Building my first EQ Rack

BrentMcGhee

I am about to emabark on my first DIY project and need some help. I am wanting to build an equipment rack. What are some good designs i should be looking at, what type of material, where to get the material, etc,etc.

I would like the rack to have vibration dampning in mind. I have 12 peices of equipment and one is a record player so the rack can not be to tall becasue i need to be able to look down on the record player. Becasue of this i thought i could either build two seperate towers with 6 shelves each or just build one tower with 6 shelves but have it a double wide. Has anyone had any luck or misfortunes with either design?

Any and all help would be tremendous. Like i said i have not done anything DIY before and have no idea even where to start.

amulford

There is alot to consider. What kind of look are you looking for? How much isolation? Size of the components. Cooling, wire management.

Building the rack is easy. Designing to fit your wants and needs can be difficult.

BrentMcGhee

Well in my head i was invisioning a completly open design so cooling would not be an issue. As for wire management i do not need any built onto the rack becasue i plan on making the shelves custom height to my equipment and i use very short cables so hiding wires will not be a problem.

The rack does have to be pretty deep though becasue 6 of the 12 peices of equipment are 400 disc changers and those guys are really deep.

As for the vibration i dont really know much about hwo to design a rack around that concept short of brass spikes.... are there other methods or proper ways to implement the brass spikes?

Really my big question right now though is what kind of wood to use for the shelves and what material to use for the uprights. I am going to stain it so it has to be a wood with grain to it.... i.e. no particel board ply wood etc etc.

amulford

I built one from edge glued pine and regular white pine from HD.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20956

Isolation can be high mass, isolators, spikes.... Alot of options to explore.

gatemplin

You sound like a good candidate for a flexi rack, very easy to make. I built one out of birch ply for about $150. You can use rubber washers for isolation. Do some searches.

BrentMcGhee

that is a really good idea amulford for the tt, i really like the sliding shelf thing.

BrentMcGhee

gatemplin wrote:

You sound like a good candidate for a flexi rack, very easy to make. I built one out of birch ply for about $150. You can use rubber washers for isolation. Do some searches.

what is a flexi rack?

tryrrthg

BrentMcGhee wrote:

what is a flexi rack?

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/flexye.html

I've also built a flexi. quick and easy project. They look great too.

unc2701

I got your vibration isolation right here... I hung the whole damn thing from the ceiling on steel screw rods. $40 in rods, $90 is birch ply, $?? in Oak 1x2's to finish the edges and about $20 in rubber blocks. Yes, the whole thing floats w/o touching the floor.

I don't have any current pics with everything finished and the system I have now (damn, I miss those 565's), but you get the idea.

Pablo

I agree with the flexi rack (it's basicaly shelves with holes in the corners with threaded rods & nuts holding them up [rubber washers to prevent vibrations]). Using either Oak or Birch plywood is also probably your best bet (although you can get almost any type of ply from a real lumber store). I used birch with mahogany edging (the oak looks a little "Ikea" for me). They also may an iron edge if you want to make it easy. A sheet of birch or oak should cost you about $45 ($44.95 for birch as of yesterday at my HD). For a fancier wood ply, it would run from at least $50 to over $200 a sheet.

unc, that's very nice. Is the TV also hanging from the ceiling? How do you hold up that much weight?

unc2701

Yep. TV, amps, turntable, everything. I reinforced the joists in the ceiling above and everything is over engineered. Each rod will hold a minimum of 600 pounds and there's 8 of them. The TV only weighs 75 pounds, but I wanted to be sure that someone could put a CRT up there if they needed to.

amulford

I like the hanging idea. It wouldn't work for me, not much will. It's hard to isolate when your moving the whole house

95Honda

I built this rack last week. Total cost was around $200. I laminated two pieces of 3/4" MDF together to get 1 1/2" shelves (Sturdy with little vibration) I then laminated black Formica to the top and wrapped the edges with 1/2" Mahogany. The rods are 1" aluminum I cut, then drilled and tapped the ends. I used bolts for the bottom, exhaust studs for the middle and allen screws for the top. The feet are some cast steel pieces I picked up at a metal distributor for about $2 each. The whole thing wiehgs about 200lbs and doesn't bend, flex or vibrate much at all. I have about 400lbs of equipment on it. The picture is before finishing the trim and painting the rods. A design like this would be good to put a turn table on top I would think..

nellis8166

UNC2701,
That is brilliant...love it!

95Honda

X2... Very very nice....

Toolfan66

unc2701 wrote: »

I got your vibration isolation right here... I hung the whole damn thing from the ceiling on steel screw rods. $40 in rods, $90 is birch ply, $?? in Oak 1x2's to finish the edges and about $20 in rubber blocks. Yes, the whole thing floats w/o touching the floor.

I don't have any current pics with everything finished and the system I have now (damn, I miss those 565's), but you get the idea.

Old thread I know but this is kinda cool IMO!!

unc2701

Ha- missed that this got resurrected. Yeah, that was two houses and a marriage ago- nothing that cool now.

Funny follow-up:
My roommate's bed was right over the turntable on the floor above, so I'll let you guess what got projected down the rods and amplified between tracks.