1st pair of DIY Stands

thetawave2

I'm going to be starting my first DIY pair of speaker stands in the near future.

I'm planning on making the base and top plates out of MDF painted black and the vertical supports out of steel pipe (one at rear 2-3" diam., two at front 2" diam.) filled with some sand or lead shot. The top plate will have the same shape as the footprint of my Tannoy D100 speakers, and the speakers will be held down with some poster tack. I'm planning on including spikes at the bases of the stands (3 per stand, for stability). The stands should be 32 to 34 inches high. I'm hoping this will come out to around 100 bucks.

I have read some threads on here and DIY write-ups elsewhere and have looked at some commercially available designs, so I have some idea of how I want to undertake this project. But, as this is my first attempt at building stands, I thought I'd look for some more input. The details above are very much tentative.

Any tips from people who have tried this before? Any lessons learned, advice, dos and don'ts very much appreciated.... I want these stands to give me good performance and last me a long time. And, hell, if they look good doing it that ain't bad either.

gdb

With material prices what they are you'll have close to (or over) $100 before you even get to the MDF, unless you can find scrap pipe and use sand instead of lead. Please post pics of the process and finished work.

thetawave2

gdb wrote: »

With material prices what they are you'll have close to (or over) $100 before you even get to the MDF, unless you can find scrap pipe and use sand instead of lead. Please post pics of the process and finished work.

If lead shot is really that expensive, I'll definitely consider sand or other fills. Any alternatives to steel I might consider? I read a post on this forum that suggested some sort of industrial grade PVC....

gdb

Got access to a wood lathe ? Most have 36" between the centers. Scrap lead is $ 0.40/lb. , shot has got to be considerably more I'd imagine. Know anyone that changes/balances tires?? Course.....wheel weight lead wouldn't be "audiophile grade", mind you !:cool: PVC could work but, getting finishes to adhere might pose a problem and that stuff is static electricity central. Transitioning between the top/uprights/base is gonna be of primary concern, IMO. Welded steel is a tough design to beat and can be covered with ply, hardwood or MDF in many ways.

thetawave2

I took a quick look at Home Depot's website. Two 10-foot lengths of 2-inch black or galvanized steel pipe should be more than enough for me at around 70 or 80 bucks, respectively. The MDF will be around ten. So far as fastening the pieces together, I was planning on a threaded flange bolted to the MDF. Is that feasable? Can I get the pipe threaded for that at the ends? I'll probably stop by the hardware store in the next day or two to ask them some of these questions.

I don't have friends with a lathe or who balance tires or who can weld for me, unfortunately haha

Did some back-of-the-envelope calculations, by the way, and lead shot seems to be far too expensive. Sand it is, I think.

gdb

Yeah...I thought that a hundred bucks sounded a bit "optimistic" . H-Depot should have a threading/cutting rig in-store. The flanges will do the trick but, are pretty ugly in my book, can you conceal them ? Almost forgot !!! Get black pipe, galvy doesn't like paint very much.

thetawave2

I'm not opposed to the flanges being visible. Not necessarily going for a very "sleek" look here.

So MDF and pipe is 80 bucks (sub-)total. With Dayton spikes from PartsEspress, that brings it to around 105. That just leaves flanges, bolts, and paint. Not too shabby.

gdb

And a bucket $3.00 + trip to sandy beach $1500.00 and you got it !!

gdb

It seems like just one of the three pipes would require flanges at each end and the others could just be "along for the ride". That would seriously reduce crowding and money spent.

thetawave2

Seriously rethinking my design. Didn't realize 12 flanges for 6 pipe ends per stand added up so fast....

First off, 1 1/2" pipe is substantially less expensive than 2" and not all that much smaller. Two pipes instead of three per speaker would let me use one 10' length for the whole project (2 pipes x 2 stands x about 30") instead of two 10' pieces and wasting 5'. I did like the idea of three uprights, but it just doesn't seem like the most cost-effective way to go. Another idea I've been toying with is two pipes up front and an MDF support in the rear. The MDF I'm looking at is 3/4 in.x 2 ft. x 4 ft. The two bases and two plates would use less than half the board, and I could do a 3/4" deep, 4" wide upright running along the back edge of each stand, or maybe go two-ply for 1 1/2" deep and 3 1/2ish" wide. Any thoughts on this design in terms of stability, strength, attractiveness, et c.? See attached picture for a (very) rough sketch of the above, a top view showing the base and sections of the uprights.

