Audio Rack - Door mounted

JerryR1verz

Hi All,
Project started this week to finish my basement. Typical basement bar, HT, poker area, bedroom, billiards room remodel.

For my HT, I plan to install a 120" fixed screen. Adjacent to the screen is a door that opens up to underneath the stairs... my plan is to cut a hole in the door, mount a steel audio rack (19" wall mount network rack) so the audio gear is flush with the front of the rack (door), and this will allow me to open the door to access the back of the audio gear.

My question is - has anyone on the forum ever built or seen something like this. In my "mind" it seems like it will work. Thanks in advance for any feedback or photos that might help!

Jerry

nooshinjohn

I would think that it can be done, but the weight all the gear and the steel rack would place on the hinges and casing would overwhelm the door itself. Not a good idea IMHO...

codyc1ark

nooshinjohn wrote: »

I would think that it can be done, but the weight all the gear and the steel rack would place on the hinges and casing would overwhelm the door itself. Not a good idea IMHO...

Agreed. Why not a rack on some heavy duty castors that you can roll out of the closet when needed?

JerryR1verz

Thanks for the good comments. I do plan to use a solid core door with three door hinges with bearings for the pin... available for heavier doors. I also plan to build in reinforcement on the inside of the door below the rack... kind of like a shelf for the rack/ weight to sit on. The rest is vertical (shear strength) load. the weight will get support from the door jam when the door is closed and I might be able to support the door from the bottom when it is open.

teekay0007

Won't work! Too much weight on the door hinges, they'll come right out of the woodwork. Also, the side of the rack shelves would hit the door frame when the door was being opened. Cables would become loosened or disconnected from repeated opening and closing of the door. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Zeros

Can you post a picture of what you have to work with and your idea? Maybe we can help you come up with a working alternative.

teekay0007

codyc1ark wrote: »

Agreed. Why not a rack on some heavy duty castors that you can roll out of the closet when needed?

This could work. Be sure to make it plenty strong enough, just in case Ryan Seacrest is over and he wants to catch a ride on it. ;-)

JerryR1verz

What I like about the audio rack in the door is that it rotates open and I can get to the back of it. The door is 32", the rack is ~20" wide, and if positioned correctly left to right and based on the depth... it would clear the door frame. Cable would be routed down the side with the door hinges so it would stay managed at the pivot point. To help support the door on the bottom I would use a "ball caster" (the one where the ball sits in the housing and part of it is exposed). I would need to find the right size but I've seen single casters that support 120 lbs. I would be using a 42" rack to house everything I have.

The thing I don't like about the rack on wheels is that it would have to be pulled out quite far to get to the back of it and excess cable would have to be available... plus it would have to come out quite far to get to the back of it. I will try to get some pics together. It's in frame stages now so it's quite torn up. Thanks for the inputs er'body!

drummer86

I guess the next logical question would be how much stuff do you plan on putting in the rack? A good HT amp can put you over 40lbs (some a lot more) right off the bat. Seems like a cool solution.

JerryR1verz

Another good question. I guess I fall in the middle somewhere regarding the "investment" of A/V HT gear. I have a Denon 3808 receiver, DirecTV receiver, XBMC client, BlueRay player, old 5 disc DVD/CD changer, PS4... I think that's it for the HT room (this rack). No separate amps at this point.

teekay0007

JerryR1verz wrote: »

What I like about the audio rack in the door is that it rotates open and I can get to the back of it.

How often, after initial setup, are you going to need to get to the back of your gear? Most likely, not that often(?) if you plan it out and do it right from the get-go.

You're going to cut a hole in the door? Won't that look a little hokey (especially if the gear isn't centered just right in the "window")? Do you have the right tools/capabilities to do a professional-looking job on this?

Anyhoo...not trying to be a buzz kill here. Just playing devil's advocate. Sounds interesting. If you do it, I'd love to see some pics of it - the process and completed project.

Inspector 24

Seconded on the rack with casters. This is what i have, works great, and it gets rolled plenty. I'm changing or tinkering with something quite often.

4xoddic

I think we're being narrow minded here -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Early-1900s-Mosler-Bank-Vault-door-/181342880811?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a38e0c42b

Starting bid is only $150, & Girard is only 208 miles from me. But, due to diabetic retinopathy, I have a 40 lb limit on what I can lift.

