Pelican Cases eat your heart out!

[joshman (Josh)]

well, i've been at it again, creating good looking boxes to house my astronomical equipment, this time it's a box for my camera and associated viewing apparatus, and i reckon it turned out alright.

All up it cost me nothing except my time to make. the box is an old wooden one that was used to house and extremely old-school potentiometer, which was easily gutted for my purposes, this box is extremely sturdy and well made, the black egg-shell foam was freebies that i scored from work, and the green foam is leftovers from my ed80 case.

so there you have it, an extremely snug fitting case for my gear.

in there you can see:
- 2" 2x barlow
- Canon 350D
- 2" extension tube
- 1.25" 20mm Orion Expanse eyepiece
- 1.25" 12.5mm Illuminated reticle

with room to spare! i'm tempted to make a separate case for eyepieces, and use the extra room in this case to house things like batteries and bit and pieces... ideas?

[snowyskiesau]

Good one Joshman

It's prompted me to get stuck into doing something with a few cases I've had lying around the place for years.
The black and silver boxes are about 450mm square by 200mm deep, the red one is 500mm x 260mm x 220mm.
Foam is from Clark Rubber and sold as camera foam.
The red one will probably end up as the eyepiece case with room for the Argo Navis. The black box will be fitted out to take a Vixen GP mount. Not sure about the silver box, perhaps for the camera.

The two larger boxes are from the days when disk drives were the size of washing machines and removable 19" disk packs (256MB capacity) were sent between sites..

[joshman (Josh)]

good stuff, look forward to seeing what you do with them, keep me posted!

mmm, my next case will most likely be for the HEQ5 head, so i'll need to have a super sturdy case to haul that around in.

[CoombellKid]

I recently made this case up for my 20x80's. It was originally meant for
the secondary cage of the lil 8" reflecter. but after remaking the SC it was
to big for the box I had already built for it. I've completed it since this photo
was taken, it has brass corners and the retaining chain for the lid. Made from
12.5mm ply wood and strong enough to stand on. I counter sunk the latches
and handle so you can sit on it without the latches and handle sticking into
your bum.

Oh' Yeah! the rubber you see on the moldings are ex mouse pads lol

regards,CS

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Josh, the case is very nice, but the camera looks out of place amongst EP's.

Send me the camera and you'll have more room for EP's

Nice work, mate

[joshman (Josh)]

very nice coombelkid!!!! you should make me a box one of these days....

as for you, ken....

my camera!!!! until i get bored of it, and desire something bigger and better it'll stay there, uncomfortably nestled amongst the eyepieces.

[Astrowood]

Reusing old wooden cases for astro gear is also something that I have done. Below is an old medical equipment case of some sort, that I was able to refinish for as an EP case. The wood is mahogany with nickel plated hadware.