building a rack?

[Axis]

Does anyone have any tips on building a wooden rack?

[Sennheiser]

Do a search in this forum. There was thread on this subject about a month or so ago.

[Rochey]

http://www.homerecording.com/make_rack.html

try there...

[Michael Jones]

I built this one:






It's made from poplar (a fairly soft, hard wood), and standard rack rails. Each side is a 6U rack for a total of 12 rack spaces, right up front, in close proximity.
Here's a closer view:

And finally, this one:

(Larger pics available upon request.)

Don't know if that helps, but it gives you an idea of what can be done.

[Scooter B]

Micheal,

Very nice DIY work.

Did you do the desk also or just add the racks?

[Michael Jones]

Just the racks, the desk I got on sale from Office Depot.

[Scooter B]

It all looks very nice together just the same!

[Dom Franco]

Over the years I have made many racks, and I keep having to modify, cut them down in size, add too etc....

Some nicely painted or stained 1" pine 12" wide is really all you need. you can get fancy and fit the wood together with dowels or just screws or bolts.

Rack rails are available from Musicians friend or many other places, and they are not very expensive.

Wheels or casters are nice so you can move the thing around to get at the back.

Measure the space, buy the wood and start making sawdust!

Dom

[Scooter B]

Yeah I have done the same... I have built two racks so far using the rack rail.

The second one was necessitated by the birth of my daughter and running out of bedrooms.
My wife is into the interior design thing and is VERY good at it but has "standards" that are not musician friendly and we don't have basements on Oklahoma tornado capital of the world.

So I had to build an enclosure (not a desk) to contain everything out of sight and stain it to match the bedroom furniture. It kind of looks like an antique flip top desk with doors below and a flip up top and being on a tight budget I had to build it smaller than originally planned and have outgrown it.

My original (POS) monitors fit inside but were worthless and had to go. My new ones do not fit inside and I can't put them on top because the flip up design blocks the speakers. My problem now is that on the rare occasion I get the house to myself to record it takes longer to drag everything out, set up and put back than I have to record

I really just need a room to myself that I can lock the kids and cats out of and a simple desk that I can set racks under or on top of as the need may be but make the racks and possibly the desk something I can break down and take portable should the need or opportunity arise to record in good acoustic environments.

That will be ideal but several years away so I am torn with redoing something in our room that is usable and convenient like an empty amiour that I could build shelves and stuff inside of. Hopefully I can do it in such a way that it looks like a simple nice amiour outside and could be re-used for some other storage when I can upgrade my house and have a more ideal desk layout.

I hope my situation makes sense with keeping peace with a beautiful, talented but head strong wife.

[knightfly]

There's a lot to be said for marrying a beautiful, BLIND woman who loves music... Steve

[Scooter B]

Knightfly,

WHERE WERE YOU THREE AND A HALF YEARS AGO WHEN I NEEDED YOU MAN!


lol

[jeronimo]

Where can I get the measures for the rack rail?

[knightfly]

"WHERE WERE YOU THREE AND A HALF YEARS AGO WHEN I NEEDED YOU MAN! " -

Thinking up tons of other sage but 'way too late bits of hindsight... :=)

Geronimo - I'm not sure if this link will work, since it's based on a search for "rail" at musician's friend, but give it a try.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/.../base_id/36201

Whether it works or not, they don't give much information. Maybe this will help - Standard EIA 19" rack rails and gear use a spacing of 1.75" per rack space, so a 2-space rail would fit in a 3.5" opening, a 6-space would be 10.5", a 10 space would be 17.5", and so on. The hole spacing is also standard (don't remember exactly what it is though) so any standard rack mount gear will line up with the holes in the rails. The pre-drilled and tapped rails are set up for size 10-32 screws, which are mentioned in the page I linked to. This means a #10 machine screw with 32 threads per inch.

Hope this helps... Steve

Oh, BTW, when building wooden stuff for your studio, I would recommend the heaviest construction you can do, and glue AND screw everything you don't absolutely have to be able to dis-assemble. Light paneling for rear panels is no good. Particle board (MDF) beats plywood, 2x (1.5") beats 1x (3/4"), etc -

Basically, you want mass and low resonance. You'd be amazed at the things that can and WILL rattle in a studio, driving you that little extra distance all the way to INSANE...

[Todzilla]

Originally posted by jeronimo
Where can I get the measures for the rack rail?

Dude, the best thing to do is as follows:

1) get an existing rack (you can do this in a music store or at a buddy's house if you don't already have one).

2) make a template out of sheet metal, preferablly spanning several rack spaces (the more the better). The template should have all the requisite rack holes at just the right spacing.

3) Order your rails

4) install the template into the rails.

5) Build the enclosure around this.

6) remove template when done. Voila!

I just believe you will have better results using the real thing, as opposed to making measurements and having to use ultimate precision. If your rack is 1/4" too wide or narrow, it ain't gonna work, mate.

Good Luck,

[Michael Jones]

That's excellent advise todzilla!
I did mine the "hard" way. Had to use critical measurements. It worked though, but on my next one, I'll do it "your" way! Wish I had thought of that!