Rack Build

[Clover]

Somehow, I ended up with more gear than fits on my old hand me down rack and have deiced to build myself a new rack. I figured I may as well share the build here as it goes along. I’m not master woodworker, and just do some as a hobby but that might make this more approachable for others.

Pretty basic design that has 4 shelfs. I’m doing 2" walnut for the frame of each shelf and will use two layers of 3/4" MDF doubled up and veneered on both sides for each shelf. I have some nice walnut burl veneer to use, however, I thought 4 burl shelves would be too much so I think I will just do the top and bottom shelves with the burl and will use maple for the middle shelfs. It may be weird, but I’m weird too and have always like walnut and maple together.

The frame is going to have two mitered rectangles with the bottom being 11" for the amplifiers but the top being about 7". I like miters, but was a bit worried about strength with the weight of audio gear, so I added two mortise and tenons in each miter. I’m also going to add a dovetailed spline in maple at each corner. I’m too dumb to even know if anyone does mortise and tenons and splines on the same miter, but I"m just trying to make it as strong as possible so I don’t worry later. I’ll have matching walnut blocks that will go between the two rectangles which I don’t plan to glue in so I could change the hight easily later by swapping blocks if needed. I think I may add them with a big sliding dovetail that slides in from the front or back, but may just do a couple mortise and tenons for a cleaner look.

Here is a shot of the burl I will use. I’m going to use different sections for each shelf so they don’t look like mirrors of each. Once I add finish, the color in this will really come out a ton.

I loved the grain in this board and felt a bit bad cutting it into heavy 2" strips. Took another couple boards too, but this one was particularly nice.

Every time I fill my dust collector with dust I take a photo as a trophy and there is no chance my dog is missing a chance to go out to the trash. Best shop dog in the world. Figured this is just as interesting a shot as one of me flatting the boards. I hate flatting boards, it’s simply something that needs to be done.

Crosscuts mainly went perfectly other than I don’t have a good way to block off lengths of 51 inches to make a repeatable stop. I had to do those long cuts by eye as best I could, which is not where I excel. So… I cheated and those pieces are off camera.

Got the all miters’ mortises cut for the rectangles and did the first dry fitting. With needing to cut 4 mortises for each of the 16 miters, I made myself a little jig which helped. I’ll be honest and say there are a couple that are not dead perfect when I dry fit everything. This came from me not having a way to block off the long length cuts to make them exactly the same lenght like the shorter pieces. I’m trying to decide if I want to try to buy an extended fence so I can pull that off. It would cost me a couple hundred bucks and require me to recut the long lengths a bit shorter and recut their mortises. My wife thinks it looks fine, but… I’m my own hardest critic and I’d like to get it perfect. I guess after clamping and sanding it would look good and maybe even perfect, but I’m not sure I want to risk it as I don’t want any gaps after glue up.

Might be a week or two before the next update. I want to order some new veneer glue and am tempted to get a vacuum bag setup for veneering and doing bent laminations in the future. It’s a bit funny, I’ll tell myself I’m saving money building something over buying something, then I will talk myself into fancy tools and materials and probably not save a ton of money in the end. At least with audio gear, I can point to something with a giant price tag and still tell myself I saved some money.

[tomhail]

I absolutely love this project and the fact that you are sharing it with us! I’ve never been able to justify buying a rack due to lack of desired attributes (not reconfigurable/customizable, too generic or too exotic) and, of course, the hard-to-justify expense. I’ll be following your progress! I might post a few pictures and description my DIY rack once you’ve completed your build.

One thing to consider, especially if you have a turntable, is to create a cavity in the turntable shelf and fill it with mass/ballast. I went with lead buckshot and mineral oil. I can tap hard on the shelf and the vibration does not transfer to the TT - stomping on the floor is not perceptible either unless one jumps and lands with both feet.

[vieuxradio]

I always like rack ‘n’ roll

[EkW]

That is going to be nice rack. Mine does its job. Got some butcher blocks and threaded rod for equipment. LP rack is stair treads and threaded rod. Here is my cat testing it out.

[club_pizzazz]

@Clover

It’s a bit funny, I’ll tell myself I’m saving money building something over buying something, then I will talk myself into fancy tools and materials and probably not save a ton of money in the end.

Isn’t that the whole point of woodworking? I have an entire garage full of tools and oak boards that I bought like that.

[vieuxradio]

if you’re not in and live near quebec city there’s a guy in St-Croix whose woodworking Is state of the art

He learned to be violin builder but then learn Japanese skill and now is building state of the art woodworking and build a terrific custom HiFi rack for a system it’s so beautiful! Amazing

I am drawing a sketch for him to get a quote

[Clover]

So… I have a bad tendency to love the planning of projects more than the finishing of projects. I do finish stuff eventually, the problem is just that I fill my space with projects until I eventually run out of space and tell myself no new projects until if finish X, Y and Z. However, the planning of projects takes my mind away from stressful things I need to do and into something I want to do. I’ve had some stuff I did not want to think about, so I started another project and the rack has sat on the back burner a bit.

