So I decided to build another audio rack

[tigerwoodKhorns]

On 9/6/2019 at 8:41 PM, 314carpenter said:

 

 

I like those L20s.  I just bought a pair.  I should have contacted you first. 

 

Nice audio rack too. 

 

[Emile]

21 minutes ago, SWL said:

Nice. I dig the glass tops.

Yeah; looks great! But think it is stone   

Note to @314carpenter ... looks great ... your workmanship is awesome   But, if I am right about the tops, the edges look like fresh cuts.  With some polishing wheels you can make them look the same as the "polished" edges.  Haha; more work  

[rplace]

15 hours ago, DMH said:

 

 

 

Great Hellen LP you have up there!

[314carpenter]

3 hours ago, SWL said:

Nice. I dig the glass tops.

Black granite.

[314carpenter]

3 hours ago, tigerwoodKhorns said:

I like those L20s.  I just bought a pair.  I should have contacted you first. 

The other pair of L20T3's are chained to the ceiling. I would've hung that pair you spied too, but I need a new driver.

 

I felt the need to and did collect the entire series.

L20T3

L40T3

L80T3

L100T3

L200T3

Been there done that now I am over it. I have 4 250Ti's now.

 

You can see the L40T3's to the left. Super rare in oak. 1989 only.

[314carpenter]

3 hours ago, Emile said:

With some polishing wheels you can make them look the same as the "polished" edges.  Haha; more work

I wish I could find some. I have a source for the granite I cut myself, but not the polishing stones. What can you tell me?

[Emile]

14 minutes ago, 314carpenter said:

I wish I could find some. I have a source for the granite I cut myself, but not the polishing stones. What can you tell me?

Did my kitchen and bathroom counters with granite.  Used polishing pads (?) to take the cut edges to the same "polished" levels.  Sorry, but do not recall exactly what "sizes" I used, but here is an example ... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Diamond-Polishing-Pads-4-inch-Wet-Dry-8-Piece-Set-Granite-Stone-Concrete-Marble-/254316981112?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c10#viTabs_0  Sorry for the extra work  but thought you may want to try it as you seem to be a perfectionist  

[314carpenter]

Sorry it took me so long to update this thread. There are so many small steps, and this diy project is taking up most of my free time. Took a couple of days off to avoid burn out.

 

Ok, the wood finish is complete. I was not completly satisfied with the sheen of the General Finishes Satin. After some thought I decided to switch to General Finishes Flat. My theater room this rack will be used in is bat cave black so shiny sparkly things do not fit the mold.

 

Just remember it is the final top coat that determines the sheen. The first topcoats applied should always be gloss (no flatteners). The flattening agents (which create the sheen) contained in all of the other sheens not labeled gloss will obscure the wood grain and color detail so use as few coats of those as possible to avoid a muddy looking topcoat.

 

Next stage is installing the shelving. Wait till you see the complicated engineering I designed into that! Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

With flash on

 

[inMotionGraphics]

3 hours ago, 314carpenter said:

Just remember it is the final top coat that determines the sheen. The first topcoats applied should always be gloss (no flatteners). The flattening agents (which create the sheen) contained in all of the other sheens not labeled gloss will obscure the wood grain and color detail so use as few coats of those as possible to avoid a muddy looking topcoat.

 

...I learn something new every day... thanks for the tip! 🙂

 

The pieces are looking great so far. I look forward to seeing how it will all fit together.

 

Brendon

[314carpenter]

Do you smell what I am steppin' in? Don't worry. Those fresh cuts will get touched up and sit overnight. The cuts will soon be covered and remain out of sight.

The paper shims are rosin paper.  Need a very small gap available for expansion/contraction of the wood.

Using brass hardware everywhere. #12 X 2" brass screws for the supports. Those screws are not bearing the weight, only the supports themselves are bearing. Everything is point loaded all the way down to the base. The brass screws only keep the supports in place.

 

So the goal is to have shelving and supports that are removable, adjustable, and flexible in their arrangement all while each individual shelf maintains a weight capacity of 100 pounds minimum. Vertical shelf adjustment requires popping a few screws, and adding the appropriate size supports in the same manner seen here.  Keeping the stain/finish recipe written down will allow for precise color match for any new support sizes I may possibly need years later. Everything is cut and drilled to within a few hundreds of an inch, so many of the same holes will still line up in a variety of arrangements. If I need to make new holes later,  not a big deal, and the old open drilled holes would be hidden because everything up the side is covered up the entire way with more supports.

 

As we can see here the shelves are supported underneath and also above allowing zero vertical movement. Also notice how they can still slide horizontally forward and back. I want to prevent them from sliding horizontally at all because eventually when I place very heavy electronics with rubber feet onto the shelf and push and pull them into position the shelf must remain immobile. It also must remain removable for reasons mentioned above. And we don't want to have to take EVERYTHING apart just adjust a single shelf height. A single piece of face trim with a few trim nails is not going to be strong enough to hold everything in. HMMMM.

 

What would you do to make the shelves adjustable, removable, and still immobile? I will show you what I am going to do later.

 

 

 

 

[inMotionGraphics]

I might be misreading the situation, but if you've added expansion gaps (with the paper spacers which I assume are temporary and will be removed), wouldn't this mean that each support brackets and the screw holding it in place is bearing the weight of its shelf? As apposed to the weight being transferred to the below supports and eventually to the base?

 

And if this were the case, then perhaps an alternative way of catering for expansion without adding gaps would be to give the support screw on each support block a bit of vertical wiggle room (by drilling a vertically elongated hole) so that all the supports are still resting on the support below them, but can move up if expansion is required. 

