catachresis
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2004
- Posts
- 2,795
- Likes
- 17
[I got the deal off fatwallet.c*m and this suggestion was originally posted there. Today only, the Craftsman Multi-Action Work Supports are each $14.99 plus tax, and you can pick them up for free from your local Sears.]
I just picked up two of these: "Craftsman Multi-Action Work Support
Sears item # 00922293000 Mfr.model # 22293" I'm going to use them as the base of an audiophile shelf, specifically for a high grade turntable.
These Craftsman Work Supports may be the perfect foundations of an item that is usually uncommonly expensive. Have a look at this good DIY site: DIY Audio Tweak Rack This was the basic model for the audio isolation rack that I was going to put together. I had been talking to a blacksmith friend of mine about the hardware involved. You can follow the advice of the folks at the Tweak site and get the rods and washers and dampers from Home Depot. I was hedging, thinking about doing something more sturdy, or more adaptable in terms of height and leveling. The threaded struts looked a little cheap to me and fiddly to get the level of the platform right. Otherwise, I was going to follow the plan format. I have another friend who works with fine wood for artisan boats, and I will probably get a very nice solid section of hardwood from him with dimensions somewhere around 24" x 16". As suggested at the Tweak site, I'll mate that with an identically sized section of Home Depot's finest MDF, with blobs of blutack evenly distributed in between. That's going to give me one very substantial shelf (the Tweak site plan is for a two-shelf unit, and I'll have to sacrifice one - kest lahvye).
The advantages of using the Craftsman supports as a frame are multiple, but let me toss out a few. Those supports are substantial, nearly all-steel constructed, and they are worked on square struts, rather than thin poles. Each support has four heavy duty rubber feet that help isolate vibration and protect your fancy hardwood floors. The platforms elevate and lower easily and then are winched tight with integral levers. The DIY rack uses washers, and it requires a good bit of time (I'm guessing) to get those four separate washers for each shelf threaded levelly; you can't just raise and lower the the corners and cinch 'em tight. I mentioned that each of the workhorse supports is heavily constructed (each support is 13 lbs.)? Last, you can set the surface of the support to a straight roller (useless for a stable platform), or to a rigid but thin linear shelf -- or to a level of individual roller ball-bearings that are chrome and look pretty decent in an industrial design sort of way.
Well, what's so great about little individual rollers? They're going to let your shelf platform roll around -- right? Well, those little individual rollers also look remarkably like the extremely fancy and typically expensive isolation cones that audiophiles purchase so that vibration from the floor is dispersed to the tip of a pointed cone or hemispherical ball before it touches the shelf platform. And I think that, if I get each of these eight rollers per support gummed with a pud of blutack, it's not going to roll. Instead, it will perform like an expensive hemispherical audiophile cone.
Instead of spending an afternoon playing with washer heights, I'm going to put my spirit-level on the composite plank, on the round cones, on the supports, and then raise and lower the side supports until they're perfect. Then I'm going to gum 'dem little balls. I'll betcha that the single-shelf platform is plenty stable when I'm finished.
The kicker is that, with a couple of very nice pieces of wood, a mess 'o blutack, and two of these Sears work supports, the whole affair comes in at around $60-70 dollars. You can hardly buy a pair of crummy Sansa mdf speaker platforms on eBay for that kind of money, and these supports are steel construction.
I just picked up two of these: "Craftsman Multi-Action Work Support
Sears item # 00922293000 Mfr.model # 22293" I'm going to use them as the base of an audiophile shelf, specifically for a high grade turntable.
These Craftsman Work Supports may be the perfect foundations of an item that is usually uncommonly expensive. Have a look at this good DIY site: DIY Audio Tweak Rack This was the basic model for the audio isolation rack that I was going to put together. I had been talking to a blacksmith friend of mine about the hardware involved. You can follow the advice of the folks at the Tweak site and get the rods and washers and dampers from Home Depot. I was hedging, thinking about doing something more sturdy, or more adaptable in terms of height and leveling. The threaded struts looked a little cheap to me and fiddly to get the level of the platform right. Otherwise, I was going to follow the plan format. I have another friend who works with fine wood for artisan boats, and I will probably get a very nice solid section of hardwood from him with dimensions somewhere around 24" x 16". As suggested at the Tweak site, I'll mate that with an identically sized section of Home Depot's finest MDF, with blobs of blutack evenly distributed in between. That's going to give me one very substantial shelf (the Tweak site plan is for a two-shelf unit, and I'll have to sacrifice one - kest lahvye).
The advantages of using the Craftsman supports as a frame are multiple, but let me toss out a few. Those supports are substantial, nearly all-steel constructed, and they are worked on square struts, rather than thin poles. Each support has four heavy duty rubber feet that help isolate vibration and protect your fancy hardwood floors. The platforms elevate and lower easily and then are winched tight with integral levers. The DIY rack uses washers, and it requires a good bit of time (I'm guessing) to get those four separate washers for each shelf threaded levelly; you can't just raise and lower the the corners and cinch 'em tight. I mentioned that each of the workhorse supports is heavily constructed (each support is 13 lbs.)? Last, you can set the surface of the support to a straight roller (useless for a stable platform), or to a rigid but thin linear shelf -- or to a level of individual roller ball-bearings that are chrome and look pretty decent in an industrial design sort of way.
Well, what's so great about little individual rollers? They're going to let your shelf platform roll around -- right? Well, those little individual rollers also look remarkably like the extremely fancy and typically expensive isolation cones that audiophiles purchase so that vibration from the floor is dispersed to the tip of a pointed cone or hemispherical ball before it touches the shelf platform. And I think that, if I get each of these eight rollers per support gummed with a pud of blutack, it's not going to roll. Instead, it will perform like an expensive hemispherical audiophile cone.
Instead of spending an afternoon playing with washer heights, I'm going to put my spirit-level on the composite plank, on the round cones, on the supports, and then raise and lower the side supports until they're perfect. Then I'm going to gum 'dem little balls. I'll betcha that the single-shelf platform is plenty stable when I'm finished.
The kicker is that, with a couple of very nice pieces of wood, a mess 'o blutack, and two of these Sears work supports, the whole affair comes in at around $60-70 dollars. You can hardly buy a pair of crummy Sansa mdf speaker platforms on eBay for that kind of money, and these supports are steel construction.
