I've converted my front room from a yoga studio / office into a sort-of makeshift demo room for my speaker designs. For almost a year, I've been using a mid-century modern side table to hold my electronics. Recently, however, I moved my turntable into that room and the amount of gear piled up on the little table which was never intended for A/V use got out of hand and something had to give.
I've been talking to a good friend about making an equipment rack for their listening room and while drawing up plans for a threaded rod based A/V rack I realized I could easily put something together for my front room with very low costs because I had everything necessary in my shop except the metal hardware. So, I picked up the hardware, consisting of three 36 inch long 5/8" threaded rod and 24 nuts and associated washers.
After drawing up my plans for relatively over-sized shelves to allow for placement of items like an Amazon Echo Dot, DAC, or any other small items I often find I place next to the primary gear, and determining the amount of lumber I needed, I started work.
Four shelves were planned with some sort of wood risers on the bottom of the threaded rods to raise the height of the rack so the turntable was high enough I wouldn't have to bend way over to see the needle placements. To ensure stability and control any potential vibrations, I chose layered shelves made from one bottom layer of 3/4" MDF (leftover from speaker projects) and one top layer of cabinet grade 1/2" birch plywood. I would band the front three edges of the shelves with 3/4" white pine. After rounding over all the edges of the shelves and sanding smooth, I used a Forstner bit and drilled holes for the threaded rod. Then I stained the wood, lightly sanded them after the stain dried, then applied a thick single coat of weather-proof high gloss polyurethane to the shelves.
Here's some photos of the process:
Photo 1: Gluing the shelf layers togethers and clamping until dried
Photo 2: Gluing and clamping the edge wood banding onto the sides. After dried, I did the same for the front edge
Photo 3: Stained shelf - I didn't intentionally plan it, but the stain happened to match the wood flooring in my front room
Photo 4: I took some old 4x4 stock that's been hanging out in my garage for well over a decade and made risers/feet for the rods
I've been talking to a good friend about making an equipment rack for their listening room and while drawing up plans for a threaded rod based A/V rack I realized I could easily put something together for my front room with very low costs because I had everything necessary in my shop except the metal hardware. So, I picked up the hardware, consisting of three 36 inch long 5/8" threaded rod and 24 nuts and associated washers.
After drawing up my plans for relatively over-sized shelves to allow for placement of items like an Amazon Echo Dot, DAC, or any other small items I often find I place next to the primary gear, and determining the amount of lumber I needed, I started work.
Four shelves were planned with some sort of wood risers on the bottom of the threaded rods to raise the height of the rack so the turntable was high enough I wouldn't have to bend way over to see the needle placements. To ensure stability and control any potential vibrations, I chose layered shelves made from one bottom layer of 3/4" MDF (leftover from speaker projects) and one top layer of cabinet grade 1/2" birch plywood. I would band the front three edges of the shelves with 3/4" white pine. After rounding over all the edges of the shelves and sanding smooth, I used a Forstner bit and drilled holes for the threaded rod. Then I stained the wood, lightly sanded them after the stain dried, then applied a thick single coat of weather-proof high gloss polyurethane to the shelves.
Here's some photos of the process:
Photo 1: Gluing the shelf layers togethers and clamping until dried
Photo 2: Gluing and clamping the edge wood banding onto the sides. After dried, I did the same for the front edge
Photo 3: Stained shelf - I didn't intentionally plan it, but the stain happened to match the wood flooring in my front room
Photo 4: I took some old 4x4 stock that's been hanging out in my garage for well over a decade and made risers/feet for the rods
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Although, I will always love the Martin Logan CLS electrostats.
