Ever since I started collecting, I’ve felt that there was a lack of attractive yoyo cases on the market. We spend hundreds of dollars on collectible yoyos, then we display them in cheap, ugly, plasticky, yoyo bags or throw them unprotected on a shelf or table top. (The one exception were the nice cases that Brett used to sell on hispeedyoyo.com. Unfortunately, those are no longer available.)
If you’ve ever seen a photo of the old Tom Kuhn Heirloom boxes filled with No-Jives, you know how rewarding it is to have a good looking case to go with your collection. The Heirloom boxes were made of wood and imparted a real sense of class and elegance. Regrettably those too are impossible to come by. In fact, original TK cases often go for two to three hundred dollars nowadays (without yoyos!).
Some Tom Kuhn Heirloom Boxes:
Anyways, after quite a bit of scrounging and brainstorming, I decided to make my own yoyo case. I’ve found that old vintage cigar boxes make the perfect base if you can find a proper size. They’re classy, they’re made of wood and they come with a wide variety of retro labels, illustrations and branding.
I used perforated foam for the inside. The beauty about this foam is that you can pick out square sized bits to exactly fit the yoyos you want to hold. The foam holds the yoyos tightly and securely. I can flip the box upside down and the yoyos don’t come loose.
I bought a bunch of other cigar boxes and am going to put together several more of these cases as my weekend project. As an alternative to foam, I am also going to try building some thin wooden dividers for the inside as well. (I am going to have to teach myself how to work with wood.) While this won’t protect quite as well as the foam, it might provide for a more rustic look. (Sorta similar to the Heirloom boxes.)
If anyone is interested, I might sell a few of these when I have them done. The boxes are all different, so each one will be unique!
Totally interested. I tried a laterally-related project, converting an old fishing tackle box of mine into a yoyo case. However, I couldn’t find a source of that perforated/pluckable foam locally. I ended up using normal white styrofoam and a hole saw, but it’s not the same as compress-fitted proper foam!
Looks darned nice.
I actually have a cigar box lying around here that I picked up to become a cigar-box guitar. Never got around to that project!
Once upon a time I also made my own custom case for a microphone set. However, this was easy because the foam came like this in the original cardboard box. Just made a wood box with an extra storage area to go with it.
Perforated foam. Google it you can find it online for like $7. But the only problem is shipping probably kills you. I can’t find any place locally that sells foam used for cases.
Yeah, I managed to find some foam locally at my hobby store, but it’s expensive. It’s cheaper online, but the problem is you need to buy a bunch of it for it to be economical.
Shipping cost is the biggest challenge with these boxes. You need to pay for shipping the supplies to you, then you need to build it, then you need to pay for shipping the box to the customer.
I think I’ll be able to make the boxes for between $35 and $55 shipped depending on size and box type.
As I mentioned earlier, I found the foam at my local hobby store. I’m going to experiment with some foam from online suppliers but I don’t have a good source for the perforated stuff.
