Why are rack drawers so expensive?

Chris F

Chris F

New member
I'm getting ready to combine my regular office and music room and will be trading in my old desk and hutch for one designed for audio. So far, so good - but I'm going to need some regular drawer space. No problem, I thought, I'll just use some of the extra rack space in the desk for drawer space. When I started shopping for rack mountable drawers, my jaw just about hit the floor... $79 to $149 per drawer? Really? Wow.

Does anybody know of any cheaper alternatives, something that could be bought at Lowes of Home Depot and modded to mount on rack rails? I'll buy the premade ones if I have to, but that price seems really high, especially when the desk has space for about 24-28" of depth per drawer and the premade ones seem to max out at about 14". Any ideas or alternatives?
 
Things are expensive when not many people buy them
(custom tooling and jigs have to be divided into the total number sold...)

Know someone with a home woodworking shop? No different than making
cabinet drawers and you can put a metal faceplate on to match the rest of the rack.
 
Yeah...they cost a bit, which is why I never got any for my racks...so I just put gear in the racks! :D

Try eBay...you might find someone's used drawers... (no pun intended ;) )...or just get some blank rack panels to cover the excess rack slots until you get more gear. I have a few blank panels...you can stick all kinds of decals and what not on them if you don't want the "black" look.
I guess you can even make your own panles out of 1/4" wood sheets, or whatever. Just cut ti size and drill a few holes for the rack screws....
 
They charge that much... because a certain percentage of the population are willing to pay that much... How do they do it? It's not volume, I can tell you that...

I wouldn't want to look for cheap rack drawers in a hurry, but I think the best bet is the aforementioned e-bay...

I've collected a number of rack drawers over the years for low coin by buying them up when I saw them at closeout prices here and there. (On closeout because they were so expensive that they sat for years in the store until they practically gave them away to get them off their inventory)

I've always said that the best time to shop for something is when you don't need it...
 
Rack shelves accomplish just about the same thing.
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Yep same here, i looked inte rack drawers but when I saw the prices decided "shelves it is"

I have a few blank panels...you can stick all kinds of decals and what not on them if you don't want the "black" look.
Click to expand...

+1 I use blank panels above and below the patchbay and a label maker to make nice big labels for what all the ins and outs are on the patch bay which makes figuring out patching super simple
 
You could probably screw a fiber-board Home Depot cabinet drawer to a rack shelf, and there you go- cheap rack drawer.
 
moresound said:
Rack shelves accomplish just about the same thing.
Click to expand...
But then you're not really putting things away... you're just putting them.

I hate clutter

---------- Post added at 14:43 ---------- Previous post was at 14:40 ----------
miroslav said:
That explains why I've accumulated so much gear over the years....I just keep buying it, needed or not. :D
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If I find a good price I buy it... if I never find a use for it... I sell it.

Although I'm constantly surprised by what I do own... literally. I'll find some cool stuff I never remembered buying
 
The price is where the supply and demand curves cross. This is the price (literally) we pay for niche equipment in a niche industry. As long as we are still at least semi capitalist this is the way it goes. Maybe we need to get some audio lobbyists in dc to try to get us some bailout money and tax breaks and price setting.
 
Haha true.

Or unless the government has set prices to get votes, please lobbyists, pay back industry buddies, appease unions, or get a job for themselves in the future. But I don't think the rack drawer lobby is that strong.
 
I've got one in my Live rack and though it was $80, I can't count how many times I have needed something and HAD it in my drawer....sharpies, tape, screw driver, flash light, strings...etc..I suppose I could carry around a tackle box or something similar with all this stuff in it but having it in my rack means I don't have to worry about carrying around one more thing and it is right there on stage with me not taking up anymore space.
In a permanent install I would probably try and modify some regular drawers as suggested.
 
I agree they're seriously overprice.

it's MUCH cheaper to buy crappy rack gear and rip the guts out than to buy a real rack drawer.
 
Wireneck said:
I've got one in my Live rack and though it was $80, I can't count how many times I have needed something and HAD it in my drawer....sharpies, tape, screw driver, flash light, strings...etc..
In a permanent install I would probably try and modify some regular drawers as suggested.
Click to expand...

I will probably end up doing this latter thing if i can find the right drawers to modify. I ended up buying an omnidesk, and may end up with one whole side of the bottom rack to make into drawers. I noticed that small filing cabinets would fit in the 19" width of the rack, so I'm going to scour office supply sites/stores for a cheap black cabinet that hopefully has a small drawer on top and a file drawer beneath for normal desk-type stuff. If I can't find that, I'll try to get a single file drawer to put on the bottom and do as you suggest and get a single rack drawer for the upper part.

Thanks for the replies, everyone.
 
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