What is under your TT, cheap islolation?

I have decided to build a sand box isolation base. I am starting on it tonight & will let everyone know how it works out.

OK, I am staining tonight & this will be finished. This is what I did. The base is 16" X 21" plus 1" thick sides mounted on the outside of the base.

I cut 3/4 MDF for the base & top. I cut the top 1/2" smaller than the bottom. I used poplar 1 X 4" for the sides & nailed them to the MDF base in addition to using some liquid nails. I used 45 degree miter cut's on the corners to look a little pretty. I filled all the nail holes in with some putty & sanded. I am staining the base & I painted the top cover black. I will coat everything with polly & fill the base with a 50 lb bag of playground sand I purchased from HD. I also purchased some simple & cheap rubber feet for the base but do not know yet if I will install them, I may end up trying some iso nodes instead. All told it cost me about $40.00 for the materials but I already had some scrap 3/4 MDF lying around.

I plan on installing some cheapo adjustable iso points feet that I purchased from parts-express under the turntable & placing on the top MDF cover that I built. I don't have alot of money into this & if nothing else it has proved to be a fun project. I will set everything up this weekend & see how it sounds.

I made a very simple stand out of 5 pieces of 1" thick MDF, 20 pieces of 2" ABS flanged caps, glue, and 20 cheap inflated rubber balls from the dollar store. Just over a year later, my SME 20/2A and I are still very satisfied.

Hi fishwater,

One extra thing you might try. This is something that was recommended to me since I also use sandboxes (see my system pictures). That is to make a few pieces of MDF or some of the poplar into strips, maybe 1 inch or 1 1/2 inch in width and glue them on edge to the bottom of the top shelf. This way they protrude down into the sand and act like sinks. Picture it like an upside-down heat sink. I'm in the middle of a couple of other projects so I haven't gotten around to trying it yet. It does make sense though.

Best of luck,

Dan

I have no problems with isolation from footfall with my set up. I have a 5 foot tall Zoethecus rack sitting on a suspended wood floor. But, the rack is actually fixed to a nearby wall using angle brackets attached to a cleat that is, in turn attached to the wall. My table is a Basis Debut.

I generally find that lighter tables with spring suspensions to be the most susceptible to problems with footfall. Big heavy tables that have damped spring suspensions work the best. It is analogous to big heavy cars riding over bumps in the road.

For your temporary set up, I would think that the easiest, and cheapest experiment at isolation would be sorbothane pucks. They do a very good job of dissipating the energy from the movement of the floor without itself oscillating.