I also built a pile of WC-22 cases. I think that is the number. Its a common cases for many many Marantz receivers. And since I have many Marantz receivers it seemed logical to build a few in a mass production line. Here is the one original case I have. It came from a 4270 so it has the huge metal vent plate.
The case has had a hard life.
Some things to note about the construction:
The case is 3/4" particle board with an incredibly thin veneer. I never investigated fully but I think the bevel in the front is veneered particle board also. Very strange.
There are cutouts on the bottom for side vents where the heat sinks are on the receiver.
There is a cutout in the middle for the SQ quad decoder that screws to the bottom of the receiver. (yes I have the decoder and I also have the wired remote volume control in the original box. yea me)
The top vent is pretty much as wide as it can be without cutting the entire top off. That is because the heat sinks are on the sides of the receiver. On other models the heatsinks are along the back or other locations so I did not cut the huge holes on those.
I really got into mass production on this project. I made 5 cases but later realized I needed 7 because I forgot about the pieces I had in my office. That is where I keep some of my favorites. But it is probably good that I have 2 more to make because I made all of these other slightly too large where the face plate goes. Like 1/8" too large but they are all identically wrong. Fail. And the face plate is about the only place where 1/8" gap is really noticeable. Oh well. I think it had to do with some cumulative error from the plywood not being exactly 3/4" thick and my veneer being thicker than the original. And the bearings going out on my table saw. I think that on future case builds I will build the frame for the face FIRST. Then build the wood box to match that face. Especially on cases like these where the frame has to fit exactly.
Google the difference between "precise" and "accurate". . .
Measure once, cut 5 times. blah blah blah.
I also noticed that the cases were not gluing up perfectly square. Again probably because the bearings are going out on my table saw. But here is a picture of how to make the frame square once the band clamps are in place:
Put a bar clamp across the long diagonal and squeeze it square. You can also see that I finally figured out that the ONLY smart place to mark the cases is "FRONT BOTTOM". All the other ones get cut out or you can't see them because they are on the top of the case.
I made this template for the cutouts:
I like the idea of having the top and bottom cutouts on the same board. It gives more room to clamp the board down without wasting plywood. For the smaller amplifiers that needed less vent space I just uses less of the cut out. And you can see that I wimped out on cutting the three holes to match the original. I just made one big hole that went side to side. It does not actually have room for the SQ module.
I also got this thing which I like better than the roller for pushing bubbles out of veneer:
I forget what it is called but Amazon kept pushing it to me every time I ordered veneer.
I was not entirely happy with the way the corners on the veneer turned out on these cases. I'll take some detailed pictures to show what I mean. I am going to do a sample or two of putting on the veneer BEFORE making the miter cuts. Just to see if that provides a cleaner finished product. I'll post some finished cases along with those pictures when I get around to it.
