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Racking for Hi Fi

E

esprit

pfm Member
Hello
Does anyone have any experience of building a racking system.
I was contemplating building a system of each layer, sitting on top of the one below with legs and spiked adjustable feet.
It would need to be about a meter wide with five shelves. My intention was to use slate for the shelves, but have no experience/knowledge of loading.
Regards
 
I've made a few things over the years: I made a turntable table out of 1" square wood, way back in the early '80s and then replaced it with various recommended turntable tables, and just before I threw it out, I tried it again, only to find that it was definitely better than the steel frames I'd been using for years. I had a table made for me by a friend who did welding, which was triangular and tapered, and was better than the wooden frame stand (still got that one in the loft). I made a stand for parts of my present system which is a heavy oak post, with cantilevered 20mm perspex shelves - I really like this one, and it's still in use! My TT stands on a table made from 20mm perspex sheets, and as my TT is transparent too, it looks fabulous.
Despite what the makers may claim, HiFi racks are basically furniture, and how well they work will depend on what you sit them on, solid or suspended floor, and what you sit on it - i.e. is your equipment affected by vibration, or airborne or structure borne feedback. So DIY is just as much a lottery as buying something commercial.
Slate is a lovely material, so slate shelves, maybe 25mm thick, supported on some nice hardwood legs would make a lovely piece, though once assembled with your gear on it, will be seriously heavy, though probably wouldn't threaten a normal wooden floor. I suspect it wouldn't be non-resonant though, if you think that is important.
 
Many Thanks

I was thinking along the lines of slateage and northwest analogue.
I bought various lengths of olive wood 50mm square, the intention was to insert an 8mm receptacle at each end for attachment of shelves/spikes. The slate in mind was 25mm thick, but not clear about what would be its max loading(on one shelf would be two 30kg amps).
The floor is York stone.
 
I think John at Slateage does all northwest analoque stuff. He will do you any
size/design you wish,I have had a deck plinth and speaker stands from him.
Clive Smith
 
1m x 25mm slate by say 400mm deep shelves will be about 27Kg each.

Supported on a framework the point load at the bottom is frightening if you were thinking spikes: for which there's no point using spikes it's not going anywhere at that level - expect to use some sort of metal cup/foot/spreader.

The all-up weight of c.200Kg isn't a problem for a domestic floor over that sort of area.

ps back-of-envelope bending calc says a 60kg amps in the middle of a 25mm Slate shelf 400mm deep spanning a metre isn't a loading problem by a decent margin; 2 x 30 side by side should be no issue at all. (nb it remains a brittle material - don't drop them in place ;)
 
Many thanks for all the input, the ball base feet I will definitely carefully consider during build. The response to loading leaves me with the thought that I may have "over guessed" with 25mm slate, would 20mm be more appropriate.
 
Since 2nd moment of area in this case is proportional to depth^3, 20mm shelves will bear exactly 1/2 the load of 25mm ones. Factor of safety for proposed 60kg load reduced to roughly 2x, from FoS 4-5x according to my back-of-envelope (thats def not a guarantee!). And you only save ~25Kg. and prob. no difference in cost for such custom cuts anyway. Hold out for what you really want..? Or get both priced, make a choice subsequently.
 
Many thanks Gentlemen

I believe I have my way forward.
This may take some time, first quote for slate at 25mm, was £125 per sheet.
 
martin clark said:
Since 2nd moment of area in this case is proportional to depth^3, 20mm shelves will bear exactly 1/2 the load of 25mm ones. Factor of safety for proposed 60kg load reduced to roughly 2x, from FoS 4-5x according to my back-of-envelope (thats def not a guarantee!). And you only save ~25Kg. and prob. no difference in cost for such custom cuts anyway. Hold out for what you really want..? Or get both priced, make a choice subsequently.
Click to expand...
Tsk, you and your fact-based calculations. Real men suck their teeth and then add a bit!

£125 a sheet is a piece of money. Have you considered going to a kitchen worktop supplier and getting them to build from the short ends box?
 
Sourcing for the, "short ends box?", could be a viable proposition, however at "about a meter wide with five shelves" may not exist as off cuts!.
Regards
 
Worth asking, I've seen some remarkably big items as "short ends". I remember my dad was a craft teacher, after he had taught the son of a man who ran a local agricultural engineering company and got to know him he was allowed the run of the "short ends skip" for metal to use in the school workshops. You can imagine that something an agri engineer regards as a "short end" can quite often be a bloody big chunk of metal, more than suitable for any job that a 15 yr old lad will make. Indeed he often had the opposite problem, that the "short ends" were almost impossible to pick up and so bloody heavy that nobody in the school workshops would have been able to cut them to size without resorting to the blue-nosed file.
 
Move fwd. to 2020 !. I eventually got four slate shelves,1040x400x20, honed and polished on top and three sides, from Berwyn Quarry Wales, "collected the day before their lockdown".
The legs are now sanded square and drilled each end for 8mm receptacles. In process of making a corner drill jig for the slate, which should ensure that the stacking lines up.
Hope to have something to show before another two years.
 
I would look at https://www.aluminium-profile.co.uk/

Then you can make a good looking solid frame. Design it, work out what aluminium profiles you need and they will cut to size and deliver. The you have a kit. You can fill some of the profiles with sand if you are worried about ringing. The T slots and lots of connection options makes this method very flexible. These profiles have been used in industry for years and and are tried and tested. The I would consider bamboo worktops cut to size to make the shelves.

here is an example

Hope that helps.

Paul
 
A little progress, made a drill jig for the slate(not drilled the holes yet!). I wish to counter boar the slate for the 6m 15mm furniture bolts, however I can only find a 8m 15mm cutter. Can anyone guide me in the right direction.
 
hello
very interesting array of tools, but nor quite the tool I am looking for, there gear is intended for use with hard stone i.e. granite. Slate is relatively, a soft stone and a hole can be produced with a twist drill (water helps).
6m 15mm furniture bolts exist, so I assumed a tool for counter bore would also. Maybe I will buy a 8m 15mm cutter(available) and have the mandrill ground to 5mm. Its too late to go to 8mm bolts as I have bonded in 6mm inserts for the shelf attachment!.
If there was an easy way of posting photos on PFM, I would post.
 
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