JerryR1verz

To follow up on the questions from TeeKay... Yes, I plan to cut a hole in the door and trim it out on the front as you would with any wall mounted audio rack. My experience... I have 30+ years building furniture, custom woodworking, and finish carpentry. I will likely continue with my plan and post pics of the completed project for forum member review / public humiliation 8^\. The ebay comment just proves that if the support structure exceeds the capacities of the load itself, then it should work. Thanks for the feedback.

teekay0007

It definitely sounds like you know what you're doing, Jerry. Take some good pics along the way and be sure to post them so we can see how this project goes. It sounds very interesting. Good luck!

Glen B

JerryR1verz wrote: »

Hi All,
Project started this week to finish my basement. Typical basement bar, HT, poker area, bedroom, billiards room remodel.

For my HT, I plan to install a 120" fixed screen. Adjacent to the screen is a door that opens up to underneath the stairs... my plan is to cut a hole in the door, mount a steel audio rack (19" wall mount network rack) so the audio gear is flush with the front of the rack (door), and this will allow me to open the door to access the back of the audio gear.

My question is - has anyone on the forum ever built or seen something like this. In my "mind" it seems like it will work. Thanks in advance for any feedback or photos that might help!

Jerry

Look into the Middle Atlantic ASR series slide out rotating rack system.

http://www.middleatlantic.com/enclosure/roll/asr.htm

bikezappa

Jerry

Yes it will work. I did it and loved the ability of getting at those wirers easily. I would hang my body weight, 200 lbs, on the door to make sure it is strong enough. The caster on the end of the door will help but if there is a rug it will be hard to open. Make sure you have clearance with all the equipment attached to the door to open and close. A good drawing will help here. Keep the equipment as close to the hinges as possible.

Great idea.

JerryR1verz

Thank you for pointing out the MidAtlantic rotating rack system Glen. I did look at that and it more than accommodates the accessibility factors - the cost is outside of my budget capabilities tho. Mid Atlantic makes many great products for sure.

BikeZappa - I am really interested in seeing your final product. Would you be willing to share multiple photos of your audio rack? Including dimensions to demonstrate clearance as the door opens, etc.?

bikezappa

Jerry

I have moved from that home and don't know where the photos are.

What you want to do is draw a top view of the door and closet to some scale. Then draw a top view of the biggest equipment you
have to the same scale. I made cut outs of the shelves and equipment and positioned them on the door to make sure they didn't hit
the door frame.

What I did in my new home that had two closets side by side is mount a rack between the doors and locate the equipment there.
One door opens to the face of the equipment, the other door opens to wires.

It is so easy now to make any changes to the equipment and wires now. That was a very frustrating task in the past. I posted a few photos of that set up a few year ago on this forum. I used a RF repeater system from RS ( they look like pyramids) to work the
remotes because I always keep the door shut. I don't like to look at the equipment.

Hope this helps.

bikezappa

Another option is to mount the equipment rack on a very heavy duty turntable in the closet. This would be similar to the MidAtlantic
rack. You need a wide and deep closet for the turntable to rotate in the closet. Need drawings. And you need to have longer speaker wires to
allow rotation but that is easy. Turntable needs to be attached on wood platform not RUG!

Have a blast.

JerryR1verz

Great advice bikezappa - Thank you!

I am a beginner trying to learn sketchup which I could use to draw the model to scale and could mimic the shelf depth/ arc for jam clearance... or just use cardboard as you suggested to mimic the deepest shelf and see if it clears the jam as it opens.

BTW - I used the sweethome 3D program for my basement floor plan which turned out ok. From what I know, it's not as versatile as stechup but might just be meant for different uses.

Thanks again everyone!
I'll post some pics when I get to that point.

evilgenius68

Go find a used steel door/ w steel frame .get the rack welded to it.barrel hinges (commercial type) . Great idea .my old sound boards had circuit boards on the access doors ..make sure you use High quality flexible cables ..Good Luck

bikezappa

Yes card board.

leftwinger57

In my alarm installing days I have seen houses where something like this was done.Very impressive finished products. None of them had the gear move on a door though. They had a secondary opening on the side to get into what is usually a storage space under the stairs and work on the gear from behind w/ a chair, lighting and all. Being an accomplished carpenter/ furniture guy clealry helps.