THR33P4C
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DIY Audio Rack Progress (not a FleXy)
linden518
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Awesome! I'll look for the photos.

ncdrawl
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I'm guessing that it *probably* wont cost you 7,500.00 to make.


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For those of you that don't cruise the entry level forum... I have been planing a DIY Rack for a while. My dad and I finally got started on it today.

The design is based off of SRA's Craz 4 rack.
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/silentrunning_craz_4.htm

We are using high quality maple for all of the wood on the rack and shelf supports. The Shelves will be 19x19in laminated MDF and will be connected to the rack by 3 downward pointing spikes.

Today we finished all of the shelf support frames. Tomorrow we will pick up the lumber for the 4 supporting beams and prepare all of the mortis and tenon joints that will hold the shelf support frames to the support beams of the rack.

I forgot to bring a camera out to the shop today but I will try to post some pictures tomorrow night for those of you that are interested.

THR33P4C
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The only costs to me will be the lumber for the four corner supports (Roughly $70), The cost of the custom laminated shelves, and the cones that will be on the bottom of each shelf. I'm estimating the whole project will be less than $200

My Dad is a general contractor and we have a fully equipped wood shop. Unfortunately We didn't have time to work on the rack today but I did take some pictures of what we finished last night...

This is a shot of all of the shelf support materials that we prepared last night. Each shelf support frame has two sides and two support beams in the middle that will serve as the contact points for the shelf spikes. The sides are held together with notched joints and the support beams are set down so that with the spikes, the shelves will hover less than an 1/8in above the support frames.

We dry fit a couple of the shelf supports together (left)

THR33P4C
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Mortis and Tenon joints prepared


Front Face Layed out


Gluing up the back face


Closeup of the grain on the top of the back face

mrlowry
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That's a lot of wood how may racks are you building? I'm looking forward to seeing the finished results.

THR33P4C
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Just building one... One really HEAVY rack lol

We finished the Rack part of the Rack yesterday. I still have to order and install the custom shelves. I will be finishing it today with a technique known as graying maple which will turn the wood a light gray bringing out the grain.


Getting ready to put both faces together...


Both faces glued and clamped


Just have to finish it and its done...

THR33P4C
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We applied a home made "Gray Maple" stain today. I drilled holes into an old iron man hole cover and collected the filings. I added the filings to a glass jar full of vinegar and let is sit for a few hours.

To get a more uniform color change we applied strong black tea to all surfaces and let it dry. This raised the grain slightly and in theory added more tannins to the wood.

Below is a progression from no finish to when I left the shop tonight.


1.No Finish 2.Vinegar solution Sprayed on 3.-4. color change as vinegar evaporates...


The wood will continue to get darker overnight. I'm exited to see what it will look like tomorrow.

smejias
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Cool! Awesome work.

ncdrawl
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If yall have any sort of blueprint/plans developed, id love to buy a copy of them.

THR33P4C
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All we have are a couple of CAD files that we used during planning. I don't even know a lot of the measurements for the tongue joints because my dad just did them on the fly.

This rack would be pretty hard to pull off without the proper equipment as well. We used a custom made table for the mortis and tenon joints and a good planer is a must.

I might be able to post the drawings that we made in CAD, but the only measurements really on them are for the spacing on the front and back face which we used to make sure we had adequate spacing with the shelves in place.

I did post some of my early hand drawings in a different thread but I don't know how useful those will be...
http://forum.stereophile.com/forum/showf...part=3&vc=1

We actually strayed from my original plan quite a bit.

mrlowry
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Make sure to add some of these to the DIY Gallery when you are finished. I can't wait to see the end result.

commsysman
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I think that you should have an excellent unit there when done; I hope you are not planning on using glass for shelves...I probably missed any comments you made re shelves; the thicker and heavier the better for the shelves (oh...I see the shelf information now...sorry).

I have to laugh when I see all of these units that are metal with glass shelves; talk about asking for trouble with harmful resonances...yikes!!!

Personally, I put my gear on a unit 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide that was made 40 years ago as a room divider; it has walnut veneer over extremely dense high-quality particle board; very heavy. It seems to be sufficiently inert to resist resonances pretty well (especially with the weight of a lot of equipment on it).

If one really wants a unit that will be acoustically inert, I have a suggestion:

Take a bunch of SOLID concrete blocks (not the kind with holes in the center), 16" x 8" x 4", painted black, ends facing to the front, and stack them at the left, center, and right end of some solid hardwood boards 18" x 2" x 60", and alternate first two blocks in each stack, then a board, then two more blocks in each stack, then another board, etc.

This gives you a stand so massive and inert that concern about vibrations will be almost a total non-issue. It's not all that expensive, either (but perhaps a bit heavy for weak floors...lol). It is also easy for anyone to make with no tools or talent whatsoever.

THR33P4C
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If you build a rack that way you would only be handling one of many factors it think. Ask Jan Vigne, he knows a lot about that kind of thing...

THR33P4C
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Here are some pictures of the rack after I applied a few coats of automotive clear coat lacquer.

