Making a snug fit for my keyboard in the case.

Emp_Fab

I’ve got one of these..



....and one of these wot I do use as a midi controller..




The problem is that the bag is quite a bit larger than the keyboard and, being just a generic bag, it bounces around inside it.

I’ve been trying to work out the best way to pad out the case and first looked at polystyrene blocks I could shape but they’re not as cheap as you would expect.  The I got to wondering whether filling a bin bag with expanding foam and laying the keyboard in that.  Any other ideas ?

mistercharlie

Try to swap for a smaller bag?

Or check the recycling bins for suitable polystyrene. Or see if your local washing-machine shop has some that it’s throwing out. 

rlw

I have a cold.   I read this as "Making a snug fit for my boyfriend in the case" so was bemused by the picture of the keyboard.

Nitefly

What @mistercharlie said - local businesses such as window installers always seem to have loads of gash polystyrene packing/insulation out the back.  

57Deluxe

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/09/article-0-130011D6000005DC-119_634x479.jpg

ICBM

Find a nice carpet with a shorter dimension that will just fit in the keyboard case. Roll the keyboard in the carpet and put it in the case, making it a tight fit and better protecting the keyboard.

At the gig, unroll it and put you and your gear on the carpet. It's very fashionable you know...

Phil_aka_Pip

That looks like one of those Thomann bags. I've got two of them.

I think that some kind of loosely-filled bean bag could be a good idea ... cloth won't rip as easily as a plastic bin bag. Depends on what kind of space needs to be filled. You could make a cheap sausage-shaped space filler using a rolled up towel inside a football sock.

Emp_Fab

@Phil_aka_Pip Spot on.. it is one of those Thomann bags.

Some good ideas guys, thanks.  I’m not so keen on the carpet idea ICBM, sorry.  I can just see the inside of the keyboard after a while....   bits of carpet fibre everywhere, and I’m too lazy to wrap it in a plastic bag first!

I really fancy the idea of making a custom-fit mould using a couple of tins of that expanding foam and some heavy-duty plastic bags.  I’ve never used it before so I have no idea how durable it is.  Either that or assemble one from polystyrene, cutting and glueing blocks as needed etc.  My main objective is to stop it sliding around in the bag as there’s about 4” either side and about half that front to back when it’s in there.  I also need to protect the keys themselves as I’ve already had to replace one that got smashed.

I need a hard case, I know.  But until I can justify the expense (not sure if it’s going to get a lot of use at gigs yet), I’ll settle for the bag - just packed better than it is now.

Bridgehouse

Is Mrs Emp Fab handy with a sewing machine? (Or you?) make some custom pillows with teddy bear stuffing for each end.. 

Bridgehouse

Actually - if you were going to do my above suggestion I'd make a custom bag liner where you kept it in the bag permanently and just drop the keyboard into that

Danny1969

I would line the bottom and sides by cutting up a roll mat like this 



Expanding foam doesn't work well with friction as bits come off, something spongy like the above is better 

Emp_Fab

Cost would be an issue here Danny...  I don’t just want to fill up the gaps in the bag, I want to provide some protection for the keyboard on all sides.  Putting multiple cut-up mats in there would not be cheap plus I’d have a jigsaw puzzle to reassemble after every gig.

I could buy a large block of high density foam and sculpt a keyboard sized hollow, but again - expense and time.

Abrasion of expanded foam wouldn’t be an issue as I would glue a thin cotton sheet over it.  I’m not sure what I could do to protect the top though.  If I filled up the bag around the keyboard, either with expanding foam, cut foam, polystyrene, whatever, then there is still nothing but a thin sheet of bag nylon between the top half of the keyboard and the outside world.  I could create an upper-half mould and glue that into the case, creating a clamshell-type case.  That would be very secure but bloody fiddly to make I reckon.

Maybe it would be better to just buy a second-hand flightcase....  but they are rare.

Danny1969

That mats a fiver mate .... and big enough to do the job in one surely ? just cut it so it fits in the bag in one big U shape with a higher U one side so it forms a lid before you zip the bag shut and from the leftover cut 2 end pieces and hot glue them into the ends of the bag
Protected all sides for a fiver 

rlw

57Deluxe said:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/09/article-0-130011D6000005DC-119_634x479.jpg

quite....and who knows where that will end?

Emp_Fab

I *think* I follow you but I can’t work out how one mat (or even two) is going to be able to fill the 4” gaps at either end AND have enough to protect the rest of it.  I primarily need to stop the keyboard sliding about inside the case - and that means gap filling.  Cushioned panels is a bonus.

I’ve just checked the dimensions...  The case is 102 x 40 x 14cm.  The Korg is 73.6 x 29.9 x 10.2cm.  This means the gaps are (assuming the keyboard is positioned centrally within the case on all 3 axes); 14.2cm on the left and right sides, 5cm front and rear and 1.9cm beneath and above it.  That works out at 26,326 cm3 of space to fill.  One of those mats fills just 5,400 cm3.

