Built a Flexi-type rack?

Thanks for the update, Jim.

I've got two 24"x18"X3" maple blocks coming from Tony; cutting boards for gifts, @ $101 ea., shipped. I'm tempted to go for cherry for my rack, a wood I'm partial to; Tony offers it at the same price as maple. Are there strong reasons to prefer maple, which seems to be the more typical choice?

On another part of the equation, http://www.jamestowndistributors.com has 3'X3/4" brass rod for > $35 ea., the best I've seen. They're a boatbuilding supply place, with a lot of cool hardware. Their brass acorn nuts come to a point, and might make viable footers, though they do not list 3/4".

Cheers,

John

John

Nice find on the brass rods!! I think I'm going to buy Mapleshade hardware just to make it a little easier...especially the footers part of the equation.

Regarding maple, I think alot of people feel (myself included) that it is very good sounding in terms of a base for equipment. Mapleshade and Walker Audio have done quite a bit of comparative work with the maple vs. other woods and they found it be at or near the top of the pile.

I agree, though, cherry looks very nice (although Tony's maple sure looks good, too!!) :)

-Jim

Hello Again, Richard.

The audiopoints look a clean way to go, if a bit pricey. Leaning that way, but do you have ideas about how to handle leveling when using them? I'd be shocked if the floor of my 100 yr. old house was anything like level.

Best,

John

John,

Nice score on the brass. I figured that since the final weight of the rack was in excess of 200 lbs while fully loaded, there was no need to firmly tighten all of the weight-bearing brass cones - the sheer weight of the rack alone would provide sufficient coupling in this instance. What I did was thread them all the way in (flush to the bottom brass nut on my rack), and then slowly loosened the sagging corners (in effect raising that corner). My basement floor, while ostensively level, was in practice nothing of the sort. I came up with a perfectly level bottom shelf, and levelled everything else from there. McMaster-Carr also has laminated brass washers in the requisite size that are layered in .01 inch increments. These allow firm coupling of the cone to the rack hardware, and can be trimmed in thickness (by peeling off layers) so that firm coupling can be achieved. I used these layered/laminated brass washers when installing the AudioPoints on the bottom of my speakers to great effect. Happy listening,

-R.

Hi guys,
Question: how do you plan to attach cones (Audiopoints or Mapleshade) to the brass rods?
And what do you think about just grinding rods to a point, compared to above mentioned cones?
I'm planning to go with 1'' rods. Looked-up requisite size nuts on McMaster-Carr, very expensive ($9.75 single nut), and I will need #32 for 4-shelf version. That's $300!!!
Thanks.