[JaGWiRE]

So after much contemplation as to what to do with an audio rack, I decided to build my own. Every decent looking rack I could fine was atleast $300 CAD, and did not have the perfect dimensions for me. Therefore, I began browsing for options. Originally, I planend an IKEA Lack rack, but decided that the dimensions were no good for me (the lack is pretty much a square), and that it was expensive for the givings (6 shelves would had been 120 CAD + tax.) Therefore, I decided to tackle my own flexy rack.

I used various parts. The cost was probably $100-130 CAD, but a lot of things I used really aren't needed.

My parts are as follows (all parts were bought from home depot in Canada except for vinyl spray paint, which was bought at Canadian tire):
4 36" 5/8" steel threaded rods
8 steel washers and 8 steel hex nuts per shelf
2 16 1/2" by 96 inch finished black piece of wood, divided into 8 16 1/2" by 22" shelves, while I only used 6 (was able to pick from which cut pieces looked best, and the spare pieces were uesd for testing various things.)
1 quart of semi-gloss black paint (water based) for slight touching up of chips and painting the edges that were bare from when we had it cut by the home depot optisaw machine
1 10 ft pvc tube cut up to about 4 3/4"
1 can of vinyl spray paint to paint the pvc
4 feet that go under the 4 rods at the bottom. These are not glued or anything, and I was originalyl planning on using wheels, but wheels do have a limit of weight on them incase I decide to get some heavy stuff in the future, and this will go on carpet. If I lift the rack, the feet can be removed.

Here are some pictures, any comments are appreciated. I made some mistakes by not finding a professional carpenter of hardware person to drill the holes for the rods. Another mistake I made was not having the pvc cut by a professional, my hand saw did do decent 90 degree cuts, but it is hard to get everything precisely equal.










Please note that there is a lot of dust and stuff I need to clean up. As well, the bottom shelf has less space inbetween shelves then all of the other ones. They are as equal as I could make them, it was hard to get very accurate cuts on the pvc, and I messed a few cuts up so I ended up with a few pieces short, which ended up being what was used to cover the bottom shelves rods.

 

[Garbz]

looks very industrial. Will go well with some silver equipment.

Btw what kind of wood is that? MDF isn't very audiophile. Hard wood or bust

 

[philodox]

Looks nice, though I would do something around the border of the wood [the part that is cut] to pretty it up a bit. Either black again or another colour to accent it.

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox Looks nice, though I would do something around the border of the wood [the part that is cut] to pretty it up a bit. Either black again or another colour to accent it.

I didn't want to go too far with it. I just painted it black, about 3 coats now.

What kind of wood? I have no idea, I just picked it up at home depot. It's not real wood, I can tell you that, some crap made out of recycled paper or something I bet. It will do though, I did not want to begin painting my own pieces of wood if I didn't have to (I really like the pre-stained wood better), and I'm not very fussy about what is going to electrically be better, lol

.

Also, I tried some of that stuff you iron onto the wood (for covering the boarder / bare wood), and I found it was very ugly for the boarder, and a waste of the $15 it costs. I recommend everybody to skip that, and buy for the same money a quart of paint if you plan to do anything like I did.

I think that this will go nice with both black and silver equipment. As much as I'de like to have all my equipment one color, it seems to be everything I get these days is either both black and silver, or one thing is black and another silevr. Like J with his esound e5 and lavry and squeezebox, I don't think there is much you can do. I wish there was an instant paint that did perfect paints on any product you wanted and made them instantly all the same color.

I'de love to do more to the bare wood, but I don't think it's worth it when I re-think it. It doesn't look too bad imo, and I did go with semi-gloss paint. I think it's kind of nice though, it doesn't draw too much attention, and seeing I will only see the left side as the right will be pointing towards the wall and the rear will be also facing the wall, it doesn't really matter.

 

[kin0kin]

im in the market for a diy rack now as well! I've went to kent a couple days ago and they were selling some huge plank of MDF for <10 bucks. that'd be suffice for at least 4 slots of equipments. each hole cost 50 cents to drill and same as each cut. 10ft 3/4" thread cost 20 bucks, and 3l of paint cost 15 bucks. can't see myself spending more than 50 bucks for a diy stand

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kin0kin im in the market for a diy rack now as well! I've went to kent a couple days ago and they were selling some huge plank of MDF for <10 bucks. that'd be suffice for at least 4 slots of equipments. each hole cost 50 cents to drill and same as each cut. 10ft 3/4" thread cost 20 bucks, and 3l of paint cost 15 bucks. can't see myself spending more than 50 bucks for a diy stand

You'de be surprised, the hex nuts and washers add up.