I want to put the old bookshelf speakers I made myself in the past on some stands in my new listing space to see how they compare to the Maggie’s but I don’t have speaker stands. I’d like a set of the solid steal tripod stands but decided to make something out of wood to go better with the furniture in the room. I found the below design I like and decided to try and make my own set.

Someone sells those stands on Etsy, and it feels a bit weird to completely copy someone else’s design for me so I decided to use teak and maple instead of the walnut and maple. The rack I’m making above is with walnut and maple, so I probably should have simply copied the Etsy design but I think the teak will also look nice and I had access to a nice teak board that was the right size. I have also decided to make the maple thicker at a bit under 1 1/2" that go into the teak. I’m not some expert designer, but that will give the golden ratio for the width of open space to maple and should add some strength and stability.

I already cut to size, jointed, and planed the teak and maple. Unfortunately, when you cut teak it loses a lot of the color but as you expose it to sunlight it will darken and even out. I don’t actually work with teak much, so I wanted to lay it out in the sun and let it darken to see what I would get. I apologize for the poor photos, but the below is after a few hours of sunlight.

At this point, I want to give the maple a bit of time after I cut it up to make sure it stays straight so I have the wood on stretchers in my house adjusting to the humidity. As I have thought about how I am going to pull off this design, I know I need these legs to be perfectly strait and can’t have them trying to twist. I think I am also going to need to make myself a clamping jig to keep things straight but I have not figured out exactly how I want to do that yet. All my ideas so far seem like an PITA and would take a decent amount of time and expense to make for one set of speaker stands but I know that these need to be strait and flat to work.

[Elk]

Wonderful project.

[Clover]

Bit of a two steps forward one step back update on the speaker stands. I had sanded the teak bases for the speakers stands and put them back out in the sun to darken. Weather said no rain for four days, but it rained on them. I got them out of the rain within probably two minutes but one side of the freshly exposed and flat food got wet and sure enough all four pieces did warp some over the next couple days. I gave it most of a week to dry out and plained it down flat again today.

While that was taking place, I asked some friends for advice on the pulling off the design of the speakers stands and got a universal, “Don’t” as advice. There are a few reasons, but I have come around to agree with them. I already have the teak and four maple posts, so I simply cut up some more maple to make four more posts. They won’t be as eye catching, but I’m now thinking of experimenting with 3D printing some soft rubber pads from TPU that will go between each leg and the base with a lose and unglued mortise and tennon to keep things aligned. I’ll be honest and say I don’t like the basic four post design as much but it matches other furniture I have well and I’m telling myself that the ability to play with 3D printing my own isolation at each post will hopefully give me a better overall result. I’ll aiming to cut the mortise and tenons and sand this week. Probably have some pictures to share soon.

[Clover]

I also made some slow progress on the rack. I have glued up the four mitered frames and was reminded why people don’t like making long miters. I ended up cutting the long pieces again and then hitting them with a shooting plane to get the lengths exact. Took more work than I was expecting and I really should have sprung for a fence long enough to setup a stop block for those long pieces on my cross cut station. I had to keep at it over and over until I got it right but eventually was happy with the dry fit on all four.

Glue up was frustrating. Adding clamping force and moisture from the glue did its evil work. While I know everything was exact before, I have variation after glue up. It’s minimal, but frustrating after spending so much time early getting everything perfect before glue up. I did it to myself again with the clamps. I was not happy with how the first glue up went and changed my approach for the second, and then changed it again. In retrospect, that was dumb. The difference in clamping techniques seemed to have caused different results and pulled things slightly off. I’m sure nobody will ever be able to tell once it is all complete, but at the moment it is pissing me off. While some will argue I should not have said anything, I personally appreciate when other builders share their struggles so I and others don’t feel like everything goes perfect. It does not often go perfect for me and pretending otherwise is not healthy.

Below is a photo of the four frames stacked on top of each other. The two shorter ones on top so it looks nice.

I also spent a while staring at the walnut burl veneer that will go on the top and bottom shelf. The cheap conservationist in me wants to cut to preserve as much of this sheet for future projects as I can, but as I look at the really high level pieces, the difference between a nice project and a special specific wood selection. To me, the piece flows best sideways and I think the center will be vital as the center won’t have any equipment on it and will be exposed. The top and bottom shelf will be very similar, which I was trying to avoid at first. However, after looking at my burl, I think the below rectangle I have portioned off and the portion to it’s right are the nicest areas for my piece. The wife gave her approval tonight, so I’ll cut it up this week and start gluing together the MDF for the shelves.

Not audio related, but also tossed together some walnut and maple for a couple cutting boards. While I like the basic design, I plan to stack them, cut a design and swap pieces from on to the other. Unfortunately, the bandsaw seems to be broken and that will need to wait for a new motor. I shoved the two boards together for the photo below but they are split in the middle between the thick maple and thick walnut pieces.

I also played with the new laser at my maker space for a bit. It sure is nice and they probably should not leave me alone with the thing. I really need to learn to use this for than making signs to annoy my wife and other dumb stuff, but I’m still too stupid so… here are some audio related trails. The signs for the wife I better keep private.