The wood changes color depending on if its in natural or florescent light, an unexpected but cool bonus.The clear finish also brought out the unique "tiger stripe" grain we got from one of our maple boards.

It should get even shinier once I take a scouring pad to the faces.

I'm really happy with the way this turned out. When we were painting on the vinegar solution it looked almost this same color before it dried. I really liked it and wished there was some way to keep it that wet color. This automotive clear reproduced the wet color perfectly. I cant wait to order my shelves and get them in!

Jan Vigne
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Very nice! Too bad so much of the tiger striping will be covered with your shelves.

THR33P4C
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I know! I was thinking acrylic shelves but that would be such a waste... the components would cover all of the supports anyways.

But... Ill put up some pictures of the sides later. The side parts are all from that same source of wood as the supports.

mrlowry
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It look really beautiful, I'm jealous.

dbowker
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Great work- and a lot of it, I know! Nice to see someone else doing some DIY stuff around here with such attention to quality and finish.

richmunoz
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Very Nice. I am in the mood to build something now.

THR33P4C
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ITS DONE!!!

Just laminated the shelves today. Looks AMAZING!!!


Shelves All done... took about 9 hours to do them all.


Spikes screwed into a shelf

Don't make fun of my System, I just started

KBK
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That's a 2400 pro power envelope amp. I've owned two and modified both. That's a.. er..1155 preamp, I believe.

NAD is good solid gear.

And the thing you can't say to a woman without getting a kick in the boys..'that's a nice rack!".

mrlowry
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Ben-

If ANYONE makes fun of your system or your rack (especially your rack) as far as I'm concerned you can tell them to take a flying leap! Especially for a college student that's an incredible set up. You have every right to be proud.

Jan Vigne
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Very nice work and terrific end result. The finish looks great in the photos.

Pay attention to the skills your father has, depending on your major you might need a trade to fall back on.

Tell your dad his work is appreciated and have fun with your new equipment stand.

THR33P4C
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Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it. The components I have in it are (from top to bottom)

1.Pioneer Turntable (My parent's)
2.Marantz VC6001
3.NAD 1240 preamp
4.NAD 4225 Tuner
5.NAD 6340 Cassette Deck
6.NAD 2400 Monitor Series Power Envelope
7.Panamax 4300-EX power conditioner

-Ill be consulting you guys when I upgrade my speakers after I move in June.

QUESTION:
Right now I have the spikes resting on dimes. Is that ok? or should I have the spikes directly contact the supports? or just experiment between the two and listen for differences in sound?

mrlowry
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What's the surface of the floor? If it's carpeting the spikes should pierce the carpet and go to the flooring below. The only time that you'd want to use something between the spikes and the flooring is if you didn't want the flooring damaged, such as wood floor or vinyl/tile.

THR33P4C
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Its carpeting... For the floor spikes I have them going through the carpet and hitting the concrete below.

I guess I should have said cones. I was talking about the shelves. I have the cones resting on dimes instead of making direct contact with the wood.

THR33P4C
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Here are some more pictures I took after I got everything connected.


This one shows the actual color of the rack the best.

Jan Vigne
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There appears to be some amount of gloss to the wood. Did you put a sealing finish over the stain?

linden518
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Very nice!

THR33P4C
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4 cans of automotive clearcoat went on after the stain. I used a scouring pad to gloss it up. We decided on automotive lacquer because it didn't distort the color as much as some of the other clears we tried.

Jan Vigne
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Did you use a sanding sealer on the wood before the lacquer? Or did it take four coats to get even coverage without a sealer?

THR33P4C
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A sanding sealer would have changed the color. We tried conversion varnish but it colored it to much. I think I put about 6 coats of the automotive clear on with the 4 cans

Jan Vigne
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Lots of work! But it looks very nice.

mrlowry
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Quote:

I guess I should have said cones. I was talking about the shelves. I have the cones resting on dimes instead of making direct contact with the wood.

My instinct would be to say that the cones should make direct contact with the frame to better channel vibrations away from the component. The dime adds acoustic impedance which would reduce the speed and efficiency of the dissipation of the vibrations. Now if there were metal in set and and affixed to the frame matters might be different. But you might listen with and without the dimes and see what you think sounds best. That's what I'd do because it should be a pretty straight forward test.

JoeE SP9
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Very nice work!

Jazzman53
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Beautiful work !

stewart0722
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soulful.terrain
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Great craftsmanship! Good luck.

berlinguyinca
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I know I'm a couple of years late to the party. But any chance you can send me the used thickness for the wood (exspecially the studs, I assume 12/4 or 16/4) or plans. So that I can attempt to build this?

thanks and I highly appreciate it.

Sheqy
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Great work

geoffkait
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Mass, rigidity and stability are the enemy of sound, not the friends. The more instability there is in the stand, the easier it is to move in any direction, like Flexy Rack, the better the isolation against structural vibration will be. The structural vibration act in many directions, a stable rack or stand will simple move along with the rest of the building.

Sheqy
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Great work, admire the design and dedication

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