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Temporarily. Found a local Corain fabricator and faxed to him my plans for building a 6-shelf rack of 22"x20" Corain. Each shelf was to have four 5/8" holes for the threaded rod I had already purchased. I had it pictured in my mind, and it was going to look soo smooth. Well, I got the price quote back, and it was about $425! This was about $200 more than I wanted to pay. Some of the other options I'm aware of are mdf and granite or marble, but I really wanted the look of the Graphite Mirage color Corian. I want something more refined than mdf, yet something that weighs less than stone (and cheaper than Corian- or is there a cheaper way to source this stuff?). Any ideas out there, or am I just dreaming?
I welcome your comments.
Hi,Have you looked into using HDF or a home made HDF laminate?
Hdf is commonly used in building and is made in a similar way to MDF, but you just start out with more material and compress it under even higher pressure. The upside is this stuff is incredibly strong and pretty inert, you rap it with your knuckle and you get a dull thud rather than any kind of echo (and a very sore knuckle if you hit it too hard). This stuff is not easy to cut, in fact Ive been advised to get it professionally cut if you don't have a table saw or a heavy duty band saw, it's just so dense. Now my twist on this is to go to a car audio store and pick up a product called Dynamat. This is a rubber type padding which is used in car audio to dampen panels to stop them flexing when some amniac stuffs 4 X 18" subs in a compact! If you use something like liquid nails to fix this to one face of the HDF, let it set then sandwish it between another layer of HDF and let that set. You now have a very strong slab which doesn't ring, will have a mass not far off Corian and it will support pretty much any component you throw at it. It should also be much cheaper than Corian.
I'm working on building a stand which uses this material for the shelves and uses the basics of the TNT Flexy stand. I'm expecting this to work rather well until I can afford a Townshend Seismic Sink Stand for my system.
I hope this helps.
Regards and best wishes,
David
nt
Hola. Corian is very expensive, be in USA or Puerto Rico or anywhere. It is more easy to work than granite or marble, though. To thread a slab of natural stone, like marble or granite is not that easy and should be expensive too. If I were you, try to use a natural, good looking and heavy wood. Some woods have good sounding charasteristics that can give you a great result as a rack system. Try to contat Michael Green from MGD and I think he can assist you to that respect.There are other materials used in the construction of kitchen countertops that are sold as 4'x 8' and could be worked to your desire size. Those are Surrel and Latsica(don't know if are written correct but sound like that when pronounced) and I think are from DuPont Company.
Anyway, good luck with your project and keep going.
Jose.
Check with a cabinet shop in your area for a new type of counter top material that is a cheaper alternative to Corian. I just saw some counter tops going in to a building recently that were made from a Corian like material applied to mdf in a thin approx 1/8" layer.
Who you jive'n with that cosmic debris?
1
Besically its a clear resin composite with a pigment or particles in suspension.
You can very easily make a mould and go to your local resin company , buy casting resin and add whatever you like to give you a "look" , you can add bronze metal powder to give you something that is hard , dense , non resonant, looks like cast bronze and is workable. There are amazing things you can add to the resin , you can get granite , jade , marble , perlescent et additives Making a mould for a shelf is really easy .
I have a trophy company and we make Faux marble , granite , verdite and red african jade bases for various awards using this concept. The metal powders in the resins *do* look good tho , the cast item looks like aluminium or bronze or brass depesnding on what powder is used , and when polished looks like real cast polished metal. The stuff is really easy to machine as well.
You dont have to be a rocket scientist to use it either and most of the suppliers have free give away booklets on how to make a mould and will generally help with it.Casting resin is cheap too.
Rodney Gold , Cape Town
"The greatest thing about smacking your head against the wall is the feeling you get when you stop."
nt
Hi col325,The link below has complete instructions for a DIY high quality audio rack.
Best wishes,
Jim
I think my brother in law will like to do one of this for his new system.TNT have a great amount of DIY projects for every taste and handy abilities.Thanks for your support, Jim.
Jose.
I have made a rack very similar to what you described and I used MDF for the shelves. I actually glued two 3/4" boards together for each shelf to form 1-1/2" monolithic slabs with some mass. I also used 5/8" threaded rod, zinc coated and nuts, washers, etc. The MDF is very easy to work with and cheap. I think that I had about $50 invested before I finished the surface of the shelves. For the finish, I spent another $40 on birch veneer and I veneered the top and sides of the shelves and finished with a combination of natural color stain and varnish. The result is very cool, blonde wood with flat silver supports, all for <$100.You should be able to do the same with a fancy paint job. You can have the boards cut for you at Home Depot or similar. Then, all you need is some liquid nails, contact cement, wood glue etc to glue the boards together. Next, stack the boards all on top of each other and, with a long 3/4" drill bit, drill right through all of the boards at once and mark the front edge so that they will line up again. This much you can do yourself and then, if you don't have a router, have a professional shape the edges and get them painted with a faux marble finish. Since you would only have about $50 invested in materials, you would still have $150 for professional services...that is my recommendation. My rack is very solid and performs very well BTW.
Good luck,
Dan W.
...where on earth did you find enough birch veneer to do a stereo rack for only $40? I think I spent around $60 on walnut veneer for my speakers ( less than what it would take for a rack ) and when I bought birch veneer for the edges of my stereo rack ( I used birch veneered plywood instead of MDF ) it cost around $20.
I bought the birch veneer at a local woodworking shop. I only veneered the top and sides of four shelves. The birch veneer was the cheapest veneer and fortunately matched the color I was looking for. It might have been cheaper, in hindsight to buy 3/4" birch veneered plywood and then simply veneer the edges, but I didn't realize that at the time. Some of that veneer is VERY expensive...Bird's Eye Maple? Forget about it!Dan W.
MDF is a wonderful material to work with. As it has no grain it can be worked into almost any shape. It looks excellent when finished with auto paint or any other commercial finish. It is difficult to seal so I wouldn't recommend DIY here unless you really know what you're doing. Think about how good it would look with a nice routed edge profile and finished in a high-gloss colour of your choice. I've also seen it look good with marbled and hammer-finish paints. I've no doubt that even with these labour costs included it would be cheaper than the Corain (Corian?). Best of luck, it's a project I've been thinking about myself.
i used 3/4 MDF, then to make it look acceptable, veneered it in red oak, stained, then gave it 3 coats of polyeruathane. Looks as a nice as any piece of furnature in my home.
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