cd storage
Aug 25, 2002 at 4:55 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 20

kelly

Herr Babelfish der Übersetzer, he wore a whipped-cream-covered tutu for this title.
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I have one of those plastic cd carrosels that holds a little over 400 CDs and I really dislike it. The joint collection was over 700 when my ex left with a good chunk of them and then lost another 50 to a car theft. Now I can probably get every CD I currently own in the rack... but I hate the rack.

I like to store them alphabetically which means leaving gaps on purpse and then reslotting a bunch whenever I buy any. That aside, I just don't like bowsing them that way.

I have about 350 DVDs and 100 LDs stored in a normal bookcase and I've found that to be a far better way to store things...

Except of course that this takes up even more of my precious apartment wallspace.

So... I'm thinking of buying or building something that's explicitly for CDs. In other words the shelves would be barley deeper than 5" and barely more than 5" apart so that it ONLY holds CDs. Since all of the new standards are in roughly jewel case sized packages, this ought to be a safe bet.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions from those of you with 1000 or more neatly organized CDs?
 
Aug 25, 2002 at 5:40 PM Post #2 of 20
Both storage bookcases i own have adjustable shelves, which gives me the ability to add shelves as i move my cd collection around. With cds or dvds, the space is a perfect fit.

I think its a good idea to build your own, but it might cost as just as much to build it as is to buy one from a store.
 
Aug 25, 2002 at 5:49 PM Post #3 of 20
Kelly,
I just built a bookshelf style CD storage shelf with a capacity for 490 CDs (70 per shelf x 7). It is fabbed from 1/2" Apple Ply, which has a Maple veneer over 7 sheets of Alder core. Apple Ply has zero to minimal voids in the inner plys, so the edges can be used as finished edges.

I built mine with a 6" space above each shelf, with a depth of 61/8". It came out suprisingly well proportioned and the oil-varnish finish highlights the rotary-cut curly veneer wonderfully. I finished the edges with an 1/8" roundover.

Total cost was $85. for the sheet of Apple Ply, plus the linseed oil, varnish and turpentine. It is much higher qulity than anything you can buy for the price. I'll post a few pics a little later.
 
Aug 25, 2002 at 7:26 PM Post #5 of 20
That Boltz system does look good, but it also looks like it could tip over fairly easy. 600 or 1200 CDs crashing to the ground wouldn't be fun.

Dark Angel's black laminate shelving looks good. So does that CD collection.

I had a 6 ft tall metal carousel Duracell Battery store display in which I installed exact CD sized shelving where the vertical pegboard had been. The display looked like a giant battery with the copper Duracell logo around the top. I painted the ladder-like plywood shelves black. It held about 600 CDs, worked well ( was tall and didn't require a lot of kneeling to locate CDs) and looked not bad. Even though it only had 24" circular footprint, I unfortunately dumped it for space considerations after my divorce.

Ikea's got a bunch of CD storage items, but your custom built idea sounds good. A buddy of mine had a pine VHS tape storage cabinet custom made with doors that was incredibly inexpensive. If it's custom made to fit CDs, you'll get maximum storage at minimum space.
 
Aug 25, 2002 at 7:50 PM Post #6 of 20
Where I live there is lots of dust in the air. So now I only use enclosed storage cabinets with doors. It even further limits my options but dusting a 1000 jewel cases is no fun. If space is really at a premium you can also consider moving your collection into slimline 1/2 width jewel cases. You give up being able to read the title from the spine, but you get twice the storage in the same space. If you keep your CDs well ordered it's not too difficult to find things.

Of course, if you are really a maniac, you will use EAC to burn copies of all of you CDs onto archival CDRs and then you can put all the originals into storage. High quality copies will actually have fewer errors on disc and should last longer than the originals. OK, so now you have twice as many discs....
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-Z
 
Aug 25, 2002 at 8:27 PM Post #7 of 20
I have considered different solutions but not yet come to a decision. I found something in the latest IKEA catologue a few weeks ago that seems very appropiate. It's name is Drömme in the Swedish catalogue, but I don't know if it is available in other countries, and shure have another name.
It is a floor-standing shelf with movable planes for 882 CDs or 306 DVDs or 153 video casettes. It has doors that you open by pushing them left or right. Only $100.
Dimensions are 111 cm wide, 20 deep and 165 high.
Looks fairly good on picture, but I will look at it in the store first.

mbriant,
connect the shelf to a hook pluged into the wall!
 
Aug 26, 2002 at 12:11 AM Post #8 of 20
Kelly:

We had the same problem as you
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I like the Boltz units, but... well... let's just say that metal doesn't go over too well in our household
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We ended up getting two of these:

http://www.decibeldesigns.com/h638.htm

The web site is crappy, but the shelves themselve are VERY nice. They're made of *gasp* real wood, and hand finished, but they're really inexpensive considering. They ship unassembled, but once they're put together they're very sturdy and look very nice. Plus the company is a small business rather than some big mega corporation (I like supporting small business when they deserve it
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).
 
Aug 26, 2002 at 12:25 AM Post #9 of 20
I have a wooden shelf that holds about 400. The shelves are wooden dowel rods, and the whole shelf assembles in minutes, as long as you plan in advance. There's one point where you have to have a friend around, and if you don't have a friend around when you get to this step, you're screwed.

They ended up being about the size of the Boltz or DarkAngel's BlackLam's.

I don't remember where I got them. I want to say a CD store, but it was probably some place like Ikea or Pier 1.

But I am well past the 1000 mark, and those shelves only hold the current rotation and some oddball stuff. Most of mine are in boxes now. One day, I will change them all over to Can-Am.
 
Aug 26, 2002 at 1:09 AM Post #10 of 20
Dusty...now that's some serious storage. Just the sort of thing I've been looking for. About 15 years ago I used to sell advertising space to a small distributor here in Toronto called Can-Am Accessories. I forget the name of the couple who owned it, but it was a husband/wife team operating out of their house. They sold a line of simple CD and VHS tape storage trays. Nothing at all like this stuff. I wonder if they're the same people?
 
Aug 26, 2002 at 1:52 AM Post #11 of 20
Dusty, I've been looking at those Can-Am systems for years
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I'v never actually bought them because of a) price; and b) they still don't look nice enought to "pass" in this household
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But they sure do look like a nice, secure place to store your CDs!
 
Aug 27, 2002 at 4:24 AM Post #13 of 20
Quote:

Originally posted by mbriant
The Can-Am modules appear to be of similar construction as metal filing cabinets. I now wonder if these would buzz like crazy when the subwoofers kicked in.


I have actually seen one in person, and, IIRC, they were more inert than filing cabinets. I'll see if I can't find that one again (it was in a huge bookstore on the North side of the Baltimore beltway, if anyone lives up that way and wants to check for me).
 
Aug 28, 2002 at 7:49 AM Post #15 of 20
I personally like the shelves thing better than the drawers thing even though the drawers thing seems a lot more space efficient.

Unfortunately this stuff is way too expensive to buy and then worry that some Y-chromosome-defficient individual might some day move into my Castle and then proclaim my wonderful cd case to be bacheloresque or apartmenty, so the beautiful Boltz is out.

At this point, building may be the best option but I'd maybe want to go a step further than just shelves and also install doors so that the shelves look like nice little wooden wardrobes or whatever it is that miniaturized versions of got shoved into Barbie playsets as preschool purchasing propoganda.

Of course, I'd love to acquire the "Love me, love my Boltz" philosophy but I have a feeling my next attempt at cohabitation will have enough battles of higher priority already.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, everyone.
 

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