Korg Volca DIY Stand Guide

Korg Volca DIY Stand

I’d seen lots of nice looking, but very expensive cases for the Korg Volca series, so to save some money I thought I’d try to build my own, with the very real possibilty of losing a few fingers :-)  

It actually all turned out pretty ok with no digits lost, however the problem I did have was with the case of the volca stand; this was either my poor woodworking skills or perhaps not having the correct equipment.

Where the case has a fold in it I managed to nick the other side, so it isn't quite as neat as it should, but it’ll do for now.  It's maybe a job for a dremel to do properly.  

I found that I had to use a thicker piece of wood for where the Volca sits, as otherwise because of the size of the screws, the wood will split (you could of course use smaller screws here but I didn’t have any).

To build the stand I used;

6.5mm Birch Plywood (250mm x 500mm) €2.60 from Modulor Berlin excl. delivery

9mm Birch Plywood (250mm x 500mm) €3.30 from Modulor Berlin excl. delivery

Black 3,9x30mm screws (€5-ish for 800 from Toom)

You'll also need;

saw/table saw

sander

ruler

pen/pencil

sheet of paper

drill

tape

I started by drawing out the angles of the stands, there were a couple of different angles I could have used, but I finally settled on 30 & 60 degrees.  One thing to note here is that you can turn the stand upside down and use the reverse angle, which gives a sharper incline.

…Then I drew around the sides of the actual instruments, with them being at the correct angles and figured out the correct dimensions from here (remember to give yourself some lee-way here, hence the 11.5cm volcas shown below are each given 11.7mm).  This give you a nicer edge without risk of the Volca overhanging.

Now draw this out on paper...  using the edge of the paper as an exact 90 degree angle (as I'm sure this'll be straighter than anything I could ever cut.

With the paper cut out (use only one piece of paper and simply reverse it for the other-side, you'll save time and get the exact duplicate), now mark out the outline on the wood.

Lovely! Now mark the other one out. 

TIP: Make sure you use the 90 degree angle of the wood, unless you have some quality cutting equipment (again, the people cutting this have better equipment than me, so I'm relying on them to cut straight.  Not the best method really, but what can you do)

With both sides marked, it's now time to cut them out.  To make this slightly easier while using a tablesaw, I'll cut the board into more manageable pieces (you might not need to do this if you're using a saw).

Cutting the wood into more manageable sized pieces...

Then cut out the main bits

At the intersection of the two Volcas, it's almost impossible to cut accurately...

...But with a little patience you can achieve an acceptable result

Cutting the 9mm wood: Use this picture to help cut the board. The length should be the same with as the Volca and the width can be shorter than a volca, as long

as it can sit on the wood without tipping over.

I used: 19.4cm x 9.8cm

The edges will be rough after cutting so we'll sand them down

I used a sander but sand paper will also work.

To smarten up the badly cut intersection, I used these files that you can get in Maplin.

Once all this was complete the boards came out looking pretty good:

Here's a little gif of the preceding steps;















Now we need to think where to sit the board that will hold up the Volcas.  To do this I marked out a line underneath the Volcas while positioned correctly on the board.














Remember the board needs to be 9mm otherwise it'll split , unless maybe you're using smaller screws than me then you might get away with it.  












Roughly draw out the 9mm board outline using a ruler - making sure it won't overhang or anything.

You only need to mark out one board for this.

Use a ruler to find two centre spots for the
two screw slots (look at the picture if that doesn't make sense!).  Remember the distances for later.









Now secure the two sides together using tape.  Make sure they're tight and don't move.











 Also mask where the drill holes will be.  This'll help prevent the wood from splintering.
















With them secured, drill through both pieces at once.


















Photo of all four drill holes successfully drilled.

 



Hopefully you've remembered the distances of the holes, because you need to now mark the same on the two pieces of 9mm wood



















Now carefully drill the exact centres of the wood.  This will create a guiding line for the screw.















Now put the screw in the sides, but don't go through all the way yet;
















With the screws just barely poking through the sides line up the 9mm wood
















Then slowly turn the screws

Tip:  only give a few turns on each side of the screw before changing to the other screw so they go through evenly and at the same time.




 





 Go slowly so you stay precise and don't split the board


















It should be looking almost finished by now, we just need to do the same with the other side.








Now just add the volcas!  You may have to loosen one side to get the volcas in, if this is the case then at least they'll be snug and won't fall out (be careful you don't over tighten it and squash the machines!).  

If you've left too much room you have two options; you can either sand down the side of one end of the 9mm board until the fit, or secure them in place with some double sided velco.

I personally think these stands looks pretty snazzy as is, but you could easily varnish them now if you so wish.

I hope this guide helps somebody!