Well ladies and gentlemen, looks like I'm building a new a/v stand this weekend. I've been buying quit a bit of new equipment here lately and it seems I've run out of room. The new stand will be built out of 3/4" white oak and stained ebony in color to match the rest of the speakers and the room. I'm going to datto channels vertically of the insides of the stand and flush mount brass Pilaster Strips for the adjustable shelves, a whole lot quicker than drilling holes every 2 inches for those pegs. I'll keep you posted on the build process along with pics.

Sounds like a good project - look forward to seeing pics of it.

For the life of me I can't seem to figure out how to post pics so here is a link on the Polk forum that shows my build progress.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49845

Grimster,

Very nice work. I've been known to make some sawdust on the weekends too. Woodworking continues to be one of my favorite hobbies. My last project was a cabinet that is similar to what you are building. I based the unit on a bookcase in Woodsmith magazine that I proportioned to fit my HT equipment. Its made of cherry (solid and ply) with a clear finish. I really like the look of cherry that has turned that dark red-brown over the years. I'll try post some pics when I get a host set up.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Photobucket to the rescue...My last woodworking project.

Very nice! Thanks for the pics.

AvFan,

That is an absolutely gorgeous piece of furniture. I'm ready to place my order. Just let me know how much and where to send my check.

Aaron

Thanks for the kind words Aaron. I wanted a cabinet that was as open as possible so I used just one intermediate shelf. I was very concerned the shelves would eventually sag, in particular the one supporting the 80+ amp (same as the Outlaw 7500), so I reinforced them with oak runners dadoed into their underside. Using a fixed middle shelf also helps to prevent sag but limits flexibility. Grimster seems to have solved this problem with a middle support and so he can use shorter adjustable shelves.

Now that I've had my gear in the cabinet for about a year I know I don't need as much breathing room around each component. The 990 runs so cool I won't hesitate to stack another light item (e.g. dvd player) on top of it as long as the vents are not blocked. The ATI 2005 runs very cool and only gets warm after a couple of hours. Not shown in the photos are large holes in the cabinet back behind each component for wires but also at the shelf above to let warm air escape.

It was a fun project to plan and build.

Very nice AvFan, very nice indeed. The problem I seem to be having is my color choice. My entire room is dark (charcoal grey and midnite blue) and all the furniture, speakers, gear and DVD shelves are black or ebony. I plan on staining the stand ebony but I just hate the thought of hiding the natural look of the oak.

Both of these projects are great looking pieces of work - AvFan and grimster are to be commended on their craftsmanship. I keep going back to AvFan's pics and looking at them again. And it looks like you're making good progress on your build, grimster. I really like the design.

Grimster,

I know what you mean about hiding the natural look of wood. I haven't stained any of my projects for a long time, however in your case it seems more than appropriate. Furniture needs to fit the space and a natural finish on your cabinet might distract your attention from the screen. The screen is really the focal point in your room. In my case my HT is part of my family room and the cabinet needed to fit in with the other cabinets and furniture in my house.

I read in your Polk forum this is the latest of several cabinets you've built. Its recognition of your craftsmanship when folks make unsolicited offers to buy what comes out of your shop.

I'm curious how you intend to construct the shelves for your cabinet. Ply with solid oak edging? Any reinforcement to prevent sag? I'd be a little concerned about managing your 7700; its a beast at around 100 pounds!

Gonk, glad you enjoyed the pics!

Well, as far as my shelves go there are made out of oak playwood with the solid oak edging like you said. As far as sag goes I'm not really to concerned about it because the heaviest peice of gear that will go on the shelves is the 990. The 7700 will be on the bottom shelf this time instead of next to it like it was with the last cabinet I built. As far as the bottom shelf goes there will be 6 casters on the bottom (1 in ea. corner and 2 down the center) which will prevent it from sagging.

I like your solution with the casters. It will solve any plywood sag and allow you to move the cabinet later. I used furniture glides since I've got a tile floor but I might have simplified the design if I'd built in a center support under that bottom shelf. Mmmm, next time...

Another thing I did when designing the shelf is I made the unit 24" deep, but the adjustable shelves are only 20" deep which will allow me to have over 4" of space from the back of the gear to the front of the finished backing to run all my a/v cables and then run all my power cable on the outside of the finished backing to try and prevent any humming that could become present.

