Building a vinyl record storage cabinet

[Phillip Mitchell]

Some friends want me to build them a storage cabinet for their vinyl record collection. This is exciting as it combines 2 of my favorite experiences (records and woodworking.)

What they want is a similar basic form to the ubiquitous IKEA cube / box style shelves (2 high x 8 wide) but with sliding drawers in each box instead of open shelves. They want to be able to slide each drawer open and flip through the records with the front covers facing forward, like in bins at the record store. They also want the panels of the drawer fronts to be mostly clear (plexiglass) with a slot in the top that can house a record to be “on display” at the front of each drawer and be swapped out easily. I’m thinking I will build narrow face frames with grooves for the plexiglass and will likely use Acrylite framing grade acrylic glass, which I’ve used many times in custom art framing work that I’ve done.

I think the drawers will be about 16-18” deep, which has the capacity to hold between 80-100 LPs, with a potential estimated weight of ~ 60 -75 lbs (+ ?) per drawer. As of right now, there will be 16 drawers total (2 tall x 8 wide) and I will almost certainly split that into 2 boxes of 4 wide and screw them together like you would with kitchen cabinetry once the cabinets are in place.

I’m thinking that case construction will be 3/4” ply with biscuits / glue and screws and dadoes in certain load bearing joints. Solid wood, narrow face frames. Solid wood “countertop” and likely some sort of end panels, whether solid wood or a skin of nicer looking thinner ply or veneer. The cabinet will either sit on top of a toe kick style box on the floor or have short feet like in a mid century modern style (will likely need at least 8 feet due to length and overall weight.)

I don’t do a lot of plywood cabinetry and don’t really know where to start with sourcing the right drawers slides for this. Definitely don’t want to cheap out on the drawer slide hardware with such a heavy load and precious cargo like a prized record collection. Soft close would be nice, not sure if they care about undermount or side mount from visual perspective, but if the price wasn’t dramatically different then I’d prefer undermount simply for a cleaner look.

Anybody have any advice on slide hardware / other details?

This is not a pro-bono project; I am a woodworking professional. At the same time I’m trying to value engineer this project to a certain degree within reason that provideS a balance of function / value / and simple style for my friends to be able to make this dream of a large record storage system a reality for them.

I’d personally love to have my records collection of nearly 1000 LPs housed and organized like this, so I completely understand their desires on a personal level. Alas, my records live on the aforementioned 4x4 ikea cube / box open shelf that I’ve had for nearly a decade...

Thanks as always.

[Lee Schierer]

You're going to want slides that hold at least 100 pounds. The Knape & Vogt Side Mount Self-Closing Drawer Slides are rated for 100 pounds and are reasonably priced. With 100 LP's in a drawer that is fully extended you may have a cabinet that will tip, particularly if two or more upper drawers are open at the same time. I would make provisions to anchor the cabinet to the wall.

[Joe Samorodin]

I made this for a client who wanted to have an album in the front, sort of album of the week. Slides are the Grass undermounts 75kg I used the small brackets from fast cap album storage1.jpg
to attach fronts as there was very little frame left for the drawer front. They are 20" deep The material is ash.

[Halgeir Wold]

I don't think I'd rely on biscuits to hold the shelves... rather make the shelves run all the way through horisontally and possibly use bisquits to hold the vertical dividers...... I have well beyond 1000s myself, unfortunately stacked away for the time being.... as you have a good stash yourself, you know the weight....

[Phillip Mitchell]

I was actually thinking biscuits for the vertical partitions and dadoes for the horizontals. Glue in both and screws in the dado-ed joints.

Yes, I know the weight well. A lot more than some might realize! Thanks for the reminder about anchoring to the wall.

I’ll check out the slides mentioned. Thanks for the recommendations. Keep em coming.

Joe, lovely cabinet. That’s similar to what I’m planning to do design-wise. What are the Fast Cap brackets you mentioned called? Thanks

[Joe Samorodin]

Kolbe Korners are the fastcap product. I also ran the bottom of the drawer straight through and biscuited the sides.

