Audiophile audio rack

[David Falkner]

I usually play in the CNC and Musical Instrument forums but the wood in this audio rack was so pretty that I thought I'd share the project here. It is complete but rather than just post the finished piece I'll show photos and descriptions along the way. My client actually came to me a couple of years ago with the request to do this build but I had just taken on a 14 month long project that would keep my small one-man shop tied up so this audio rack project sat for a long time before I got started. Fortunately, we ordered the Curly Maple and Purpleheart long before the lockdowns occurred and before pricing went even higher (this was not inexpensive wood by any means!).

This project is for a serious audiophile with some serious equipment. His McIntosh amp alone weighs 125 lbs.! The dimensions alone make this rack impressive; everything is 8/4 and the shelves are 23" deep, 52" wide, and the unit is 31" high. Each shelf will weigh about 60 lbs.

The top shelf is Curly Maple and the middle and bottom shelves are Northern Hard Rock Maple. These will be banded with Curly Maple so from the front you'll see Curly Maple shelves. But since the middle and bottom shelves will be covered with gear there was no need for these to be the much more expensive Curly Maple.

The legs are about 2" x 3" and are Purpleheart. I'll finish the piece in Nitrocellulose lacquer.

When the shelves are glued I'll take them to my friend's cabinet shop and run them through their wide belt sander. Our SuperMax 19-38 will work but it will be so much easier to do it on their wide belt sander.

As you can see, just the lumber alone overwhelms our little shop and when it comes to assembling this I'll have to do it in the house because I don't have room in the shop to put it together. 😉

Preliminary design -
001 - Curly Maple and Purpleheart audio rack.jpg

One shelf, basically, prior to jointing -
002 - Hard Rock Maple for shelves 23 x 52.jpg

All the lumber for the project -
003 - Curly Maple, Hard Rock Maple, Purpleheart for audio rack.jpg

Curly Maple close up shots -
004 - Curly Maple for audio rack.jpg

005 - Curly Maple for audio rack.jpg

I'll post more in a bit -

[David Falkner]

It may not seem like much progress but I have now cut to length and planed all of the Hard Rock Maple, straight lined the edges of all boards on the tablesaw, and run every edge on the jointer. These boards are heavy and I'm worn out!! LOL!

Running the Curly Maple on the jointer was a bit iffy since I have straight blades but they are razor sharp and I took very light passes. The edges came out very clean with very minor tear out in a couple of places but they're in the middle of the edge so it's not going to be an issue. I considered getting a Shelix head for the jointer - PM 54A - but since this worked I'll do that upgrade later (maybe).

006 - Planed, ripped, jointed, ready for gluing.jpg

007 - Curly Maple edges.jpg

Well, fast forward a few days and in taking a better look at the Curly Maple edges it turns out the straight knives on my jointer were not giving me the clean edge I thought I was getting. When I moved the boards into different light and looked at them closer I saw the tear out in a few places. I made some changes and ran them again but with the same results.

So, today I ordered a Shelix cutterhead for my PM54A jointer. For now this project is waiting on the new cutterhead. I have wanted one for a while and never wanted to spend the money but this project is worthy of an equipment change. Besides, any project that requires the purchase of a new tool is a good project - right!!

009 - Curly Maple - edge chipped.jpg

010 - Curly Maple - edge chipped.jpg

[David Falkner]

Here are the edges cut with the new Shelix cutterhead -

011 - Curly Maple - edges clear after Shelix cutterhead on jointer.jpg

Finally got to a point where I could begin joining the boards for the shelves and started with the Hard Rock Maple. I'll save the much more expensive Curly Maple for the last in case I learn something new when I join these boards.

Because these are heavy and the edges so crisp they're sharp, I decided to do one joint at a time rather than attempt gluing all three boards at once. That turned out to be a good move because doing just one joint is about all the open time I have for TB I, probably could have switched to TB III to get more open time but didn't want to do that.

I used biscuits for making certain everything stays aligned, not for strength, and it worked well for this application.

013 - Cutting biscuit slots.jpg

014 - Biscuit slots.jpg

015 - Started gluing shelves.jpg

016 - One shelf glued.jpg

[David Falkner]

Loaded the three shelves, two Hard Rock Maple and one Curly Maple, and headed 10 minutes away to my friend’s cabinet shop. They have a 24” spiral head planer and 36” wide belt sander.

It still took an hour to plane and sand these heavy boards but it would have taken days per board in my shop.

018 - Shelves loaded to take for planing and sanding.jpg

019 - Curly Maple shelf being planed.jpg

020 - Curly Maple shelf being sanded.jpg

[David Falkner]

Laying out the Purpleheart legs for cutting on the CNC. I don't have a flat bottom blade for the table saw and since I have the CNC it just made sense to use that to ensure all the cuts were uniform.

