Speaker stands

[jamsomito]

Thought I'd share my idea and a mini build log here. We were in need of some speaker stands for our entertainment center, so I whipped up a design to match our dining room table. Still deciding on the staining, so there's some variations. But I'll be picking everything up and putting it together tomorrow.

Thoughts?

 

[jamsomito]

Printed my plans and went to the store

Got one 8' 1x4 select pine, one 6' 1x4 regular pine, and one 6' 1x10 regular pine. Cut everything to size. Legs are looking great!

Stained all the respective pieces in "Special Walnut" color. This matched the walnut on my table pretty closely. (crappy pic)

Next steps: clear coat (I have some semi-gloss water based stuff), glue the legs together, screw the top and bottom on, done!

 

[jamsomito]

First coat of semigloss:

 

[jamsomito]

Third coat. Starting to look pretty nice IMHO. Not perfect, but I don't have time for perfect

 

[Makeroflostsouls]

Looks nice.. I made some similar stands not to long ago.

 

[jamsomito]

Three coats all around. All set.

Pretty happy with the finish.

Got the legs all squared up and ready to glue/clamp...

Aaaaand all my glue was dry. So back on the bench they went.

I have a trip coming up and we're leaving tomorrow, so looks like this project will have to be put on hold until I get back.

 

[jamsomito]

So this story starts out great.

I have the best wife in the world. She went out and bought some wood glue while I was at work so I could pick this back up when I got home and have enough time to put everything together before I leave tomorrow.

So I smear some on...

Put it together...

Crap! It's way too much! When I clamped it down, it almost gushed out the sides. It actually got a lot worse than this with the second clamp, covering most of this side before I got it all cleaned up.

But a half an hour and a mound of wet paper towels later, I got it all cleaned up. I just hope I got it all and it doesn't screw up the finish. I backed off the clamps just a bit too - hopefully that prevents any more seepage overnight. And there it sets.

...and then I broke the basement light

...and then I found $5. But not really. Would have been nice though.

 

[JoeOnePack]

Looking pretty good actually. Will be keeping an eye out.

 

[Krispy Kritter]

Looks good.

Wood glue actually works best on bare wood. Depending on the rest of the design, it may not matter.

 

[kindasmart]

Why is there a yellow sticker on the lower right of the TV? Or is it one of those, "This sticker can't be removed under penalty of law" deals?

 

[Nenu]

Nice looking job!

I would have anchored the 4 corners to make the platform more solid in the horizontal plane.
(so the speaker cones movements dont translate into speaker cabinet movement, then as much as possible ends as sound with reduced distortion of the original signal).
But then you wouldnt get the look you are after, and you might not notice the difference anyway.
It shouldnt really matter unless you are after max quality for critical listening, perhaps something for a future project?

You have better squishing tools than I have
I'm building some largish floor mount speakers for a friend starting today.
I'll be using planks of wood and benchpress weights to compress the glued joints
it worked out great before, so no worries.

ps if really going for a high sound quality build, consider using dense wood.
I'd say mahogany but the rainforests need it more, so the next best thing.
Perhaps MDF and a nice veneer?
Spike the stands to the floor then mount the speakers to the stands on something grippy like rubber tap washers.

 

[B00nie]

MDF is very soft actually, HDF is probably closer to hard wood.

I hope the OP sanded the glued surfaces prior to applying the wood glue. It won't adhere well to the coated surface.

 

[jamsomito]

Thanks for the interest everyone!

Looks good.

Wood glue actually works best on bare wood. Depending on the rest of the design, it may not matter.

The dark center pieces were only finished on the edges, or what you can see when it's put together - the big faces were only stained, no varnish. I also left 8" or so on one side of each light colored piece of the legs unfinished. These things are glued tight now.

Why is there a yellow sticker on the lower right of the TV? Or is it one of those, "This sticker can't be removed under penalty of law" deals?

It's just the energy rating sticker like this. I may return the set before my exchange window is up... still testing it.

Nice looking job!

I would have anchored the 4 corners to make the platform more solid in the horizontal plane.
(so the speaker cones movements dont translate into speaker cabinet movement, then as much as possible ends as sound with reduced distortion of the original signal).
But then you wouldnt get the look you are after, and you might not notice the difference anyway.
It shouldnt really matter unless you are after max quality for critical listening, perhaps something for a future project?

You have better squishing tools than I have
I'm building some largish floor mount speakers for a friend starting today.
I'll be using planks of wood and benchpress weights to compress the glued joints
it worked out great before, so no worries.

ps if really going for a high sound quality build, consider using dense wood.
I'd say mahogany but the rainforests need it more, so the next best thing.
Perhaps MDF and a nice veneer?
Spike the stands to the floor then mount the speakers to the stands on something grippy like rubber tap washers.

Yeah, I could have made the design a lot more sturdy or acoustically tailored, but the main factors here were budget and aesthetics (to match my kitchen table). I would have used walnut to match the table, and maybe maple for the lighter wood, but that would have blown the budget in a hurry. I also personally wouldn't be able to hear the difference between something absolutely rigid and these, so I'm not too worried about it. You do have good point though.

As for squishing tools, I think I have these for $10 each. If you're on a super tight budget, these are about half the price. They're worth it if you glue more than a couple of things.

MDF is very soft actually, HDF is probably closer to hard wood.

I hope the OP sanded the glued surfaces prior to applying the wood glue. It won't adhere well to the coated surface.

Yeah, like I just mentioned above, I left the areas to be glued free of any clear coat. They're stuck together pretty good now, not too worried about it.

 

[jamsomito]

Finally got everything wrapped up tonight!

Drilled some holes

Put some screws in with just the tips poking through

...used it to mark the holes on all the other pieces

...including the legs

Used a bigger drill bit to make a countersink. The screws had to be flush on the floor side and on the speaker side.

Worked great. Not perfect, but you won't ever see these anyway.

Drilled the rest of the holes in the legs

and screwed them all together

All done!

They lean slightly because I didn't quite get it right when gluing everything together (off by a little bit means a big change in the angle). But, a simple fix for this is to back out the screws slightly on the short side to compensate. An easy project, but a project for another day.

Overall I'm really happy with these. The colors match the table perfectly. You can tell I cheaped out and used pine all around (instead of walnut for the darker wood) because of the grain, but the select pine on the legs matches the select pine on the table exactly.

Final cost is ~$25 for both. That includes the wood and stain. I had the semi-gloss finish and screws laying around, and I had all the tools I needed too. The "expensive" part of this build though is the time it took to put everything together. I figure 1hr to 3D model, 1hr to go to the store and back, 1hr to remeasure and cut, 1hr to sand (by hand), 1hr to stain, 3 total hours for 3 coats of semi-gloss all around, 1hr to glue (because of the clean-up), and 1hr to drill and screw together. That's 10 hours of my time, not including the time in between staining and all the coats of semi-gloss that took at least 3 hours each. So, it took more than a weekend, and more than a full work-day's worth of effort. I'm still happy with it though. It was a fun project, and it saved the pocket book for our kid that's due soon...

Anyway, critiques, comments, questions, fire away! Thanks for reading.

 

[Krispy Kritter]

They came out nice. Good job.

 

[Nenu]

Pretty

 

[Sycraft]

Looks like they should work good. Only thing to consider is to get something to decouple the speakers from them, otherwise they may resonate a bit at some bass frequencies. There's all kinds of audiophile ways to do it but some stick on rubber feet should do a reasonable job for cheap.