 

I apologize if I've missed the mark entirely, but this what I was able to gleam from your description and photos...

 

On a different topic, do you have any bracing/supports in place to prevent the shelves from sagging in the middle, or are your shelves strong enough that they won't sag under the given weights you intend putting on them? I suppose the good thing is most of the equipment will have wide feet that will rest close to your shelf support blocks so the weight will mostly be distributed close to the edges of the shelves.

[314carpenter]

2 hours ago, inMotionGraphics said:

give the support screw on each support block a bit of vertical wiggle room (by drilling a vertically elongated " slightly larger diameter hole than the actual screw) so that all the supports are still resting on the support below them, but can move up if expansion is required.

Already taken care of. I edited your post for you.

 

2 hours ago, inMotionGraphics said:

On a different topic, do you have any bracing/supports in place to prevent the shelves from sagging in the middle, or are your shelves strong enough that they won't sag under the given weights you intend putting on them?

3/4" solid oak. The material chosen is more than enough for the intended load without any possibility of bowing of the material, even after a great many years. Anything with a longer span would require a thicker material, but I am not near that point. Thicker material for my build would only add weight and cost for the benefit of aesthetics only. I will however definitely need diagonal and lateral bracing. That is coming up soon.

2 hours ago, inMotionGraphics said:

I suppose the good thing is most of the equipment will have wide feet that will rest close to your shelf support blocks so the weight will mostly be distributed close to the edges of the shelves.

The load is spread evenly between each caster, post, leg, foot, or what ever is holding it up. If it is 3 legs...divide by 3, if it 4 legs...divide by 4. You are correct in that the equipment weight will be closer to the sides, and a 100LB piece of equipment will not be loaded dead center of a shelf on one leg. Either way each shelf support will carry the same weight, and transfer that load to the support below it and so on all the way to the floor. The lowest carries the most, just like the cheerleaders in a pyramid. This is how the casters I am using have a rating of 250LBS, and having 4 of them allows me to have a maximum weight limit of 1000LBS. In cases where more capacity is needed just add more legs. My 10" subwoofer has 4 feet while the 12" has 6 feet.

[314carpenter]

OK, cat out of the bag. How do we keep those pesky shelves from sliding horizontally front to back? Million ways. I never seen this method anywhere before, but the idea came to me, so I decided to give it a go for this build. I bought a 3/16" brass rod and cut 3/4" pins, and chamfered the end cuts. I could have just bought shelf pins already made, but I made them myself anyway. OK, then drilled holes using a #14 drill bit 3/8" deep in 4 precise locations on each shelf. Very tight fit. Hammer them in until exactly 3/8" protrusion. Like I said, a million ways I could have done it. This method definitely took some time. I even have 3 variations on using this method that I decided against.

 

 

[314carpenter]

Here is close-up of those pins hard at work. 

 

[314carpenter]

After the shelving was completed, I moved on to a mock-up for a couple of the pieces of trim. Just figuring out what kind of kinks I will need to work out and how many tricks I gotta pull.

 

 

 

[314carpenter]

I am thinking about going shopping for a few wood appliques to add later just to add some personality. Maybe a pair of one of these stained a lighter shade? What do you guys say?

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=uniqantiq+hardware+supply+wood+applique&s=price-desc-rank&dc&qid=1568713178&ref=sr_st_price-desc-rank

[inMotionGraphics]

Coming along nicely...

 

Not sure about the appliques to be honest. I prefer a cleaner, more modern look, but don't let that deter you... 🙂

[314carpenter]

Final stage. Just a few touch-up spots of topcoat. I Will have the reveal this weekend. Then I will find a friend to help me carry it downstairs. Hope to have the entire system running this weekend too. Kind of a temp set-up now in the theater room but have not had time to spend in there anyway. 

[314carpenter]

Well I finally have the rack I built in place in it's final resting spot in the rear of my dedicated theater room. This is a small room. 12' 6" wide by 13' 6" deep by 8' high. Now I am making good use of that closet. Should make for good cable management too. Speaking of which, I still need to do major rewiring before I have a running system again. All the cables are the wrong length now and all need to be refitted. The plan is to have an extra long loop of cable secured in place to allow removal of the rack without having to unplug anything first. I have attached lacing bars to back of the new rack for a clean look and ease of equipment swaps. I cheated on the lacing bars and bought THESE ADJUSTABLE SHELF STANDARDS, painted them to match the rest of the rack hardware and attached them with brass screws again.

 

I decided to swap the Denon X4400H for the Marantz SR6012 I just bought.  While I still own the Classe CAV-150 it will run the front 3 speakers bridged @300W/channel. I also just bought another Monolith 7 which will run the surrounds and Atmos @200W/channel straight. The Epson 5040UB is now hung shooting a 106" Stewart Balon Borderless W/ Studiotek 100 that barely fits between the front speakers, OPPO 203, Nvidia Shield, and Harmony Elite. Only thing missing is a quality music streamer which I am kind of lost on as far as  retail pricing goes.

 

To make this space work better I removed those spinning media storage units I had in the closet. I then filled the empty closet space/sides with the orphan speakers I have left over from the center channels I use in my 2 main listening rooms. I wrapped the orphans up good with wool blankets. I filled even more voids of the closet with more wool blankets, because I have a vintage collection of them and need to put somewhere anyway. Will make for good bass traps. Removed the closet doors, hung a curtain, still working on wrapping the inside of the closet with the black felt that the rest of the walls in the room are lined with. The front 40% of the room is lined with triple black velvet. 

 

[314carpenter]

Here are a couple of the pics I took outside. Very cloudy day, but better lighting than inside.