Built a Flexi-type rack?

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.

Holy cow...Jamestown is incredible if those prices are legit. I just looked up 1" threaded rod, and a three foot length is about $38 and 1" brass nuts are only $4.64 each. I must be looking at it wrong...

Maril555: Looks like audiopoints does a version that is threaded to fit 3/4-10 rods. Not cheap, though, at about 42$ a pop. As Richard's last post indicates, you will still need to think through the leveling issue, if you go that way. Another, much cheaper (but less elegant), way to go would be to get a set of spikes from adona, or oregondv.com, etc., and mount them to the inside of the posts on the bottom shelf. I'm leaning towards Audiopoints, on Richard's advice, which is forcing me to resist the temptation Dbld notes, to go for rods thicker than 3/4". It would be cool to have really beefy rods, but my web-noodling has persuaded me that it is harder to find attendant hardware, such as points and acorn nuts, to fit the larger sizes.

John

The way I went isn't cheap either. I had Lloyd Walker custom tap a set of large Valid Points to fit my rods, which are 5/8 -11 right hand thread. If you use 5/8-11 right hand thread, you can get a set of Salamander feet that work for about 39.00/set of 4. A compromise to be sure. Audio Advisor sells these. Depending on the weight you expect the rack to hold - I would be inclined to go that way before grinding the ends of the rod to a point. At least with the Salamander solution, you have the ability to level the structure. something much more difficult to achieve if you grind the rods down.