This is not a post about a build of some kind, but more of a research/question. So no build photos right now, but if you have some input I would be happy to read it :)
After having to do some flying the past days and my soft/fabric suitcase breaking apart I looked into getting a replacement. What I need is a large suitcase for checked luggage. Not some crazy odd or large shape, but a decent suitcase for (multi) week traveling. I love the old Aluminium rimowa cases, but they are super pricey and I also heard quality is not what it used to be. So I thought: Maybe I can build an Aluminium case myself? Surprisingly I can’t find too much online about selfmade suitcases. Does anyone have experience/resources regarding this? Are there regulations (other than size) I would have to follow?
Zarges (alu crates) is quite the name around here, and my first naive thought was: Rivet some wheels and a handle to that thing and you have a nice case. Of course I would want to go a little further here, but do you think that would be somewhat feasible?
Thanks for reading and I am happy for any feedback :)
For the price of a suitable Zarges box you’ll also get a somewhat used Rimowa case.
If you’re looking at the secondhand market, only buy the ones that have the bag holder, those are pre-Louis Vitton.
Will look into it, though I remember prices to be quite high here. thx for the tipp!
Where’s “here”?
Germany. I’ll check again with your input though, I might be looking at the wrong cases.
Ne, die sind schon nicht so wirklich günstig. Inzwischen kann es sogar sein, dass die alten Serien von vor dem Konzernverkauf wieder teurer werden, die gehen ja auch irgendwann aus.
Aber Zarges will halt auch ein Schweinegeld, plus Dichtigkeit bei selbst drangetackert ist auch wieder fragwürdig und und und.
Abgesehen davon ist bei den Alukoffern auch nicht alles eitel Sonnenschein, die kommen halt mit anderen Problemen ums Eck. Lassen sich dafür halt reparieren und ausbeulen, das funktioniert schon erschreckend gut.
Wir haben eine Sammlung aus 2x Handgepäck, 2x mittel und 2x groß, und die werden wir auch so schnell nicht hergeben.
I was just thinking about how shitty new suitcases are this week.
I still have a trusty Samsonite from the 80s that has done a lot of international travel, its a very thick-walled flexible plastic and has a full rubber seal, so if it fell off a boat or plane crashed it would keep all my stuff dry if I’m alive to use it LOL
Today’s comparible would have to be something like a Pelican Case to get same durability.
This is one of those things where the likely reason you don’t see a lot of entries as far as DIY goes is that the expense of creating the tooling required to make specific pieces properly is so high that it doesn’t make sense unless you’re going to create a lot of them.
I’m not an expert at aluminum machining at all, but I have commissioned some very small custom pieces. From what little I have had done, I’d expect replicating the pieces for something equivalent to that to be very expensive and unless you’re very lucky, you’ll probably have to make at least a few pieces more than once to account for tolerances/etc.
Honestly, I don’t think the tooling would be too terrible. Ron Covell has been making crazy shit out of sheet metal using nothing but hammers and simple wooden forms for many years, and I think it might be possible for OP to do the same. Granted, it would be hideously time consuming and would require great skill, but I think it’d be doable.
Where I live, you can find most of the major brand named luggage at the discount stores. My wife and I got some aluminum carry on luggage last year for less then half the cost of new, because it was probably a last years model or something. (from TJ Maxx)
The Myth of the Self-Made Suitcase