I'm not sure on the availability or price of 1 1/2" flanges, so I may have to consider another method of fixing the uprights to the bases and top plates. Any ideas there would be welcome.

gdb

Looks entirely "workable" to me !! I can't imagine that 1.5" flanges are not available due to that being (I think) the most common pipe size for railing systems. Be aware that MDF or Plywood are not great at screw holding, and that machine screws, through-fastened will be the way to go. You could use my shop "toys" if you are close to central MD. Lathe,welder,drill press, table saw etc.

thetawave2

gdb wrote: »

Looks entirely "workable" to me !! I can't imagine that 1.5" flanges are not available due to that being (I think) the most common pipe size for railing systems. Be aware that MDF or Plywood are not great at screw holding, and that machine screws, through-fastened will be the way to go. You could use my shop "toys" if you are close to central MD. Lathe,welder,drill press, table saw etc.

I figured I'd have no trouble finding them either, but for some reason that size isn't on Home Depot's website. They'll probably be very much available in-store.

Through-fastening as you suggested seems like a good idea. I figured I'd secure the flanges that way. Not quite sure how that would work for the MDF upright though. Perhaps some Gorilla glue would be the way to go there?

I'm not exactly in your neck of the woods. Thanks very much for offering to let me use your equipment, though!

Oldfatdogs

^^^^^

You could use my shop "toys" if you are close to central MD. Lathe,welder,drill press, table saw etc.

^^^^
Very nice offer to let someone play with your toys.Dan

gdb

A motise and tenon joint is a good one for the upright MDF. You can also do a "stopped" one and even a "shouldered" one.

zane77

You could slightly countersink the pipes into the mdf and run a piece of 1/4 x20 allthread down through the pipe and add a top and bottom piece of mdf to cover the ends of the allthread. Then you wouldn't have the expense of the flanges and all thread is pretty cheap

gdb

Good point, although I'd step up to at least 5/16" or most likely 3/8" threaded rod. Also use BIG washers or you'll just pull right on through the MDF !:eek:

thetawave2

I do like the allthread idea, the more I think about it. I'll probably need to buy a hole saw drill bit in order to do the countersinking thing, unless the one I do have happens to be the right size! I can check when I get home from work.

drumminman

Don?t know if you?ve head of the Flexy equipment rack design that uses all thread, but I?ve built one. It?s incredibly sturdy ? mine has 4 shelves made of 3/4? plywood with the weight on each shelf varying from 55 pounds to 15 pounds (total of around 100).
I used three 3/4? all thread rods, around 5 feet long purchased at Lowes, along with fender washers and nuts.

The configuration for each shelf from bottom to top is nut-washer-rubber O-ring-shelf-rubber O-ring-washer-nut. The O-rings I added for vibration reduction ? not sure they do anything. I covered the all thread with PVC pipe sized to fit over the 3/4? nuts with the length cut to the spacing between the shelves, and painted gloss black (the shelves are painted the same).

The effect is it looks professional, is incredibly strong and wasn?t really all that expensive. It?d be pretty easy to adapt the idea to speaker stands. In my rack there?s plenty of room inside the PVC to add sand or whatever for vibration reduction.

thetawave2

I was thinking rubber O-rings would be a good idea to incorporate into my design. I think I've seen the design you're talking about and I certainly did like the idea. Definitely a concept I'll keep in mind.

thetawave2

Well, I've got most of my materials. One detail remains to be worked out, though. I'm still a bit iffy on spikes and the size/shape of the bottom plate. Besides trial and error, is there any way to figure out if the stand is going to be stable enough? Any rules of thumb you guys have (e.g. any minimum width spikes need to be placed for stands about 32 inches high with medium-sized bookshelf speakers on top)?

I settled on 30" long, 1" diameter steel pipe, two pipes per stand. 1" pipe looks larger (and feels much heavier!) than I thought it would and it was relatively inexpensive. Also, I decided flanges would make for much simpler assembly than allthread and countersinking the pipes. So, the pipe will be filled partway up with sand and hopefully that lowers the center of gravity somewhat.