ATA case regeneration complete!

In announcement of the completion of the task commenced in the August 2nd, 2017 post, Skies of Tatooine / renewal of the ATA case: Well, that took a long time.


For any mere mortal, it might have been a couple weekends of work. But for a deity of lethargy like myself, those weekends required some months to space them out.


Here's the complete recipe for what I did to revitalize this case:

• Removed the nasty old foam that smelled of cigarette smoke gone especially rancid like it fermented and rotted simultaneously, or something

• Wiped down the whole unit with white vinegar 2 or 3 times to neutralize the odour (didn't improve it all that much, it seemed)

• Arduously removed the old glue from the inside of the outer case by heating it with a hair dryer and scraping it with a chisel (so boring and arm fatiguing!)

• Let the case sit in my garage for months, until there was no more of its former scent (good idea or happenstance)

• Polished the most of the metal on both cases

• Cleaned the wheels of grime

• Washed, wiped and vacuumed all wooden surfaces

• Bought new polyethylene foam and adjusted its size where needed

• Glued in the new foam with 3M 77 spray, and used heavy objects to compress the foam pads onto the surfaces while they dried

• Put the inner case back into the outer case

• Installed a Korg tuner into the top slot and admired the fact that there's actually some of my gear in it, now

Here are some photos of the process, as it progressed:

A photo from the original Craigslist listing for the case - shown with its covers off.

The inside of the outer case, after I pulled off the foam, with pieces of foam still sticking to the old glue that was holding the foam in place.

The inner case and rack, separated from the outer case.

One side of the outer case, after having removed a bunch of the old glue

Jumping forward by a bit, here's having done all the cleaning, polishing, gluing and foam-inserting, and having just slid the inner rack back into the outer case.

 

Installing some new "cage nuts" clips that the gear will be screwed into. I left a lot of the old clips on the rack rails, and replaced only the rusted and more nasty-looking ones.

And here it is looking all smart with the Korg tuner installed.

The next phase of my global domination plan is to move my rack gear from the 2 smaller racks and some miscellaneous piles that it is currently is in, and into the marvelous rack of blue.

Here is the tentative list of gear to be moved in:

Korg DTR-1 tuner
Furman conditioner #1
BOSS GE-21
TC electronic 1128
TC electronic 1140
Digitech Valve FX
Marshall JMP-1
ADA MP-1
Digitech DHP-55
Alesis 3630
Drawmer DS-201
Pedal shelf
Voodoo Lab GCX
Furman conditioner #2
Second pedal shelf
BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer
Aphex Aural Exciter C


I don't have the ordering or wiring scheme decided upon, yet. With variable good possibilities, I might just start putting the basics into the rack and work it out as I go.

C~ Soundscapes