Planning on building speaker stands, need some advice

Face

They have wall thicknesses up to 1": http://www.mcmaster.com/#tubing/=cz2vrx

Jstas

unc2701 wrote: »

As Face pointed out, you can make it look like what ever you want. And did you miss the part where I said the walls are 1/2 thick? I'm not talking about hardware store PVC. This probably weighs 2-3 times as much per foot as the steel you have in mind. I nearly broke a toe when a chunk rolled off my work bench. It feels completely solid and doesn't ring like metal. Damn near doesn't resonate at all.

Yeah, you can make them look like whatever you want but it'll still be painted PVC jammed in to plywood. Yeah, mahogany plywood but still, not the look I'm going for. On top of that, using your construction effluence only makes things worse because any other hardware I might need for it I now have to go searching for at supply houses instead of going down to my local hardware store or a Home Depot.

Floor flanges, like this:



with threaded black pipe screwed in to it looks much better and much more substantial than plastic pipe glued in to recessed holes in plywood. The pipe is not going to ring, especially filled with shot. The pipe has enough of a mass that it's going to take much more energy to make it ring than any bookshelf sized speaker I've ever seen is capable of producing. Add the mass of the shot and the odds get even greater.

Yeah, you can get a floor flange for a PVC pipe but it's pretty much an injection molded disc with mold flashing and other stuff hanging off of it. This is what a PVC floor flange looks like:



Not quite the same.

unc2701 wrote: »

So... do you think I'm really worried? Or maybe that was a joke? Kind of a Murphy's law thing? What if you buy a new house and every room is 7'3"? Dear god, man. THE SHELVES MIGHT CONVEY!

Well, you are worried enough to troll my post and mock me for what you think I haven't thought of so yeah, you're worried. Maybe not for the same reasons that I would be worried about ceiling height. But hey, what can I say? Guess I'm just not as good as you, huh?

Jstas

Face wrote: »

They have wall thicknesses up to 1": http://www.mcmaster.com/#tubing/=cz2vrx

But they only have iron pipe in 16" lengths and I'd have to cut my own threads.

I'm going to get the piping local. Shipping is insane because of weight and the place I'm going to get it will cut to length and cut threads for me.

unc2701

Jstas wrote: »

Well, you are worried enough to troll my post and mock me for what you think I haven't thought of so yeah, you're worried. Maybe not for the same reasons that I would be worried about ceiling height. But hey, what can I say? Guess I'm just not as good as you, huh?

Dude, lighten up. I've never owed a house with square walls or studs that are perfectly 16" OC. It was a joke about that, not your house or your shelves. Like I said, they look great.

Anyhow, you're clearly not interested in looking at other materials, so nevermind the PVC.

3 poles is the way to go- two will be unstable; 4 will be overkill and slight variations in lengths of the pipes will cause more issues (3 points always make a plane).

I'd put Teflon tape on them before you screw them in- you're going to be dealing with nominal lengths vs real lengths (kinda like ceiling heights), so you might not have them screwed all the way in to match heights and the tape will take care of the resulting wobble to some degree. For the flanges, use bolts though the wood instead of screws into the wood- with the length of pipe you'd have, there's plenty of torque to pull a screw out (even though the forces under normal use won't go that way, if it's full of shot and you're not careful moving them, it could happen).

The Home Depot's in my area have pipe cutting and threading machines, so they can do custom lengths, but I can guarantee that the guy working the machine will not be that precise, so YMMV.

txcoastal1

John

The wife and I do a Steampunk conventions...anyway a couple things that almost everyone uses is

http://www.michaels.com/Elegant-Finish-Metallics/cp0362,default,pd.html?cgid=products-craftpainting-paint&start=12

http://www.amaco.com/shop/product-437-rub-39-n-buff-metallic-finishes.html

These products work on metal, wood and plastic...check out the Nerf sreampunk guns on ebay to get an idea of finishes

jbooker82

What about filling the Iron pipe with silicone? That would make for excelent vibration dampining. We fill the handle bars of our dirt bikes and ATV's with silicone to reduce vibration and it really works.