023 - Purpleheart legs, laying out shelf locations.jpg

Here are the toolpath profiles for the cuts I made on the CNC -

024 - Legs - dados toolpath - F360.jpg

025 - Legs - hole toolpath - F360.jpg

And the setup on the CNC to prevent blowout when the bit cut through -
028 - Backer boards, clamps.jpg

Here are the five legs after cutting on the CNC and beveling the top and bottom surfaces on the table saw -
029 - Legs ready to sand.jpg

[David Falkner]

Test fit assembly -

030 - Assembled audio rack, no finish.jpg

Drill press guide stand for drilling adjustable feet pockets -

031 - Drill press guide for legs.jpg

Drilling for adjustable feet -

032 - Driling for adjustable feet.jpg

Legs ready for adjustable feet -

033 - Legs ready for adjustable feet.jpg

Curly Maple edge on middle shelf -

034 - Curly Maple edge on middle shelf.jpg

Testing for best leg location -

035 - Testing leg placement.jpg

[David Falkner]

Flip stands for spraying second side of shelves - you can see these in action here on Instagram.

036 - Flip stands to allow spraying both sides of shelves.jpg

Getting the threaded inserts into this really hard Maple proved to be very difficult. I couldn't use the tool they make but had to use a bolt with a couple of jam nuts and drove the inserts in with my air operated Ingersoll Rand 1/2" impact driver. I tried a ratchet, 3/8" impact driver, cordless drill, and none of them worked well at all. I did my tests in end grain Walnut for something similar knowing that the Maple was much harder and figured if I could make it work in the Walnut then I might have a chance in the Maple. Again, if you want to see video of this you can see it here on Instagram.

Here are all the tools I tried to use for the threaded inserts -

038 - Tools used for threaded inserts.jpg

Threaded inserts in place -

037 - Threaded inserts in place.jpg

Testing legs bolted to top shelf -

039 - Test fitting legs with bolts.jpg

[David Falkner]

I came up with a drying rack for storing the shelves after they were sprayed because I could no longer stand them on end once they had finish on them -

041 - Drying rack for shelves.jpg

Spraying the legs; I made no attempt to fill the pores because I preferred the look with pores showing -

042 - Spraying legs.jpg

Spraying shelves -

043 - Spraying shelves.jpg

Spraying second side with flip stands in place -

044 - Spraying second side, flip stands.jpg

Spraying middle shelf -

045 - Spraying middle shelf.jpg

[David Falkner]

Here are the shelves in the drying rack in my 'box room' where all my shipping supplies and photography gear resides. The drying rack allowed me a way to store the shelves for the finish to cure and yet take up very little room while being out of our way -

046 - Shelves in drying rack, bottom shelf on top.jpg

The finished legs; I love the sapwood in that one leg!

047 - Finished legs.jpg

This is his audio room before the rack was assembled and I have to say it sounds simply amazing. His cables are pure silver and cost over a grand each!

048 - Audio room.jpg

Finished Curly Maple top shelf, gorgeous curl in this!

049 - Curly Maple top shelf.jpg

050 - Curly Maple top shelf.jpg

The assembled rack and he chose to have the sapwood showing on the front right leg (that's what I was hoping for) -

051 - Assembled audio rack.jpg

052 - Assembled audio rack.jpg

053 - Assembled audio rack.jpg

He said it will take a couple of weeks for him to have time to get all the gear on the shelves and get it moved back into place. Assuming he takes a good enough photo I'll post it here.

Thanks for checking out this build!

[Christopher Glanton]

Very nice David! I'm finishing up my own audio rack of Sapele. I used mortise and tenon, a fun project. Good luck on finishing up your rack!

[David Falkner]

Thanks, Christopher! I'm sure yours will look great, as well. I'll soon build one for us and it will be in Cherry, Curly Ambrosia Maple, and Curly Koa.

[Jim Becker]

I'm drooling over that curly maple for sure... Great project result and hopefully, the client will appreciate your outstanding craftsmanship.

[David Falkner]

Thanks, Jim! I ended up with some leftover Purpleheart and a very nice and wide piece of the Curly Maple, both 8/4. I'm thinking the Curly Maple would be great in a guitar.

[Christopher Charles]

What a beast! Also drooling over the curly maple. Well done and hope to see a photo with the equipment installed.

Best,
Chris

[David Falkner]

Thanks, Christopher! I told him before starting that it would weigh around 200 lbs. and when he was on his way to pick it up he said there was no need for me to assist getting it upstairs in his audio room. When he got here and saw it in person the first thing he said was 'thank you' for offering to help set it up! LOL! I'll stay on him about getting a good photo with all the gear in place.