At least guitars are similar in size, so gig bags can be shaped!  What do you fill the gaps with on yours @Phil_aka_Pip (assuming you don’t have identical, perfectly sized keyboards for the bags!).

thumpingrug

My initial thought was something like this

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/High-density-foam-Upholstery-foam-cut-to-any-size-Replacement-Sofa-cushions/292299133755?hash=item440e62d33b:m:mY8zcBlVAPuKebDbu0LyQcw

but it can get expensive.  

Do you know anyone with an old caravan they are looking to get rid of as you could use the cushion / bedding foam?

Phil_aka_Pip

Emp_Fab said:

 What do you fill the gaps with on yours @Phil_aka_Pip (assuming you don’t have identical, perfectly sized keyboards for the bags!).

I don't have ideally sized keyboards, but neither do I pad the bag. The Thomann bag has padded sides and my keyboard has never suffered from having a guitar case laid on top of it. I've not noticed the keyboard suffering from sliding around in the bag either. When I was taking my keyboard out regularly I folded the stand and laid it in the bottom of the bag, then laid the keyboard on top of the stand. The contents would slide to the lowest part of the bag when I picked the bag up, and no damage was done.

FX_Munkee

I have to admit my first thoughts on @Emp_Fab and expanding foam were of this story (not mine):-

A friend of mine once built a canoe. He spent a long time on it and it was a work of art.

Almost the final phase was to fill both ends with polyurethane expanding foam.

He duly ordered the bits from Mr Glasplies (an excellent purveyor of all things fibreglass) and it arrived in two packs covered with appropriately dire warnings about expansion ratios and some very good notes on how to use it.

Unfortunately he had a degree, worse still two of them. One was in Chemistry, so the instructions got thrown away and the other in something mathematical because in a few minutes he was merrily calculating the volume of his craft to many decimal places and the guidelines got binned as well.

He propped the canoe up on one end, got a huge tin, carefully measured the calculated amounts of glop, mixed them and quickly poured the mixture in the end of the canoe (The two pack expands very rapidly).

I arrived as he was completing this and I looked in to see the end chamber over half full of something Cawdors Witches would have been proud of. Two thing occurred to me, one was the label which said in big letters: "Caution - expansion ration 50:1" (or something similar) and the other that the now empty tins said "approximately enough for 20 small craft"

Any comment was drowned out by a sea of yellow brown foam suddenly pouring out of the middle of the canoe and the end of the canoe bursting open. My friend screamed and leapt at his pride and joy which was knocked to the ground as he started trying to bale handfuls of this stuff out with his hands.

Knocking the craft over allowed the still liquid and not yet fully expanded foam to flow to the other end of the canoe where it expanded and shattered that end as well.

A few seconds later and we had a canoe with two exploded ends, a mountain of solid foam about 4ft high growing out of the middle, and a chemist firmly embedded up to his armpits in it.

At this stage he discovered the reaction was exothermic and his hands and arms were getting very hot indeed.  Running about in small circles in a confined space while glued to the remains of a fairly large canoe proved ineffective so he resorted to screaming a bit instead.

Fortunately a Kukri was to hand so I attacked the foam around his hands with some enthusiasm. The process was hindered by the noise he was making and the fact he was trying to escape while still attached to the canoe.

Eventually I managed to hack out a lump of foam still including most of his arms and hands. Unfortunately my tears of laughter were not helping as they accelerated the foam setting.

Seeking medical help was obviously out of the question, the embarrassment of having to explain his occupation (Chief Research Chemist at a major petrochemical organisation) would simply never have been lived down. Several hours and much acrimony later we had removed sufficient foam (and much hair) to allow him to move again. However he still looked something like a failed audition for Quasimodo with red burns on his arms and expanded blobs of foam sticking everywhere. My comment that the scalding simple made the hairs the foam was sticking to come out easier was not met with the enthusiasm I felt it deserved.

I forgot to add that in retrospect rather unwisely he had set out to do this deed in the hallway of his house (the only place he later explained with sufficient headroom for the canoe - achieved by poking it up the stairwell.

Having extricated him we now were faced with the problem of a canoe construction kit embedded in a still gurgling block of foam which was now irrevocably bonded to the hall and stairs carpet as well as several banister rails and quite a lot of wallpaper.

At this point his wife and her mother came back from shopping......

Oh yes - and he had been wearing the pullover Mum in law had knitted him for his birthday the week before.

smigeon

If you happen to have any spare DIY floor tiles, you could glue some foam rubber to those and cram them in the bag :-). (You can tell I’ve been a long-time lurket on here.)

roundthebend

I'd buy some foam and cut it to size. Not sure what your budget is but I think this is reasonably priced and will give the best result. Glue pieces together to make a pocket, then just have one strip loose as a lid.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/292299133755

Rocker

You are housing a Korg. Korgs are not all that cheap. Protect it with foam which you can cut/carve with a Stanley knife to fit your bag and cut out a space for your keyboard. Line it wth cloth or velvet stuck around the edges. If it is a good instrument, it is worth protecting.