Jstas

txcoastal1 wrote: »

John

The wife and I do a Steampunk conventions...anyway a couple things that almost everyone uses is

http://www.michaels.com/Elegant-Finish-Metallics/cp0362,default,pd.html?cgid=products-craftpainting-paint&start=12

http://www.amaco.com/shop/product-437-rub-39-n-buff-metallic-finishes.html

These products work on metal, wood and plastic...check out the Nerf sreampunk guns on ebay to get an idea of finishes

Yup. Know all about that stuff. Used it before.

I used to put dollhouses together for people and do the detail work. I used to use that stuff to paint window latches, door knobs, mail boxes, light fixtures, railing and other stuff. Works pretty good but it isn't cheap.

I've used this stuff too for large objects:

http://www.krylon.com/products/brushed_metallic/

Works pretty good and lasts forever if you cover it with a satin clearcoat or water based polyurethane.

Jstas

jbooker82 wrote: »

What about filling the Iron pipe with silicone? That would make for excelent vibration dampining. We fill the handle bars of our dirt bikes and ATV's with silicone to reduce vibration and it really works.

Yeah, I've done that before but for audio it doesn't seem to work out as well. Since the silicone fills in the surfaces inside the pipe, it essentially becomes part of the pipe and you can still get high frequency resonances that will vibrate stuff transferring through the silicone. It works great for low frequency stuff like teh vibrations produced by a dirt bike engine or impacts with the ground. But silicone can jiggle like jello under high frequency vibrations. Shot doesn't jiggle or vibrate at all.

The point of shot and/or sand is that the pieces are small and round so when they touch each other, the contact area is very small. Add the amount of air trapped in the pile of shot and that also dampens vibrations. It's hard for vibrations to travel through shot or sand and that's what you want. Also, shot is heavier than silicone and the added mass is a benefit for several reasons. It requires more energy to move it and that makes it more difficult to move it with the vibrations that the speaker produces. It also weighs down the stand so it's more stable and less likely to get knocked over. And, the shot can change the center of gravity for the stand so it isn't top heavy when you rest a set of speakers on them.

Jstas

Jstas

Well that sucks.

I don't have enough of the mahogany plywood to use for this. Guess I'll have to use birch veneer. I was hoping for the mahogany stuff. I'm not buying a whole sheet for this either.

The plum brown isn't working out so hot on the pipe either. The floor flanges came out great! The plum brown was a little too not brown but a gunsmith dude told me to rub them down with used motor oil and it'll darken them up real nice. Looks like oil rubbed bronze. He said there wasn't much I could do with the pipe though. They put a coating on it and it's heat treated so it ends up working like bluing does. The plum brown won't come out so hot over the coating. Looks kinda brownish purple. He said the only way to get the coating out is an acid bath. A local gun shop should be able to do it but, honestly, I'm not that worried about it. I'll figure something else out.

VR3

John if I had never met Id swear you were an ****.

But since I have met you - you are not an **** you are just John.

Therefore we all love you! XD

This thread is an awesome read... but you said it in the first post -

You didnt really need "help" lol

Jstas

Done.

Materials used:

- 1" black pipe
- 3" iron floor flanges.
- sheet metal screws
- Moen "oil rubbed bronze" touch up paint
- birch veneer plywood (didn't have enough mahogany to do all 4 plates :sad: )
- poplar edge banding
- Minwax "Red Mahogany" stain
- Minwax semi-gloss clear polyurethane
- Dupli-color semi-gloss sandable clear coat
- Dupli-color Hemi orange

The pipes are 30" long. They had a coating on them and they were blued underneath the coating. I stripped the coating off and acid bathed them to get the bluing out. I then cleaned them and the iron flanges with Simple Green (best degreaser ever) and then acetone. I threw them in an oven my dad has for just this type of thing. Dried them all out. Then, that Plum Brown above? Yeah, pain in the ****. Did 3 applications to get the color I wanted. Came out looking like oil rubbed bronze but very flat.

