The not so Flexy Rack. (My DIY High End Rack) (1 Viewer)

[Brett DiMichele]

Okay I started a thread a month or so ago about the price
of materials. At that time I was in the design stages of
a DIY audio rack that was a Klone of the Spider Rack ($1600.00 + Dollars)
from Finite Elemente`.


I ordered the raw oak from Lowes it's 2"x2" (1.5" x 1.5")
planed top choice (no knots) 18" long. I cut these down to
12" long they get sanded gently and 00 steel wooled then
drilled all the way through the center with a 5/16" hole
and finaly they get 3 coats of Minwax high gloss wipe on
Polyurethane.


The hard part was locating a piece of thick walled Aluminum
tubing for "cheap" (or free). Everywhere I looked wanted
minimum orders of 5+ feet (hundreds of dollars) and that's
where knowing people comes in handy.. Make a phone call to
a friend who works for Alcoa.. You can't find a better
place to get Aluminum considering that's what they do!

So I got a nice piece of 3 1/4" OD x 2 3/8" ID x 18" long
Aluminum Tubing. The rest of the parts get ordered from
Reid Tool ( www.reidtool.com ) this is where I will get the
80/20 Inc. 1515 Lite Aluminum T-Slot material, all thread
and other needed items ( $172.00 worth). The goal was to
do this project for under $250.00 total if possible.

I am currently under that thanks to the freebie chunk of
Aluminum. The Oak from Lowes plus the Irwin 6" x 5/16"
Auger plus the Minwax and the 00 Steel Wool came to $113.00.

If I had to buy the Aluminum from a small supplier plus
pay to have it machined it's doubtful I could could do the
project for less than $300 or so dollars (which would still
be a bargain for a rack of this caliber. This is hardly the
average MDF and Allthread Flexy Rack.

Where do I stand?

I have to get the Aluminum Tube cut down into 1.5" thick
rings and have 3 5/16" holes drilled at 120 degree seperation
then they need to be finish bead blasted.

The beams need drilled yet and I need to figure out how to
get the radius into them where they will sit against the
rings.

And I need to get my order with Reid placed so I can get
the leg material, fastners and allthread here.

Here is a picture of my concept render and below it are
some progress photo's. More to come! and when I am all
done I will try to have a materials list and assembly guide
for anyone who wants something more high end than the
typical Flexy Rack.













Pardon the mess I call my "garage"

 

[Chris Carswell]

Everyone copying everyone....

 

[Dave Crigna]

I gotta say that looks pretty f**k'n cool!!!
You better put a patent on that bad boy.

 

[Brett DiMichele]

My rack sure looks alot more beefy than the Spider I got
the idea from

The nice thing about my design is that there are no holes
in the legs for vertical adjustment. You are not limited to
any fixed points it can be moved as little as a thousandths
of an inch or as much as 4.5 foot!

 

[Chris Carswell]

"The nice thing about my design is that there are no holes
in the legs for vertical adjustment. You are not limited to
any fixed points it can be moved as little as a thousandths
of an inch or as much as 4.5 foot!"

This is true, but it's also going to take you some time to make sure each one is level with each other. I'd give up that extra 1/2" for that...

Looks pretty beefy to me:



Why you can eat off it,


or display your wife's $500 Prada shoes

 

[Carl Johnson]

I'd like to see that rack with equipment on it. I've built my share of traditional DIY racks but while that one looks good I don't think I would have a use for it. Is it intended to hold audio gear or is it sturdy enough to support a television or CPU monitor?

 

[Chris Carswell]

OK:

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Chris,

Leveling my shelvs won't be that difficult. Due to the
design each tier will move as one unit and with 3 legs the
whole assembly will be easier to level than a 4 leg unit
to begin with.

The Spider is beefy but mine is far more beefy than thier
design. The legs I am using each will support 1500 pounds
per leg, the beams and center section when secured should
have no problem holding 250 pounds per tier.

The Spider is a very nice rack, thus the reason I choose
to make something similar. But at $1600.00 dollars for the
5 level rack (and I need 8 levels) that is completely insane
pricing IMHO.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

HEY Chris, does that guy in the picture know that he's not in the sweet spot!

Brett, I wonder if your rack will dethrone my current champion, the Le mans rack levitator combo. If so, you can finally enjoy music through an 8.1 earthquake without your CD player skipping. (Oh wait, you don't live in California)

Anyways, nice work so far. Looks very Sci-fi and modern... Would probably go well next to my keg sized bass traps. I think I'd probably want to make a simple one once I get some home theater equiptment that could go on it. It would be pretty sad to see a nice rack, with a mid-atx PC tower sitting on it.

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Chris,

$3K for a five tier rack.. HAHAHAHA This whole audio hobby
is run by a bunch of crack headed designers! As the girl
would say on Mad TV... Shaaaa, Ya know what? HUH UH....

Heh

After I get this rack done and get my XO mods done I may
have to build a set of your Bass Traps

 

[Allen Ross]

****
HEY Chris, does that guy in the picture know that he's not in the sweet spot!

I think thats a chick :frowning:

 

[Chuck Bogie]

And those are some UGLY shoes...

 

[Travis Kolesar]

Anyone have a source for the pillars that are used in the spider rack? While I'm probably going to get T-slot extrusions from Bosch for my the rack project I'm working on, those are kinda neat looking and I could see using them in a different project.

www.onlinemetals.com seems to have good prices for most standard metal materials. They custom cut and do small orders, which is something that has been hard to find.

Oh yea, those are some ugly shoes...

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

hey guys....don't make me bust out the aluminum and hit the machine shop!!! I might have to open a can of "woops....damn. I F'd up another piece of Aluminum" on you all!

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Lol Gomer!


Travis,

I haven't found a source for that particular extrusion.
80/20 Inc. Makes different shapes of the T-Slot material
though. If you could locate a supplier of Extrusions I am
sure you could find this material.

 

[Travis Kolesar]

Yea, i'm familiar with both Bosch and 8020, as well as a few other manufacturers. The actual Spider extrusion, I still have yet to see anywhere.

With your project, how are you planning to mount the arms to the extrusion?

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Travis,

There will be a 5/16-18 allthread running through the center
of each beam. Tack Welded on the end of each All Thread will
be an 80/20 T-Slot Nut. The All Thread rods with attatched
T-Slot Nut go into the Extrusions and then through the beams.

Then through the center rings and finaly it all tightens
down at the center with nuts or thumb screws (whichever fits
best).

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

I think thats a chick

I feel so embarassed... :frowning:

It's like one of those times when you say to a girl "Congratulations.. when are you expecting?" and it ends up that she isn't pregnant.

I blame it on her hair cut and my inability to think straight at 4:00 AM. (What do you know, it's 4:11 AM now)

 

[Travis Kolesar]

Makes sense. Was wondering where the allthread was gonna be used. Look forward to seeing the finished product

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

I'm just going to have to machine those centers and charge you people up the arse for them