[Clover]

Been making more progress on the rack build. I now have all the MDF sheets for the shelves glued together. Nothing exciting there, just took time as I could only glue one shelf at a time in my space.

I also finally cut up the veneer. I had been putting it off as I played with ideas of how best to use the burl I have. I’ve never bought veneer so expensive before but I found this incredible sheet that I think will make this piece special. I’ve resisted all my urges to conserve the as much of this beautiful wood as possible and I cut out the best parts for the shelves. It killed me to do this, which is why I sat on it so long. However, there is only one way to build the nicest piece I can and that is to use the best parts. Quality costs but it matters. The burl will be used for the top and bottom shelves and the maple will be the middle two shelves.

I want to make the miters as strong as possible since audio gear is heavy and I don’t want to worry at any point in the future. I already have two mortise and tenons in each joint but am adding a dovetail spline as well. I’ll be honest and admit it is partially for looks too as I think dovetail splines look really nice and it will allow me to add in a few more maple details.

Cutting the splines went perfectly and at the moment, I am really happy with how they came out. No blowout on a single cut and taking my time paid off here.

Cutting the maple dovetails slots fought me a bit. You try to make small increments to get the fit perfect, but I was not happy with my first set and thought it was a bit loose so I had to start over. I ended up with what seems like a perfect fit while dry fitting. It’s possible I’m going to have wished I gave myself a bit more room for glue, but right now it seems to be a remarkably good fit.

Next, I will be glueing up the splines and trimming the shelves to their final exact size. Once their size is final and consistent, I’ll glue on the veneer. I was not able to talk myself into buying the vacuum bag setup I want and I can’t use the heat bonding method I’ve used to veneer in the past with these special woods, so I’m stuck with the crazy harmful chemicals. Lucky for me, my state has not banned them yet. Unlucky for me, I’ll need to setup a workbench in my garage again and deal with nasty chemicals for multiple days as I veneer the 8 shelve sides. Even with my garage door open, and the door to my house shut, this is going to bring me grief from my wife. That women’s got super senses. She sees like an eagle and has the sense of smell of a dog. That’s not good for me since I have been told I both look like a dog and smell of one too.

[Clover]

Got some more work done on the rack over the past week. The main thing was glueing in the dove tails splines and then cutting off the extra. With the joints being as tight as they were, I was comfortable using blue painters tape as the “clamps.” The painters tape can be stretched a little which will apply pressure, which worked out well here. To avoid getting dust on another project, I decided to cut off the excess with handsaws in my garage. I figured it would be good for me and would help build that skill, but it wore me out. After making the first set of cuts with my big hand saw, I came back through and recut each with a flush cut saw. I’ll admit there is something really satisfying about making a clean flush cut with a hand saw but it sure is a lot more work. I’ve now moved on to sanding but really should cut my mortises before I sand much farther.

After the glue up of the MDF panels, I wanted to recut the edges to get everything crisp and square again. I did get that taken care of this week as well and now should be ready to glue veneer onto the bottom of each panel.

With two sheets of 3/4" MDF, plus two layers of veneer and the glue layers, I’m going to be around 1 3/4" thick in my estimation. I built the frame at 2" thick to give myself just a bit of room. Now the plan is to get the bottom of the shelf perfectly flush with the frames, That will leave around a 1/4" recess to each shelf from the walnut frame. Once I have the panels veneered and the mortises cut in everything, I’ll dry fit and measure the exact recess I have and plan to use a chamfer bit to slope the inside edge of the frame down to the recessed shelf. I’ll likely do a matching chamfer on the front edge of the frame as well. Hopefully that will keep it looking like custom furniture instead of something mass produced, even though it has a simple overall design.

I changed up the plan on the veneer a bit too. I’m going to use the plain maple veneer for the undersides of the shelves and ordered some curly maple for the two middle shelves. Originally I had planned to do a plain maple with the thought of the burl being the focal pieces and not wanting to have crazy grain for every shelf. However, I really like curly or flame maple and just kind of associate it with hifi/rock and roll because it is used in so many electric gutters and have decided to give it a try and see how it looks in the rack. If I end up thinking it is too much, I’ll flip the panel so the plain maple is on top and will just eat the extra cost.

I also have another project I had stuffed in the corner after I screwed myself with a poor job during the glue up. It actually is pretty similar in style to the current rack build but I did not have a full rectangle to clamp up the miter joints evenly and some joints slid around on me with the way I tried to glue everything up. I had been thinking I would use a router to carve out the corners of the miters and inlay a new contrasting piece of wood but had put it off as I considered trying to do a fancy custom inlay. This week I bailed on that idea and simply went to town with a sander to remove anything that slid too far from flush. While I’m still mad at myself for the failed glue up, the fix really was not that bad and I think I still came out okay for what it is, which is a simple bench for my wife and I to take our shoes on and off at. After the sanding I applied a hard wax oil to finish the walnut and used a special Osmo oil that does not yellow the wood for the maple. Now the problem is my wife wants me to make something to replace the piece next to it, which she now thinks looks cheap,