I like that trick, grimster - cable management is always a bear, but that's pretty slick. Are you leaving openings in the back to facilitate rear panel access?

The shorter shelves will certainly make it easier to connect your components. I knew my cabinet was going to be pretty open from the front (see my last pic above) so I routed all my cables along the back. Like Grimster I segregated power cords and signal cables to avoid any hum issues. I got frustrated with cable management and ended up making most of my own cables to reduce the amount of spaghetti behind my gear. I'll post a pic of the back of my cabinet later tonight.

Okay, updated the pics guys, click on the polk link on the third reply to see my status.

Cool! I didn't notice the cutouts in the middle supports before. I was wondering how you were going to get cables from one side to the other. It is a little hard to tell from the pics, but have you applied a finish over the ebony stain? What did you use for stain? And what have you, or will you, use for a final finish? Nice hanging shelves!

I used Olympic Oil Based Ebony Stain. As far as the finish, it's hard to tell from the pics but the stand has two coats of Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane thats been sprayed on with my paint sprayer. Glad to see someone else liked my wind chimes.

It looks like the oak took the stain well. Did the ply take it differently than the solid stock? Did you have to do anything special to get the uniform look?

Everything took the same. Just finalized on the final coat. Can't wait till this evening to see how everything turmeds out. Will post pics this afternoon.

I look forward to seeing how it all comes together. I'll keep that ebony stain in mind. I'm contemplating building a pair of DIY speakers and black oak is an often used finish.

Posted new pics, check them out on the Polk Forum.

Grimster,

Your cabinet turned out fantastic! I can't remember where, but I've seen pics of your theater room before and I remember looking at the cabinet you are replacing and noticing how nice it was. Well, now you have another nice one with more space for all your new gear. You are right, the black was certainly the best choice in your room since it is directly beneath the screen. We need at least one more pic however; one with all your gear in the new cabinet. Again, nice job!

These deserve a closer look from folks around here, because it really does look great - and the design is wonderfully functional. Can't wait to see it laden with gear.

Without further ado, a "copy and paste" from grimster's Polk thread:

[img]http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23299&d=1173566395[/img]

[img]http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23300&d=1173566395[/img]

Thanks for all the kind words guys. I reposted some pics with the gear in the cabinet over at the Polk Forum, you guys should check it out. Gonk, I'd love for you to copy and paste some of these pics here so everyone else could see how the cabinet turned out.

Here are a couple shots of the cabinet with equipment in it:

[img]http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23310&d=1173595484[/img]

[img]http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23311&d=1173595484[/img]

I'll go through and grab a few process shots, too.

OK, here are three process shots along with links to two others that were really good but so big that they'd break the page.

[img]http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23119&d=1172928166[/img]

[img]http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23292&d=1173480155[/img]

[img]http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23294&d=1173480155[/img]

The two links are here and here , both from shortly before the stain went on.

Grimster,

Your cabinet looks great loaded with gear and below your screen. And who needs a center speaker stand when you can use such a nice piece of furniture!

Gonk, thanks for posting all the pictures.

A little off topic, but is that a video processor between the 990 and the 7700?

No Sir, that's the Velodyne SMS-1.

Alright guys, I created an account with photo bucket so I don't have to keep sending you guys to the Polk Forum to visit my pictures. The only thing I need from you guys is someone to tell me how to create a link that takes you to this home page everytime to click it, kind of like Gonk's signature. Here is the link.

http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s241/Grimster74/?action=view¤t=76_105_big.jpg

If you want to add a link to the page included in your last post, use the following (editing the middle part as you see fit):
You can stick that in your sig (it'll look like grimster\'s theater pictures ), or put it in the body of a message. You can also change the link to go to a specific picture if you want (such as this one of your video and surround speaker cable wall plates).

Grimster,

I took a look at your photo album and I'm green with envy. You have a really nice home theater. It is a dream of mine to have a dedicated theater room but for now I'll have to wait for my kids to finish college and leave home so I can convert one of their bedrooms into a theater. At this point they get a little torqued when I measure their rooms and mutter something about screen size and seating distances!

Lets see if it worked.

Gonk, you are the Man, thanks a million.

AvFan, I still have a while before mine are off to college, ages 8 and 10. Once they do go off to college and if the wife and I are still living in this house, one of there rooms is an office.

Hey Gonk, I tried changing the name to "My Theater" and now it doesn't seem to work.

Lets see, got it, thanks again.