[jamil mehdi]

I don't think 100lb rated slides are going to be enough for 80-100 records. There is the weight of the drawer itself in addition to the weight of the vinyl, and slides don't function well at close to their limit. I think I would buy 220 lb slides to take mechanical problems out of play. At that rating, I think you're forced to use side mounts, but I may be wrong.

[mike stenson]

I don't think I can cram 100 LPs into 18" depth. I think cram would be the word at that point. I generally get about 40-45 max into a 13" box.

Basically, I don't think it's gonna be a 100lb load per shelf.

[Phillip Mitchell]

I don't think I can cram 100 LPs into 18" depth. I think cram would be the word at that point. I generally get about 40-45 max into a 13" box.

Basically, I don't think it's gonna be a 100lb load per shelf.

Mike, I just counted a few of my 13” deep open shelves and have an average of 60-70 LPs per shelf. That’s not quite library shelf packed, but they are mostly vertical and close to the max you could fit, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that in, say a 16” depth there could be 80 LPs or in 18” there could be 90 LPs. Neither is approaching 100 lbs, though. More like 50-60 lbs of vinyl.

[mike stenson]

Mike, I just counted a few of my 13” deep open shelves and have an average of 60-70 LPs per shelf. That’s not quite library shelf packed, but they are mostly vertical and close to the max you could fit, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that in, say a 16” depth there could be 80 LPs or in 18” there could be 90 LPs. Neither is approaching 100 lbs, though. More like 50-60 lbs of vinyl.

Interesting, it could just be the stuff I tend to have (it's possible, Pauls Boutique is about 1/2" alone.. and it's a single LP but a trifold cover).. or how I store them (cover goes into 3mil outer, and the LP slips behind that in a rice paper inner, which likely takes up some more space), having the plastic sleeve adds more space (than just it's total thickness) since you need more wiggle room to slide in and out I think. That did make me go double check.. most of mine are currently sitting about 45.

[johnny means]

Plan on some pretty substantial weight on the back of the cabinet. I've used 1/4"steel plates to cover the entire back of file cabinets. I've also used steel "bricks" attracted top the bottom back corner of the cabinet. You have to assume that all or most of the drawers will need pulled out, fully weighted on occasion.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Thanks Jamil. I may try and encourage the choice of a drawer depth of 15-16” so I can use heavy duty 15” drawer slides that are rated for 150 lbs. At that depth I think it will be more like 80 LPs deep max. The best I can estimate, 100 12” LPs weigh between 60-80 lbs depending on actual thickness/weight of the vinyl itself which is usually anywhere between 140g and 220g, plus cardboard jacket / cover, and the drawer itself + slides will be maybe 10–12 lbs?

Edit: for scientific purposes, I just weighed about 10 different LPs / double LPs in dust jackets/covers and the weight of single LPs with jackets varied between 200g-275g and the double LPs were around 350-400g. That’s roughly 0.55 lbs and 0.8 lbs respectively, per record. FYI!

[Mike Allen1010]

Great project idea! I love the idea of how to best organize, and display LPs!

Independent of the engineering/hardware questions, I’m interested in the overall design. I guess, depending on the number of albums this could be a real sizable project, creating lots of opportunities for front/top display services or you might be able to show up a little.

Thanks for posting, look forward to seeing the rest of your progress.

Best, Mike

[Phillip Mitchell]

Tom,

Thank you! You should keep your LPs and build something similar!

Mike,

Yes! There are lots of different ways something like this could be configured. In this case the client told me how much storage they wanted (with room to grow) and I designed and dimensioned it accordingly. It’s huge...nearly 10’ long in total with both cabinets side by side.

Since posting photos and videos of this one elsewhere online I have received serious interest from a small handful of others asking about different configurations - one single 4 drawer unit with open shelves on each end in Alaskan Yellow Cedar / Cherry and a another inquiry that includes the same type of framed display as part of a floor to ceiling built-in type unit. I’m open to all of it and would love to build more variations of this credenza.

Thanks for the comment. I have seen your work on here in the past and it’s stunning.