Make a Gig Bag a Hard Case

Jerryc41

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I have a Duke 10 banjo ukulele, and it came with a padded gig bag. I have all my ukes in hard cases for protection, but there is nothing appropriate available for this (28.5" long), except possibly a $100 mandolin case. So, I started thinking outside the box.

How about adding particle board - or something - to the gig bag to make it a hard case? I would have to open up a seam and insert the board. I would also have to make the sides firm so the hard top wouldn't be pressing down on the instrument.

The other choice would be to build a hard case. I did that before, and the amount of time, work, and money wasn't really worth it.

So, do any of you have any experience or ideas about giving my Duke 10 better protection?
 
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I've made my own hard cases for a couple of my ukes. Nothing fancy, just boxes with 3/8" plywood sides and thin wood panel for the top and bottom. No padding. My wife makes me little drawstring bags that they fit in, and with those to protect the finish they fit tight enough that they don't rattle around. I've never noticed them to get scratched in the boxes, but I really don't worry about scratching them anyway. I'll post a pic of one later. I travel a bit and I pack my uke in my suitcase that I check, so the box keeps it well protected, and that is all I'm interested in. They are easy to make, but I have a whole bunch of woodworking tools in my garage, including a very nice table saw, so that helps a lot. Also I have plenty of scrap wood piled up It ends up costing the price of a pair of hinges and a couple of latches. About five dollars.
 
I've made my own hard cases for a couple of my ukes. Nothing fancy, just boxes with 3/8" plywood sides and thin wood panel for the top and bottom. No padding. My wife makes me little drawstring bags that they fit in, and with those to protect the finish they fit tight enough that they don't rattle around. I've never noticed them to get scratched in the boxes, but I really don't worry about scratching them anyway. I'll post a pic of one later. I travel a bit and I pack my uke in my suitcase that I check, so the box keeps it well protected, and that is all I'm interested in. They are easy to make, but I have a whole bunch of woodworking tools in my garage, including a very nice table saw, so that helps a lot. Also I have plenty of scrap wood piled up It ends up costing the price of a pair of hinges and a couple of latches. About five dollars.

Thanks. I spoke to a woman who's an excellent seamstress, and she said it wouldn't be practical to open seams and insert plywood, so that's out.

I made a case for a Firefly banjo uke, using 1/4" plywood, padding, and vinyl covering. It looked and worked nice, but it was too much work, too much money ($114), and too heavy. I've decided to make a case for this banjo uke (Duke 10) out of luan plywood. I'll use padding inside but keep the plain wood outside. I sold the Firefly, so I can use the hardware from that case. Maybe I'll make it large enough to hold the original, colorful gig bag. I really don't like my ukes to be in soft cases.
 
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