Building a custom isolation equipment rack
I’ve finally managed to get to doing something about an equipment rack for my system. Hoping to make a low level rack, with two shelves to keep it lower between the speakers. It may not be optimum, compared to having it out the side, but the idea that it is low enough to at least not be center of the sound field for imaging sakes.
I went and purchased $600 of pretty clear mesquite burl 1" boards (there will be minimal epoxy). And so I’ve already taken the saw marks off both sides, and I’m already down to 0.9inches thickness.
When I worked for Lenehan Audio in Australia, my mentor Mike made many isolation racks for equipment, laminating wood and steel plates and using springs.
I would like to incorporate the springs I purchased for that task under my two shelves. I have a weight goal for the mass loading of the springs, and I need rigidity, without adding too much more mass.
Steel was my first thought, but it would be both heavy and have a possible dielectic impact (okay so I’m possibly/probably paranoid).
I’m looking at using a honeycomb structure under the top to support it by laminating it with the mesquite, honecomb and then maybe carbon fiber?
Anyone in the forum worked with honeycomb or that sort of thing?
Sounds like your going for constrained layer damping. Maybe something like the damping material used in cars for sound isolation may work. They usually have an adhesive backing for a nice flush fit. From your choice of wood, it looks like you're off to a great start. 👍 All the best, Nonoise |
Love the wood. I was fortunate to spend a good bit of my career in the building of complex composite structures for aerospace including foam, fiberglass, nomex and titanium cores. think hardware like the optical truss for Hubble, wings for the B2, 787 fuselage, easy stuff....nothing as important as music....My audio mentor is famous for end grain balsa core drivers in satellite grade CFrp skins. I would aim for the approach that Core audio design use in racks they build w pocket of " goop " constrained by aluminum plate. Even green glue would be effective. Wood expansion w CF is problematic, which is one reason automotive paint is so popular on CF wrapped cabinets. an affordable heavy core is marine grade coosa. Take a look at Core audio first. Cool project. |
I recommend Jordan Peterson's advice: anything worth doing is worth doing bad. Most people over-think things trying to make something perfect or at least as good as possible the first time. If you take this approach I would keep on the current track of at least making it look good. Sure 90% of the mesquite will be covered by components, and the rest will be barely visible in a dark room, but at least it will look good in photographs. Audiophiles talk a good game about sound but what they really want is showy photogenic glam.
The part about doing it bad comes in with testing. Like those crap speaker spring platforms I made. Hideous in the extreme but building them taught me what actually works. You don't have to build a whole rack to do this. The same vibration control sound quality you will get from a whole rack, 95% of it will be there on a single shelf, 90% on a test piece. You can make square or round test pieces of different materials and test them a whole lot faster, easier and cheaper than a full shelf of the same construction.
I imagine it is a foregone conclusion you will be using springs between each shelf and the rack, and Pods or springs under each component. This being the case the details of the shelf and rack itself drop way down in importance leaving you free to just build with sexy mesquite.
Make the legs out of ABS, coat with sexy epooxy polymerhttps://www.bing.com/aclick?ld=e8W6lhOFUq-tW49GxlFXCeKDVUCUxoD67fCQeZNJWG4-GyZZ_JHEb2J8gafi8trIamGXiN8maeGfoY6wYm2SB6nlvZfKVSi5Q41WTDCTLR6wvz8ovvditjbCvjjXHda4b3Z6HCrI3wTwUiVesngM9ue70AUX-NgfKi_UfzL1oPn9EWYH43PHeH28lM__NNiP5BhxY660rSr6dv-MORIs6jsAmMzW2iXWnH4HQY0NXkkYP4CGZw2Ogv6kK4TlxqCAIgmeamZUQue8gGTkaKRDoXfY0DG3257dBKa1k_MEaeUwEsG_gGpCV8J9GtiT7lRlThHyrXz0ISKl_bfORTwPuvKW-nSWRl2v_kjql_2BfXtAA6dRzksua8Oer5OTShotsDtYJ3wVSP_uxgGPhxAQWnASfl6tSXTS3pAT5Z3_Ts98DvyTYAO5DxkH4r35s_DP3RwnjRDNd9xePW83zE6XKNeNVhFcwJaaqDWXo3ntZnoij7jcuuRntybXu3Eft_a8WSXXTOBwNexhQYaQ-9HbLThfgxxQslAfuiUG-M2fxeGqsMVVu7YDe_ir8qwILWiyqTecydnKfThZnJ3UUHj-y7SIbS59QAY2UyateXHOHugsQP3fUQM_dNaN8Bp8nWcaS_GvQe3gnhOuPXmVLLd2Y4HaLo2LNkyA0cQEtFsT5HQyocSaKfrDSW1h5CRtuAd2A2krjvPISnbCJfbLruZ9xoeV7vYSiIwhUKP5A3MJaMqSaEaxOj3-XevVmtSiPLg-UXOh690A&u=aHR0cHMlM2ElMmYlMmZzdG9uZWNvYXRjb3VudGVydG9wcy5jb20lM2Ztc2Nsa2lkJTNkZGU1MjVkOTFjM2UzMTExNTY4ZTUzYzAwMjg1Y2M4ZDklMjZ1dG1fc291cmNlJTNkYmluZyUyNnV0bV9tZWRpdW0lM2RjcGMlMjZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ24lM2RTZWFyY2glMjUyMC0lMjUyMFJNJTI1MjAtJTI1MjBFcG94eSUyNTIwR2VuZXJhbCUyNnV0bV90ZXJtJTNkZXBveHklMjUyMGNvdW50ZXJ0b3AlMjUyMGNvYXRpbmclMjZ1dG1fY29udGVudCUzZEVwb3h5JTI1MjAtJTI1MjBHZW5lcmFs&rlid=de525d91c3e3111568e53c00285cc8d9, fill with sand, tell everyone it's some exotic unobtainium composite ten times better than carbon fiber and a hundred times better than (Google some impressive jargon, insert here) and no one will be the wiser.
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First thing you need to decide if you want to drain or isolate. Basically you need to deal with airborne, vibrations from the floor and vibrations emanating from the equipment itself. Springs might help with floor vibrations which are probably the least significant but wont help drain any energy. Rubber and similar may suffer from some of the same issues. My thought would be to drain the energy as effectively as possible. Likely you will appreciate different treatments on different components. I doubt it will be a one size fits all scenario, but wood would not be my first choice for a shelf medium. Better than nothing is not necessarily a truly good solution.
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