Custom equipment stand made from T-slot aluminum

[gbegland]

Made this to go with those bamboo open baffles I posted on here. Shelves will be matching bamboo that was extra from my project.

60" wide, 20" deep. 3" corner posts and 1.5" rails connecting everything together. $530 including shipping from Faztek. This stuff is fun! It's like an erector set for grown-ups.

Greg

[---k---]

That is neat. I looked at their website for a bit. Cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[dlneubec]

Hey Ryan,

My plans are to design and build a higher quality driver version of the Contrappeso's you heard this weekend out of aluminum. 3.5"dia aluminum tubing for the mids, 80/20 1515 extruded T-slot as the vertical member and either an alminum tube for the bass bins, an aluminum clad box or perhaps a gloss black box. A more high tech look, you might say and quite a bit more compact.

BTW, nice job to you and Chris on the MTM's. Very nice sound for the money. I bet your brother is thrilled with the HT results.

[CraigJ]

Very nice looking stand Greg, and I bet the bamboo shelving will be a nice touch.

Cj

[dyazdani]

Looks great - the bamboo should like nice with it...

[gbegland]

Hey Ryan,

My plans are to design and build a higher quality driver version of the Contrappeso's you heard this weekend out of aluminum. 3.5"dia aluminum tubing for the mids, 80/20 1515 extruded T-slot as the vertical member and either an alminum tube for the bass bins, an aluminum clad box or perhaps a gloss black box. A more high tech look, you might say and quite a bit more compact.

BTW, nice job to you and Chris on the MTM's. Very nice sound for the money. I bet your brother is thrilled with the HT results.

Dan, check with Faztek, you might find they are a little more affordable than 80/20.

Greg

[Hdale85]

80/20 inc has a nice ebay page where you can get that stuff for much cheaper then then normal retail costs.

[impala454]

We build stuff at nasa with 80/20! Definitely a big kid's erector set!

[dlneubec]

Dan, check with Faztek, you might find they are a little more affordable than 80/20.

Greg

Thanks for the heads up, Greg.

I also use the 80/20 on a machine I build and sell as a side business. It is great to have another option. I'm designing the next generation of it now and it will use use nearly all aluminum parts, so a break on pricing could save me some significant $. Both are located here in Indiana, so shipping is very fast and cheap.

[Bear]

80/20 inc has a nice ebay page where you can get that stuff for much cheaper then then normal retail costs.

80/20 won't machine anything they sell you on eBay, so you have to be real careful about getting matched pieces and monitoring your scrap rates. If you save $0.20/inch, but you end-up wasting a lot due to the lengths not matching the application, your total costs may end up being the same -- plus all the time you've invested in cutting to length.

That being said, I have been using Misumi for my CNC router project, and their prices have been at or better than comparable extrusions from 80/20 and much cheaper than Bosch Rexroth. They've also routinely run promotions for new customers, so that helps as well.

[Hdale85]

They have a lot of full length stuff on there and generally as DIY work our time value doesn't really mean much to us. I've seen 10' lengths of 80/20 extrusions on there and generally getting several of those you can easily cut them down to sizes you need. And a lot of times you can save a lot more then $.20/inch. You an get some really nice deals there pretty often as it's generally all stuff their corporate connections won't take or it's recycled.

[gbegland]

Got the shelves almost done. I also have the rear grills for the open baffles here and will try to get them put on today too.

Greg

[gbegland]

They have a lot of full length stuff on there and generally as DIY work our time value doesn't really mean much to us. I've seen 10' lengths of 80/20 extrusions on there and generally getting several of those you can easily cut them down to sizes you need. And a lot of times you can save a lot more then $.20/inch. You an get some really nice deals there pretty often as it's generally all stuff their corporate connections won't take or it's recycled.

The main drawback I see to getting the t-slot from the ebay page is that it is mostly B-stock, so there will be scratches or small dents in the metal. It that matters, then you are taking a chance, but it IS cheaper. For many situations the blemishes won't be an issue, but for the living room I did not want any cosmetic problems.

Greg

[Hdale85]

Yeah I guess that's possible.

[---k---]

That is looking great. :T

[gbegland]

That is looking great. :T

Thanks. It's pretty huge. Gonna take up the entire space btw the speakers with just a few inches to slide past for wiring behind. I should have made the outer dimension 60", but made the shelves 60", so the overall length is 66".

Greg

[impala454]

Looks great!

[Tieftoener]

Got the shelves almost done. I also have the rear grills for the open baffles here and will try to get them put on today too.

Greg

Shelf looks great! And I love the automotive captain chair on casters conversion Very well implemented

[gbegland]

Shelf looks great! And I love the automotive captain chair on casters conversion Very well implemented

Ha ha! Was wondering if anyone would catch that. I have 4 of them from a buick minivan. 2 even have the fold away snack trays. All on casters so mobile. I use one as my computer desk chair and the others roll around as needed. $250 for all 4 strapped to a pallet from ebay.

Greg

[gbegland]

In place and partially populated. The last picture kind of shows the roundover on the shelves to match the baffles, revealing the layers of the bamboo.

Now I've got to make the custom cabling and dress everything neatly, add the LED lighting and project complete! I bought some of that Blue Jeans OEM Belden coax to make analog interconnects. Really nice, soft stuff, but 8mm around, so I had to get some different RCA connectors to fit the cable. It's white too, so it will not be as noticeable against the aluminum rails as black cable would have been. I've got special zip tie mounts made to fit the T-slot grooves and everything will be run along the supports for the super clean look. Kind of like I do at work every day, but get to lazy to do at home. What's that one about the shoe makers children having no shoes...?

Greg