So, using a technique I saw on "Trick My Truck" from Ryno, I took a straw and head from a WD-40 can, put it on the can of Hemi orange, ate a Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake bar and the washed the Popsicle stick. Holding the Popsicle stick at a 35 degree or so angle at the end of the straw in the paint can, I lined up the uprights outside and splattered them with the orange paint. Little specks all over the uprights gave it a bit of a sparkle. Kinda like flecks of brass or gold. Then I coated them with the Dupli-color clear coat, sanded with 220 then 400 grit, washed down with water and then a tack cloth and another coat of clear. Sanded with 400 grit again and shot again. Let dry and rubbed down with an old wool sock to get a nice smooth finish on the surface without polishing it shiny. Looks like oil rubbed bronze but the finish won't wear off.

Next, went to cut the mahogany and I was 11 square inches short. Dang. So, went with the good old stand by birch veneer. Needed edging so I bought a couple lengths of poplar edge banding that was already molded. I cut the edge molding and finished the joinery by hand with a miter saw and a miter box. Had some issues with the wood filler I used taking the stain but my dad gave me an alcohol based tinter (basically stain that is concentrated) and I put that on to the problem spots with Q-tips. Came out good. Did another coat of stain then 2 coats of poly.

Once that was all done, I started assembling. I used some rubber gasket material to eat up the length differences under the top plates so you can't see it. I screwed the flanges in with 1" sheet metal screws so I could get the rounded heads. They fought me and one pipe isn't totally straight but you don't really notice it unless you're looking for it. Using a level and a yard stick, I got them as close as I could. Variations in the material made it difficult to get exact measurements so it's close and eyeballed from there.

I took forever because I was busy refinishing a room and work was also getting in the way. They still aren't finished in this picture. They need rubber feet so they don't mar the floor in the library. I'll get them either tonight at WAL*MART or at a hardware store tomorrow.

Oh, finishing touch, the oil rubbed touch up paint that came with my bathroom fixtures from Moen. Dabbed it on the screw heads and they just disappeared in to the flanges. Sweet.

Yeah, only giving you one picture 'cause y'all don't even deserve that. I might share another one when the Rainmakers are on them for now, this is it so cherish it. And yeah, it's a cellphone picture so it's not even that great and I don't care.

And Trey, you're not endearing yourself with your backhanded compliments.

Jstas

Oh, BTW, costs:

- Wood - was free, had some laying around but a sheet is about $48 so I'll add that.
- Poplar trim - $12
- Pipe and flanges - $80
- Paint, poly and plum brown - $30
- Screws - $4
- Rubber gasket material - $7

Grand total: $181

If I was able to use the mahogany plywood, take $48 off that price and the stands would have been about $133 for the pair.

VR3

Looks like Johnny boy

xoxoxoxoxox

Toolfan66

Looks great!!! Gives me some ideas!!

evhudsons

Killer! I've been checking on this thread fro
Time to time to see the finished job. Outstanding! Are you going to spike them?

TECHNOKID

Came out quite nice, actually looks like the vision you originally described. Unfortunate you did not have sufficient mahogany material for the project, I am convinced they would have looked that much better. I guess the mahogany can be used on another project...

Jstas

Totems on the stands.

Yeah, I know, not ideal positioning and the chair is in a bad spot but the room is a shambles and I haven't straightened everything out before I took this picture. Bad picture too but again, not really caring. And yes, I know the chair is ugly but it's very comfortable and it was a friend's chair and he liked it. When he died, his sister was going to throw it out. So I snagged it.

dorokusai

Dude, just get it re-upholstered and tribute it to your friend....I'd totally do that if it was comfortable.

Toolfan66

I like the simple cool factor of the set-up.. I'm sure those Totems sound wonderful with that Peachtree..

Face

Minus the Peachtree, that picture looks like it was taken in the 70's...or in Archie Bunker's home.

Jstas

Yeah, 'cause they had DVD players in the 70's.

Jstas

Actually, now that I look at it, there is nothing from the 70's in that picture.

The Micro Seiki turntable is mid 80's, the rack I got about 6 months ago, the Peachtree is a couple years old and the Oppo SACD/DVD player is a couple years old as well. All the wires are from either the mid-90's or extra stuff I got about a year and a half ago for the GF's rig. The Totems are only a few years old and the stands I built this year. The entire room, aside from the floor, was rebuilt so it's all new. The floor was put in when the house was built in 1958. The chair is from the mid-60's. And the cheap lamp you can see a part of in the upper left I just got last week.

Face

Just toying with you John, they look good.