Home Made Rack + Pics
Posted by: Yetizone on 01 July 2016
Thought I’d share my recent experience of building my first every home made Hi-Fi rack. I decided to loosely follow a couple of online photos of self builds and make my own hybrid version. Essentially a three point support (as they tend to be more stable and easier to make and level), dual isolation system.
Firstly I got the local timber yard to cut six pieces of 18mm good quality hardwood cross ply to the exact same sizes, as they could do this more accurately than I could with a circular saw. Not to mention having the specialist fine tooth blades that would not chew up the ply faces. Glued and clamped two pieces together to make three 36mm thick shelves in total. Once dry the shelves are incredibly rigid, but also fairly light compared to similarly thick MDF.
Once the shelves were rock solid, I set about the edges using sheet after sheet of sandpaper with a sanding block, going from grade 40 (I think it was) to pretty smooth feeling 340 grade where it felt like it was polishing the ply edges as opposed to sanding them. Using a sanding machine there was a chance of rounding off the edges due to the cushioned pad, so I quickly abandoned that approach.
Once smooth and prepped, each edge got about seven or eight coats of water based clear varnish, (sanding between coats) until it felt silky smooth. The varnished ply edges were then lined with Frog Tape (brilliant!), sealed with more varnish and then about ten coats of white paint applied with a roller to the top and bottom, sanding between each. Left it all to harden for a week before I removed the Frog Tape. This revealed a clean crisp-ish edge. A final sand to the varnished face / paint joint with 340 grade paper to soften (to the touch) where the white painted edge met the varnish, cleaning off any paint burrs and then a final coat of clear varnish on the edges to finish.
While the varnished shelf edges were drying I made nine support legs, tall enough to clear the ‘Qute, plus added isolation levels underneath. Each leg was clamped and drilled with a 10mm drill, tops dowelled and then threaded inserts put into the base to hold the M8 threaded spikes from each level of an ancient Soundstyle rack. Painted, then 'dry' assembled to make sure everything lines up as per measurements.
Unit then assembled carefully - taking a lot of time to line up the downward facing spikes to their individual spike pads that sit on each shelf. That was stressful! Each shelf glued and clamped.
When in situ, I experimented firstly with perspex for the secondary isolation and this seemed to restrict the energy of system somehow. Then changed to the old glass I had from my Soundstyle rack and everything immediately snapped back into focus. I've not explored bearings and cups under the glass as yet, just RDC cones and Solid Spikes aluminium floor protectors as I already had them at hand.
All done for about £70 in total for raw materials so far, plus I reckon a weeks labour (on and off) in-between work etc. More expense to follow with Naim spec glass and bearings & cups. Next time I'd order a higher grade Baltic Ply as it has a greater density and a much more uniform layering of the ply and fewer flaws that need filling. The advantage of this system is that its so adaptable and if I ever need another or taller (NAP500!) shelf, its fairly easy to make a new one....
Spikes and cups fitted, the finished result...
Awesome build and workmanship.
What type of sander do you use? I have mine sitting on some small peices of ply and while the beech fir combo stuff is good the beech alone isn't as mint so I may fill the small gaps and sand it down. Did you notice much colour variation between the wood filler and plywood? Are you a carpenter by trade or is this a hobby? Those cuts look very precise which suggests to me that you own some decent tools 
winkyincanada posted:Nice work. Are you going to finish the edges?
I like the edges like that!
Nice work
Bart posted:winkyincanada posted:Nice work. Are you going to finish the edges?
I like the edges like that!
Nice work
So do I, and asking that is insulting as it's obvious that's how they are intended to be.....
Lewis posted:Bart posted:winkyincanada posted:Nice work. Are you going to finish the edges?
I like the edges like that!
Nice work
So do I, and asking that is insulting as it's obvious that's how they are intended to be.....
I don't think that comment was meant to be offensive, I'm not reading it like that.
Just a question asking whether the edge is finished as it is.
Thanks for the comments folks - much appreciated An interesting project to undertake and a steep learning curve. If making another shelf, I'd experiment more connecting the shelf to the legs - my approach was old fashioned and I think there’s a more sophisticated solution to be found, even for a home made unit like this.
@ Oscarskeeper: Re sound quality. For ref. This rack replaces a tatty late 1980’s steel & glass tripod system that ‘rang’ when tapped (as these units often do). Post build, initially, I had the components on secondary perspex shelves, bought cheap on ebay and was genuinely disappointed with the overall sound. All of that work to create a unit that gave a slight ‘cushioning’ to the sound, losing attack, excitement and vibrancy. But, with the definite and unpredicted benefit of removing all hint of stridency and aggressive treble that my Monitor Audio 252’s can give on a bad recording. I then switched the perspex out for glass and there we go - much better. The energy and timing ‘groove’ were back and it was exciting again, but that treble still tamed just enough to remedy the now only occasional sibilant high end. Next on the agenda will be thicker 10mm glass (currently only 5mm in place).
@ Lewis : Alas, no, I'm not a carpenter. I work as an illustrator so I know how to get the best out of paint / varnishing materials only - working in wood is an ongoing learning curve! No specialist tools used either, just a couple of decent (Bosch blue) drills, a drill holder to give 90 degree accurate drill holes, an ancient sander (wasn’t used for this project) and a load of clamps (essential). The timber yard cut the shelves to the exact same size, I just finished and assembled. With regard to the wood filler, I used 'light' and 'medium' Ronseal wood filler and there was a little difference in colour, so I mixed and remixed artists acrylic paint until the correct match was made, painting over the filler with 00 fine brushes where needed. But, the quality of the ply was so good, there were only a few areas that need this sort of correction.
@ Winkyincanada: The sides are finished cheeky! Aesthetically, the aim was to create a contemporary design alongside celebrating the appearance of an often overlooked humble utilitarian material. To show how beautiful those often irregular laminated ply edges can be when studiously worked and finished. Also employing the stark white paint as a contrast to exaggerate the criss cross grain. Plus the white paint contrasts the black Naim units beautifully. The smoked shelves are only temporary, clear glass will replace them and that will increase the black box & white shelf contrast. I did experiment with grey paint (I literally have gallons of paint to play with - one benefit of of being an artist) and it looked good, but somewhat predictably, the white worked just looked so much crisper against the Naim boxes and ply edges.
Drewy posted:Lewis posted:Bart posted:winkyincanada posted:Nice work. Are you going to finish the edges?
I like the edges like that!
Nice work
So do I, and asking that is insulting as it's obvious that's how they are intended to be.....
I don't think that comment was meant to be offensive, I'm not reading it like that.
Just a question asking whether the edge is finished as it is.
It was meant to reflect my personal opinion that the edges look unfinished. Not much I can do if someone finds my opinion offensive.
Well done for building your own, I think the white and unfinished edges works really well.
I'm a huge fan of this approach as not only do you get the exact look that your after but you also have the satisfaction of looking at your work whilst enjoying your kit!
i finished this cabinet myself last week, anyone spot the naim fraim inspired features?
@ Knipster… Thanks Knipster, much appreciated Agree, its very satisfying to create something bespoke and a just little different in design to the commercially available units.
Very nicely done with the (walnut?) rack. Interesting approach with the glass fronted (IR pass through friendly?) appearance to hide the boxes away. Like the Naim-esque double isolation for the components on glass / cups / bearings too. What are the red pieces of foam / tape for?