Some personal advice..

I first bought 2 72" threaded rods intending to cut them. These things are very heavy and are steel. Don't expect to cut them without professional tools, and I'de avoid it because you'll never know if the hex nuts will fit back on them after (your going to want the nuts to have acess from top and bottom, they take a while and a lot of patience to screw on.) You can always use 3 rods instead of 4 if your on a budget.
Also, try to get a piece of wood that has atleast 1 of your 2 dimensions good before hand, so you aren't doing too much cutting I think. My piece was 16 1/2" deep, and 96" long, so the depth was always good, and we just needed to cut in 22" divisions. Those were free at home depot. Also, 3/4" is pretty think, you can find 4/8" and 5/8" I think. You may also want to use primer, I forgot to even though I bought some, so I am going to return it. A quart of primer and paint was $30 for me, so I have no idea how your getting 3l at that price. I did use semi-gloss though and it is water based which I thought was very important.

 

[kin0kin]

yes, i noticed the nuts are pretty damn expensive. I'd be getting the threaded rods from a metal shop and i'm still contemplating to use pvc tubes as cover for the rods or aluminium tubes. 1" alu tube cost a little over a dollar per ft...

The metal shop/kent is willing to cut the rods, I don't think my dremel is suffice to cut them lol.

I was thinking of cloning the Sanus stand as following:

as a second though, I might use a thinner diameter rod just to save on some $$ but it's not too much of a difference. I was thinking of 3/4" rod for my new tv stand and a coffee table

 

[JaGWiRE]

Kinokin, I bought aluminium tube myself, but once again, it just isn't as easy to cut or paint as PVC is, and you can really see the marks and scratches on aluminium.

Also, make sure you plan your dimensions out before building. I have about 6" or so inbetween shelves I believe. You might want the same, less, or more. I think anything over 8" is probably overkill. If you plan 4 shelves, you may suffice with 36" or even an smaller rod if they have. Oh, and the alu tube I originally bought was like $30 for 2 72" pipes.

 

[kin0kin]

kent quoted me 7 bucks for 5/8" 3 ft (36") so that's pretty much the price you're getting if you had bought it from homedepot and equivalent. is you 6" the length from tip of the nut to nut? My equipments are mostly very short aside from a receiver that I'm planning to get. I might just skip the tubes for now and make the rack adjustable until my equipment list is final (should be soon....i hope)

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kin0kin kent quoted me 7 bucks for 5/8" 3 ft (36") so that's pretty much the price you're getting if you had bought it from homedepot and equivalent. is you 6" the length from tip of the nut to nut? My equipments are mostly very short aside from a receiver that I'm planning to get. I might just skip the tubes for now and make the rack adjustable until my equipment list is final (should be soon....i hope)

$7 is about what I paid. You can adjust it either way without too much problems. It's 4 3/4" from tip of nut to tip of nut, from shelf to shelf about 6", and from top tip of shelf to bottom tip of shelf about 7 1/2".

 

[Jam_Master_J]

Here's a link to my flexy rack I made: http://www.geocities.com/viperaudiox/diy_flexy_rack.htm

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jam_Master_J Here's a link to my flexy rack I made: http://www.geocities.com/viperaudiox/diy_flexy_rack.htm

Looks good, although can that be considered an audio rack? Looks more like a home entertainment rack thingamigger to me (is thingamigger a word?)

 

[kin0kin]

I'm thinking of somehow integrating a monitor swivel to the rack since I'd be putting it beside my bed

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kin0kin I'm thinking of somehow integrating a monitor swivel to the rack since I'd be putting it beside my bed

Hm, the first thing that comes to my mind is the ikea jerker desk, because it has those swivelling shelves you can buy. Not really sure what to recommend though, I will say though if your thinking of something turning on the rod, it probably won't be the best idea, as when I put the nuts on they were pretty stiff, took maybe 5 minutes to get a nut from the top of the rod to the bottom I think.

 

[kin0kin]

If I can somehow make a U-clamp and clamp it on a portion of the alu tube (vertical board; wall mount monitor on the board), it could probably swivel fine but not rock solid. my monitor aint light despite being lcd...I'm just afraid that there is too much torque and something would mess up in long run.