Defending my case

A certain commenter had apparently expected some monstrosity of a flightcase when he read my articles. I take this as a compliment on my photography skills; however, when you consider the profiles, corners, catches and the handle, they should give you some idea of the real size. If it were huge, all the components would be proportionally huge as well.

Some numbers for comparison (width x height x depth):
- single case: 42 x 34 x 24cm
- CD case: 41 x 35 x 16cm
- HD case: 44 x 25 x 18cm

Some comparative pictures (from left to right: CD case, single case, HD case):


(The glossy black does look better doesn't it).


And finally, it's not the size of your equipment that counts!

The finished article

My flightcase is finished (since last weekend, but I didn't have time yet to take pictures).


I assembled it and did some foam cutting for housing disks. I used a piece of blue insulation panel (polystyrene or polyurethane foam or something) and finished it with a kind of self-adhesive black velours.


There are three cutouts for disks in the tray, one of which is currently in use. Until all three are filled, I use the space below for other stuff.

Paint it black

Now the wood- and metalwork is all finished, the paintwork has started. I disassembled the whole case and applied the paint: two coats on every side with 48 hours in between coats. The paint should in theory be overpaintable in 24 hours, but it drying in a cold and slightly damp cellar makes it take longer.
The laquer finish proves to be a bit disappointing. Apparently the cellar is a bit dusty, which translates in an accidented finish. Maybe I can polish things up once it has hardened out.

Flightcase nearing completion

The day of my accident, I had been working on my flightcase, doing the metalwork for the lid of my flightcase. I left off with all the metalwork done:


This weekend I bolted everything together and put on all the widgets: case corners, catches, carrying handle and hinges.
The bolts were a little too long, so I had to trim them down. I feared that this would become a bit of a labour-intensive job with a hacksaw, but I remebered in time I bought a Dremel-clone (Top Craft brand) a year ago or so. Don't you just love power tools:


The case has turned out deeper than I anticipated and that's because the carrying handle is rather large. I'm thinking of horizontally compartmentalizing the case so that I can put in more stuff.

The final result is now waiting for its paint job:

Holidays are over

The winter holidays are over and it's showing. As I reported earlier, I was surprised at the timeliness of our public transport and I thought it was accidental. It turns out I was right. Last friday (still during holidays), my train was 12 minutes late and I had to get on another one. And change in Berchem. No big deal though.

Today timeliness has gone down the drain permanently. It took the seats with it as well.
This morning my train was a reasonable 4 minutes late. It was, however, stuffed. I had to stand from Lier to Antwerp Central, even though a lot of people got off at Berchem. This is of course the chosen moment for the conductor to conduct his business and wriggle through the masses from one end of the train to the other.

When I arrived at metro station Diamant, the tram arrived, surprisingly, almost immediately (at that time of the day there is a tram every 10 minutes or so, so no surprises there). Unfortunately, that ends the good news. The bad news is that all fifty-odd of us were getting on that tram, joining the two hundred or so that were already on it. I now have a reasonable idea of how tinned sardines must feel.
One advantage though: there was no need to hold on tight whenever the tin accelerated or stopped; I could lean against the other sardines.

Back to work

After almost three weeks of sitting still, I went back to work today. My bike is not repaired yet (that will take at least two weeks) , so I had to use public transport. It was exactly as I remembered it from my student days: crowded, noisy, smelly, and no conductor to be seen anywhere.

I must admit I was rather surprised at the timeliness of both train and tram. I expect this was more of a coincidence. Nevertheless, it took me almost twice as long as usual to get to work.

Antwerp central station has a very impressive architecture.

Two weeks

It has been a little over two weeks since my accident and I am finally able to type reasonably again with two hands. It is still painful to lift my arm in front of me, though. Luckily, my primary keyboard is at the level of my armrests.
The keyboard for my laptop is positioned a bit higher and a bit further away and although I can reach it, it causes some pain.
Lifting my arm sideways is still nearly impossible; about 40 degrees is the maximum before the pain becomes too much.

Lifting arms, however, is one thing; applying any force with them is quite something else. It is surprising how much force normal, everyday movements require (such as pulling up your trousers) and how difficult they become when exercising that force is impossible because of the pain it causes.

As for work, I am contemplating returning a day or so earlier to get back in the rhythm. I am getting a bit bored at home. There is only so much movies you can watch and books you can read before boredom sets in.