Custom Djembe Cases

The Summer of 2003 I decided to make some djembe cases for my 10" & 12" Remo Djembe's using my technical skills, a sewing machine, and AutoCAD. I spent a couple weeks thinking about what the cases should look like, the durability and comfort of the material; the extra pockets for equipment like a Lp Claw, XLR cable, SM57, and modded conga feet.

I decided to keep the profile sleek after seeing the generic cases available, ugly & unimaginative - unlike the drummer it reflects.

My last case fell apart on me sometime in between going to Jamaica, Japan, Juarez, Boston, New York/Jersey, Arizona, New Mexico, and various other construction/new group trips. If I treat my cases badly or roughly without realizing it -- the material would have to be durable, especially for road travel.

I decided to go with a furniture fabic that was durable yet soft so if I wanted to use it as a pillow while lounging or waiting to jam -- I could.

I then drew up a 3d plan in AutoCAD, flattened the design using 'old school' tomography into how many sections and parts I wanted & optimized the pattern loss, while I mapped the variables in overhang by material; I then chose an interior fabric with guards and zipper lining (my last one had metal zippers exposed and ate up the side of the head of my djembe.)

Then I made these:

The next step I am going to do is to make a Klong Yao Case Design -- after that I will modify my Djembe plans with improvements and customizations based on the past seven years of use.

This time I think I will use Revit, 3ds Max & AutoCAD along with Illustrator, Illustrate 3, & Illustrate! -- with some custom macro's to come up with the plans for the new cases. This also gives me an excuse to learn the finer aspects of Autodesk Inventor and Algor DesignCheck and apply those lessons to my engineered art.

**With the left over material, I designed a small gig bag that I could fit inside the hollow cavity of either one of my drums.  I will be posting a link to it on my website CV - Once I train myself in some of the new practices and procedures for web development.