Planning to build a flexirack

markC · « **on:** 6 Mar 2003, 05:07 am »

I'm going to build a flexirack soon, and was wondering if any variations such as real wood shelves, stainless rods, etc. were out there. Thinking about 4 rods instead of 3, (probably more like a Salamander Knock-off). Input, as usual, would be much appriciated.

Juan R · « **Reply #1 on:** 7 Mar 2003, 02:19 am »

I building one with maple wood 2inch. with 3 rods, I heard that maple is the way to go. I have right now my amps in granite stands and the other eq. in marble. Try 3/4 rod look nice.

JoshK · « **Reply #2 on:** 7 Mar 2003, 03:25 pm »

I highly recommend doing 4 legs instead of three for more stability. Since the legs are infinitely adjustable, leveling the 4 legs to the floor is a moot point. Definitely go with the thickest rods you can find. I found up to 3/4" at Home Depot for about $7.50/ea in 36" length. Of course, the shorter the length the less prone to resonance they get, but then your rack is less useful.

markC · « **Reply #3 on:** 7 Mar 2003, 04:10 pm »

Yes, I'm going to use 4 rods. Mainly because of the vision of one of my young nefews lying on the floor pinned beneath an unstable 3 legged version. Solid maple seems to be the fav. choice for real wood but it seems hard to find and quite expensive. this kinda defeats the purpose of DIY. Oak on the other hand is cheaper and easier to obtain. Could maple be that much superior? So far I'm leaning toward 3/4" oak shelves with damping material glued to the underside and 36" x 3/4" stainless rods.

JoshK · « **Reply #4 on:** 7 Mar 2003, 05:26 pm »

One place to check for solid maple shelving is grizzly.com. They use them for table tops for work benches. I don't know whether maple is superior to oak but certainly all wood has different resonance properties based on the density of the wood. Oak would probably be fine. Popular could be a cheaper alternative as well. I might be inclined to try to laminate 2 3/4" thick pieces together with the grain going in opposite direction. This is more of a throwing-the-book-at-it approach but I have been wanting to do this for some time.

nathanm · « **Reply #5 on:** 7 Mar 2003, 06:33 pm »

I find that 3 legs are plenty stable and easier to level the shelves. I only killed ONE of my nephews out of the hundreds of times they have run full force into the rack. That's pretty good odds, aina? Of course, you DO have to make sure the single leg is centered on the shelf!

markC · « **Reply #6 on:** 8 Mar 2003, 05:26 am »

Oh Nathan, you do crack me up! Don't stop your antics, you are a great source of venting the mundane facts of cultural existence. (Did I really just write that?) At any rate I'm still thinking of 4 rods rather than 2, (don't really care about the nephews, because if the little bastards get within 6'of my rig I freak on them), JUST KIDDING! I think that I will check out the wood issuse for a while longer and then go for it. You know the story- decide to buy that low budget tv stand and next week the flyer comes in the mail and the same thing is on sale for 30% off. So if I go with the oak tomorrow, I'll find maple for the same price next Tues. for the same price except it's 1" instead of 3/4".

Gizmo Student · « **Reply #7 on:** 8 Mar 2003, 08:52 am »

My rack has 3 legs (2 front - one rear) but I also
added 2 adjustable "feet" to the rear corners.
After I leveled the stand I lowered the rear corner
feet to "just" above the floor so as to catch the
stand if it does start to tip.

I have the ease of level adjustability with 3 legs
but the stability of 4 if I need it.

I don't have nieces or nephews to deal with ---
but them earthquakes can sure put your stand to the test !

Gizmo Student

Oh, One more thing .....
If you do make a 3-legger, make sure the
shelves are deep enough so that the center
post is not in the way of controls in the front
or cable connections in the back.

Ferdi · « **Reply #8 on:** 8 Mar 2003, 10:27 am »

Hi Nathan, your rack isn't very efficient is it? Only 1 out of a 100??

I also have a flexy on my list of things to build (if my PCs stop crashing and work every subsides...). I think 3 legs should be enough for a traditional rack but make sure you put the legs on the sides: 2 left and 1 right or the other way around.

I intend to make a larger version that can take my TV on top. It will look like 2 low flexies in mirror image with additional shelf space between them. I will then have 6 legs on the whole thing with space for equipment in 3 columns.

Will post pictures if I ever build it.

nathanm · « **Reply #9 on:** 8 Mar 2003, 09:49 pm »

Well yeah, you're right Ferdi. Once the one nephew was killed as the rack went off balance and crushed him the other two learned a lesson very quickly. Uncle Nate's stereo system is NOT a piece of playground equipment! Kids need to be taught the hard way sometimes. It's a shame though, little Anthony was a nice kid.

The only thing I don't like about the design is that it isn't the greatest for my turntable, which has a suspension. It's very easy to make the music warble just by touching something on the rack. Plugging in headphones or switching cables around while the record is playing is a great way to make the tonearm fly all over. Not good.

But it could be worse, some kid could use the rack as a jungle gym, and that ALWAYS makes the needle skip. Little bastards...

Juan R · « **Reply #10 on:** 9 Mar 2003, 01:21 am »

The rack that I am bulding is 2 , 2x24x60 . then 2, 24x24x2 in the top, the 3 legs in the center from the floor to the top, then 4 legs in the side for the 2 , 24x60. And by the way I did check the price of the Oak, and is a big difference. I paid 350.00 for 3 pieces of 2x12x10ft.

markC · « **Reply #11 on:** 10 Mar 2003, 04:48 am »

That kind of money for the wood kinda takes the

out of DIY for me.I was thinking more along the lines of maybe $150-200 total for the whole project. Mind you, nothing wrong with "going for it." As long as it works, that is.

markC · « **Reply #12 on:** 18 Mar 2003, 04:19 am »

I was out pricing materials for my rack today and 3/4" stainless rods are out! The fastener shop that I visited wanted $40 a piece for them. Hello zinc plate. Guess I'm just cheap. I also had another idea for the neoprene washers which seem difficult to locate. Stumbled upon some nice meaty 3/4" o-rings. I think that they will work nicley. Any thoughts on the o-ring idea?

EProvenzano · « **Reply #13 on:** 18 Mar 2003, 05:23 am »

Here's what i did....no plastic-rubber washers!
Clamp the sh!t out of those bolts with metal washers only. Make the stand as rock solid as posible. Use the thickest shelves that you can afford...MDF, hardwood or a composite of the two.
Use unique isolation under each of your components where you can control the combination of: isolation/damping/coupling that each peice will deserve.
In short, skip the o-rings.

Good luck,
EP