always appreciated.

 

Bachsteady

[hardware]

Check Ammo Case Foam, the kind you can shape by removing chucks.

I shaped the foam around a large Physis K4 then Sprayed Flex Seal around it, total cost 26bucks, slides in and out of ATA Cases or my Gig Bagthats a softy.

[GRollins]

I once contacted Anvil Cases about refoaming an old, rotted case. It was going to be stupidly expensive and would only be temporary, as the new foam would rot, too. But in the middle of my email exchange, something occurred to me...I've got a chair that belonged to my uncle. It's got fairly dense foam in the seat cushion, almost as dense as the foam they put in cases. The funny thing is, that chair is 40 years old if it's a day and hasn't decomposed.

 

So...what gives? What's different about the foam in the chair and the foam in a case?

 

Here's my hypothesis: The foam in a case is, by definition, in an enclosed space. Any outgassing that occurs will be confined to the inside of the case and will build up over time. I think it's possible that the chemicals that outgas from the foam attack the foam. After all, they're plasticizers, and that's their job--to keep the foam pliable. But...perhaps they oxidize or something and that leads to a runaway reaction where they "over-plasticize" the foam, melting it. My uncle's chair can breathe. The plasticizers can escape into the atmosphere. Granted, eventually foam exposed to the air dry rots and gets crumbly, then turns to dust--the mirror image of the destructive process in a case--but that process takes much longer and doesn't make nearly the mess.

 

So what happens if you leave your case cracked open so it has a little air circulation to let excess plasticizer vapors out?

 

I asked the guy at Anvil about this and he reacted as though he'd been stung. Got rather testy, in fact, which I found surprising. Why would he act like that when it was just a simple question, "Would it help if I left the case open so it could breathe?" Maybe the chemicals are carcinogenic or something and he didn't want to expose the company to a lawsuit. I don't know. But his response was unexpectedly quick and harsh. I shrugged and broke off communication.

 

I'm in no position to insist that my hypothesis is correct and an experiment based on my idea will take years to prove out, one way or the other. It's just a thought, but you might consider leaving a little air circulation when your case is stored. Might help.

 

Grey

[wineandkeyz]

I've relined a couple of cases using foam from Carry Cases Plus.

[J. Dan]

You can get foam for the inside of Pelican case but it's expensive. There used to be a place here in town called "Foam Products" that I used in the past even though they were set up for commercial sales, but they went out of business. Some of the fabric places have foam that is decent for a while but doesn't stand the test of time in the long run.

[mate stubb]

The last time I needed case lining, I bought a 1" foam mattress topper and cut it up with an electric knife. Easy peasy.