Ryan Wright

Hello,

I'm building my first flexi rack. It is 18" x 21" x 60"; it will have 10 shelves and will hold my A/V components. I purchased some nice furniture grade pine plywood (3/4"), cut the shelves to size with a table saw, and sanded them smooth. I also bought some stain & clearcoat.

Here are my questions:

1. What size of threaded rod should I use? Others seem to use 5/8" or 3/4". Heaviest items on the rack are my HK525 and an old Teac amplifier. Everything else is reasonably light (DVD player, VCR, DSS, etc).

2. Where on earth do I buy the threaded rod?! Lowes & Home Depot don't have it. A local store can order 72" rod for me ($10/each for 5/8; $15 for 3/4, and I really only need 60"), but it will take a couple of weeks to get here. Are there any other options?

3. I'll be ordering a lot of fairly large washers and nuts (80 each). Can I buy these in bulk anywhere? Home Depot/Lowes charge insane prices for this type of stuff. 30 to 50 cents per nut seems horribly expensive to me.

4. Any advice on staining & applying clearcoat to get a great finish? I've never tried to build a nice looking piece of furniture.

5. How do I finish the sides of the shelves? The top & bottom are beautiful wood, but the center is plywood. Although it's nice plywood, it's still plywood, and I want to make the sides look as nice as the rest is going to (hopefully) look.

Thank you!!

ChrisCC

I made a Flexy CD/DVD rack, so I did not have that much weight to support, but I used 5/8" threaded rod.

I actually purchased the threaded rod over the internet from www.barnhillbolt.com. Shipping was surprisely reasonable.

Chris

Carl Johnson

I got all of my materials from Menards. If you were building a rack for a television I would recommend 3/4 rods but for audio gear 5/8 will be plenty. I'm no expert when it comes to sanding and finishing, for my three racks I took the easy route and bought shelving that was prefinished.

Ted Drain

McMaster-Carr is definitely the place to shop!

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Try searching on 'threaded rod'. Click the first link found. You can then refine the search by clicking on the various attributes. I used 'english', '3/4" #10', 'zinc-plated steel'.

For nuts, search on 'hex nut'.
For washers, use 'flat washers'.

They have an incredible selection, fast delivery, and better prices than anywhere else I could find in my area.

I cut my rods with a hack saw. Took a little work but it wasn't bad. Be sure to thread a nut on before you cut. Then take the nut off and it will help remove burrs from the threads.

Ted Drain

Ryan Wright

Thanks for the info on where to find the hardware! I'll have no trouble getting ahold of it now. Looks like much better prices than I can get around town, too.

Also, I answered one of my own questions:

They (whomever "they" are) make this nice adhesive wood tape. You iron it to the sides of the wood, which melts the adhesive and provides a very strong fit. You can then stain the stuff. Looks & works great! A little spendy, though... added about $20 to the cost of this rack.

Still looking for answers to this, if anyone knows! :


Thank you!