Audiophile audio rack

[difalkner]

Starting a new project for a serious audiophile with some serious equipment.  His McIntosh amp alone weighs 125 lbs.!  The dimensions alone make this rack impressive; everything is 8/4 and the shelves are 23" deep, 52" wide, and the unit is 31" high.  Each shelf will weigh about 70 lbs.  

 

The top shelf is Curly Maple and the middle and bottom shelves are Northern Hard Rock Maple.  These will be banded with Curly Maple so from the front you'll see Curly Maple shelves.  But since the middle and bottom shelves will be covered with gear there was no need for these to be the much more expensive Curly Maple.

The legs are about 2" x 3" and are Purpleheart.  I'll finish the piece in Nitrocellulose lacquer.  

 

While there's no rush on completing this piece I do want to stay on it as much as possible but as other orders come in I'll put this aside.  For instance, we got two separate orders for 18" Longworth chucks today so I'll move all of this out and cut the chucks tomorrow, then move all of this back in to begin planing and jointing shelves.  

 

When the shelves are glued I'll take them to my friend's cabinet shop and run them through their wide belt sander.  Our SuperMax 19-38 will work but it will be so much easier to do it on their wide belt sander.

 

As you can see, just the lumber alone overwhelms our little shop and when it comes to assembling this I'll have to do it in the house because I don't have room in the shop to put it together. 

 

Preliminary design - 

 

One shelf, basically, prior to jointing - 

 

All the lumber for the project - 

 

Curly Maple close up shots - 

 

 

More photos and updates as I work through this project.  Enjoy!
David

[Gunny]

Impressive.  So when he fires this rig up does it remove peoples clothes????  

[difalkner]

Just like the Real Napster in The Italian Job! 

 

David

[difalkner]

It may not seem like much progress but I have now cut to length and planed all of the Hard Rock Maple, straight lined the edges of all boards on the tablesaw, and run every edge on the jointer.  These boards are heavy and I'm worn out!! LOL!

 

Running the Curly Maple on the jointer was a bit iffy since I have straight blades but they are razor sharp and I took very light passes.  The edges came out very clean with very minor tear out in a couple of places but they're in the middle of the edge so it's not going to be an issue.  I considered getting a Shelix head for the jointer - PM 54A - but since this worked I'll do that upgrade later (maybe).

 

I have another project I need to move to this afternoon and that may prevent me from gluing these boards today to get the 23" width but they're ready for that step.

 

More later!
David

[Gene Howe]

That is some gorgeous maple! 

[difalkner]

Isn't it, though!!  Fun to work, too.

 

David

[difalkner]

Minor update on this audio rack; turns out the straight knives on my jointer were not giving me the clean edge I thought I was getting on the Curly Maple. When I moved the boards into different light and looked at them closer I saw the tear out in a few places.  I made some changes and ran them again but with the same results.

 

So, today I ordered a Shelix cutterhead for my PM54A jointer.  For now this project is waiting on the new cutterhead.  I have wanted one for a while and never wanted to spend the money but this project is worthy of an equipment change.  Besides, any project that requires the purchase of a new tool is a good project - right!!

 

 

 

David

[BillyJack]

It won't be boxed in? I was so tired of dusting my equipment and  I finally bought a small entertainment center (enclosed) from the good will till I can figure out my entertainment center on the wall..

 

I'm looking for a Pioneer D-1S and will to trade some clamps for one or routers....

Edited August 6, 2020 by BillyJack

[difalkner]

No sir, all open shelving.  Dust is his issue... 

 

I'm just building what he requested.

 

David

[difalkner]

Ok, I'm back on the audio rack after installing the Shelix cutterhead in my jointer over the weekend.  Today I cleaned up the edges on the three Curly Maple boards, one pass each.  Because I bought the cutterhead with bearings installed and 15 extra knives the cost with shipping was $400 and it took about five weeks to arrive (backordered).  So that's about $67 per pass but wow do the edges look good! 

 

Here are the chipped edges - 

 

And the edges I just cut today with the new Shelix cutterhead -

 

David

[Cal]

Wow is right!

[difalkner]

I may make a video of the entire build once this is complete, not sure, video production takes a while. 

 

Finally got to a point where I could begin joining the boards for the shelves and started with the Hard Rock Maple.  I'll save the much more expensive Curly Maple for the last in case I learn something new when I join these boards.  

 

Because these are heavy and the edges so crisp they're sharp I decided to do one joint at a time rather than attempt gluing all three boards at once.  That turned out to be a good move because doing just one joint is about all the open time I have for TB I, probably could have switched to TB III to get more open time but didn't want to do that.

 

I used biscuits for making certain everything stays aligned, not for strength, and it worked well for this application.

 

 

 

 

David

[Masonsailor]

Nice wood David! The Shelix cutterheads are worth every nickel. They save a lot of sanding time as well as the wood itself.  The dust collection is way better and they are so much quieter. 
Paul

[difalkner]

Loaded the three shelves, two Hard Rock Maple and one Curly Maple, and headed 10 minutes away to my friend’s cabinet shop. They have a 24” spiral head planer and 36” wide belt sander.

It still took an hour to plane and sand these heavy boards but it would have taken days per board in my shop.

 

 

 

 

David

[difalkner]

It has been ages since I've posted about this project but it is now finished and delivered. There were many delays due to other contracts and jobs with hard deadlines so this got set aside many times (this one had no deadline). Even though it is completed and delivered I'll still post the steps to build and finished photos at the customer's house. And you're not going to believe how high-end his audio system is - amazing!

Laying out the Purpleheart legs for cutting on the CNC. I don't have a flat bottom blade for the table saw and since I have the CNC it just made sense to use that to ensure all the cuts were uniform.

Here are the toolpath profiles for the cuts I made on the CNC -

And the setup on the CNC to prevent blowout when the bit cut through -Here are the five legs after cutting on the CNC and beveling the top and bottom surfaces on the table saw -

More later - 

 

[difalkner]

Test fit assembly -

Drill press guide stand for drilling adjustable feet pockets -

Drilling for adjustable feet -

Legs ready for adjustable feet -

Curly Maple edge on middle shelf -

Testing for best leg location -

Flip stands for spraying second side of shelves - you can see these in action here

Threaded inserts in place -

More later - 

[difalkner]

Getting the threaded inserts into this really hard Maple proved to be very difficult. I couldn't use the tool they make but had to use a bolt with a couple of jam nuts and drove the inserts in with my air operated Ingersoll Rand 1/2" impact driver. I tried a ratchet, 3/8" impact driver, cordless drill, and none of them worked well at all. I did my tests in end grain Walnut for something similar knowing that the Maple was much harder and figured if I could make it work in the Walnut then I might have a chance in the Maple. Again, if you want to see video of this you can see it here on Instagram.

Here are all the tools I tried to use for the threaded inserts -

Testing legs bolted to top shelf -

Assembling the shelf for the first time (no room in the shop, have to use the kitchen) -

I came up with a drying rack for storing the shelves after they were sprayed because I could no longer stand them on end once they had finish on them -

Spraying the legs; I made no attempt to fill the pores because I preferred the look with pores showing -

Spraying shelves -

Spraying second side with flip stands in place -

Spraying middle shelf -

More to come - 

[Cal]

Hey David, long time no see... glad to have you back and posting!

Those flip stands are A-OK!

[difalkner]

Thanks, Cal!  I've just been really busy in the shop but figured I'd stop and post this build.  Posting more soon.

[Masonsailor]

Wow that is really nice work David. Love curly maple. 

Paul