nedski
Newbie
Hi, all. I recently got a Fed-5 and like many people hated the one-piece case with the top riveted to the bottom. Ideally it would have a snap so you could take off that top part and not have it flapping around.
I was at the sewing store with the family and noticed they had a whole selection of snaps and tools to set them. There was one package that had snaps matching the diameter of the existing snap perfectly. It also came with tools to set the snap. Here it is on Amazon. The only downside is snaps are chrome, not black.
The tools included are a punch and an "anvil" -- a round, hard piece of plastic. Each half of the snap comes in two pieces. To set a snap you put the two pieces on either side of the material, place the "sandwich" in the anvil and smack the punch a few times with a hammer.
So the first step was removing the rivet that joins the top and bottom parts of the case. My particular case is synthetic leather with just enough "give" that the rivet came out easily with the help of a pair of needle-nosed pliers and some pulling. The hole was the exact size of the shaft on the snap.
Putting the "button" part of the snap on the top of the case was a piece of cake, took all of a minute.
The bottom part was a little more challenging. The hole is pretty close to the bottom of the case so the snap assembly can't sit in the anvil correctly - the edge of the anvil hits the bottom of the case. Also the material in the bottom of the case is a bit thicker than the top and the shaft barely pokes through the hole.
Looking through the tool chest, I found a 1/4" pin punch -- looks like this.
I put the punch against the bottom of the snap then used the snap setting punch to hammer it together. This worked - the punch caused the bottom of the snap to bend up enough to poke the shaft through the material and mate with the top piece.
So now I have a Fed neverready case with a removable top half.
I was at the sewing store with the family and noticed they had a whole selection of snaps and tools to set them. There was one package that had snaps matching the diameter of the existing snap perfectly. It also came with tools to set the snap. Here it is on Amazon. The only downside is snaps are chrome, not black.
The tools included are a punch and an "anvil" -- a round, hard piece of plastic. Each half of the snap comes in two pieces. To set a snap you put the two pieces on either side of the material, place the "sandwich" in the anvil and smack the punch a few times with a hammer.
So the first step was removing the rivet that joins the top and bottom parts of the case. My particular case is synthetic leather with just enough "give" that the rivet came out easily with the help of a pair of needle-nosed pliers and some pulling. The hole was the exact size of the shaft on the snap.
Putting the "button" part of the snap on the top of the case was a piece of cake, took all of a minute.
The bottom part was a little more challenging. The hole is pretty close to the bottom of the case so the snap assembly can't sit in the anvil correctly - the edge of the anvil hits the bottom of the case. Also the material in the bottom of the case is a bit thicker than the top and the shaft barely pokes through the hole.
Looking through the tool chest, I found a 1/4" pin punch -- looks like this.
I put the punch against the bottom of the snap then used the snap setting punch to hammer it together. This worked - the punch caused the bottom of the snap to bend up enough to poke the shaft through the material and mate with the top piece.
So now I have a Fed neverready case with a removable top half.
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kievman
Kievman
Hey Nedski Great Idea! I am going to do something close to that with all my FSU camera cases. I bought a snap kit at JoAnne Fabrics, the larger Snaps for jeans etc.. for about 10.00 and all the permanent rivets are going to get replaced with snaps so I can liberate the the covers from the bottom cases if I want to.... should of been that way from the beginning!!!!!!!!!!!!! -Kievman