Stereo Cabinet

[DQ828]

I thought I should build a cabinet to put all the gear Iv'e made in. The design was done a while back and was planning to start this last Christmas but as usual I got side tracked. Building this type of thing is not what I like doing most but it will be worth it once finished. My projects tend to take a LONG time but they get finished eventually. It always seems to be the finishing (paint, lacqure etc) that is my bigest challenge. Iv'e started with the easy bit, the CD racks, I did a test today using HDPE and it worked out ok, so I'll probably stay on that path.

[davewantsmoore]

15 minutes ago, DQ828 said:

 I did a test today using HDPE and it worked out ok

3d printer?  CNC?  

???

[DQ828]

CNC

[JC.]

Love it. Looks great

[Lochawe]

How many discs will it store?

[DQ828]

About 380, more than I own.

 

The test shelf is shaping up. Made some minor modes to the raking, the final size will be based around this shelf.

 

Need to buy some shorter screws

 

Edited June 13, 2020 by DQ828

[DQ828]

Some progress, even though the CNC does the heavy lifting, there is still a lot of bits and pieces to do to get the CD racks ready to install. 30 made and 6 on the CNC. I ended up recessing the racks into the shelf a little bit so they wouldn't move around when  was trying to install them and this way I can be sure they are in the exact spot they need to be, UHMW is very slippery stuff.

 

I thought I'd give Rendering a go in Fusion 360 and quickly found out that when you run the Renderer the colours and grain end up looking very different! There was lots of mucking around to get somewhere near the original images.

 

You might have noticed I have changed the design always changing things!

[DQ828]

Made some progress, cleaned up and fitted all of the CD racking, made brackets to hold the drawer fronts, started fitting the brackets and runners to the shelves.

[Esoterica]

Good to see stuff like this.

 

Tell us about your CNC @DQ828

 

That would be a handy tool to have in my line of work but I’ve never really considered it because the ones I’ve seen are tens of thousands of $.

 

I would’ve thought it’d be much more efficient to just buy the CD rack parts. I don’t know if you can, but would imagine so. I hope so too because I’ll be making CD storage sooner or later and may need some, depending on the design I come up with.

 

 

[BLAH BLAH]

Maybe an interior light at the back of the cabinet to help see the last CDs?!?

Was looking at the design and thinking maybe the shelf/board above the many CD racks could be perspex to help see those filed last CD's...

 

[DQ828]

I spent many years designing the CNC before I finally committed to building it. I think I was on version 14 revision 6000   The build was easier than I expected probably because of all the time I spend designing. I set my budget and then exceeded it by approx 300% but I will never regret spending the money, I should have just done it earlier.

It’s cutting area is about 1050mm x 700mm. Originally, I was going to buy everything from China to keep the price down but ended up buying high quality second hand running gear from Korea, and went away from cheap noisy inaccurate Chinese stepper motors to some great motors and controller that come out of America.

I wanted the CNC to be as quiet as possible so I, used a combination of Plywood, Carbon Fibre and Aluminum to build the structure, and then bolted it together with LOTS of stainless-steel bolts, screws etc. I used a liquid cooled spindle which are much quieter than air cooled and then used a German computer cooling system to cool the spindle.

It was a lot harder learning how to use Fusion 360 and running the CNC than I expected, it took a while before I was comfortable using the machine, had a few mishaps on the way

After a while I cobbled together the dust expraction system using an Aldi Vac & a Dust Deputy and it works suprisingly well.

 

 

 

 

[DQ828]

12 hours ago, BLAH BLAH said:

Maybe an interior light at the back of the cabinet to help see the last CDs?!?

Was looking at the design and thinking maybe the shelf/board above the many CD racks could be perspex to help see those filed last CD's...

 

The drawers will pull all the way out so there should be an issue with light or access, I dont have a CD player so once there ripped there in there until the end of time

 

 

[ThirdDrawerDown]

Uttermost envy on your workshop. It's beautiful. Why mess it up with sawdust, five-ply, fixings, and other clutter? Simply leave it as an artifact that has ultimate possibilities (such as furniture).

[Grimmie]

Staggeringly amazeballs @DQ828 Hard for me to imagine building such a machine. Hard to imagine me imagining it!

[DQ828]

6 hours ago, Grimmie said:

Staggeringly amazeballs @DQ828 Hard for me to imagine building such a machine. Hard to imagine me imagining it!

I used to think I couldn't do stuff like this then I just started doing it, and as long as you can put up with the mistakes it's amazing what can get done.

[BLAH BLAH]

On 12/07/2020 at 8:43 PM, DQ828 said:

The drawers will pull all the way out so there should be an issue with light or access, I dont have a CD player so once there ripped there in there until the end of time

 

 

Ahhhh nice! 

[DQ828]

Shelves ready for painting and install, now all I need is a cabinet to put them in

[DQ828]

Started the cabinet, had this veneered pineboard for about 25 years!

[DQ828]

Made some progress, long way to go. Cutting the miter slots on the long pieces was fun!

I was very happy when the shelves fit, almost stuffed up a few things but managed to come through unscathed.

Had a good day until the house started to flood due to the VERY heavy rain! Will be sleeping on the lounge room floor tonight.

[jdh500]

Great work,

 

I’m also building an AV cabinets, only for my hifi gear rather than for storage too, my one is a Modified bunnings flat pack cabinet, with solid wood top and sides etc, hopefully should have it complete this weekend. If I had better working space and tools I’d attempt something more custom build etc., the centre piece of my cabinets is a shelf for the centre speaker and underneath space for two concealed subwoofers between the two cabinet doors.

 

intersting to see how it turns out.

 

JDH

Edited July 28, 2020 by jdh500

[DQ828]

Good work, Iv'e got months to go

[jdh500]

I can understand why your one will take for ever, it is very complex, compared to me starting from a bunnings flat pack kitchen cabinet.

 

i am sure you will be very satisfied once you eventually finish.

 

JDH

[DQ828]

I had to wait for 3 weeks before the weather forecast was ok on the weekend so I could spray some finish on the base cabinet. Saturday was spent spraying lots of coats of stain and that went fairly well although it ended up hotter than I would have liked. The plan for today was to try and get the insides finished and leave the outsides with one coat to go which I would put on once it was together. Today ended up being windier than forecast and hotter than ideal, so things didn't go so well. Apart from it being almost impossible to get a good wet coat that would flow out I ended up having blemishes come through in some areas. In the end I put up the white flag before I started hitting things with a hammer , live to fight another day.

[DQ828]

Where does the time go!

I had endless issues with the finish and spent many, many hours, only making things worse! In the end I accepted (or thought I did) the finish and put the cabinet together by which time I had a request from my son for a Stereo Table, sure, anything to get away from this project.

The idea was for a very simple design that he could help construct and would only take 5 minutes to make . Of course, I’ve hardly seen him but that because his been working so that’s ok. Once I got agreement on the design and got started, he put in an even more urgent request for a small PC table that would fit in his new abode, hmm this is annoying.

I repurposed a teak veneered table top I had made 35years ago (OMG) and used some Tassie Oak veneered MDF that I’ve also had for years, the same stuff I was making my cabinet from. Very simple design. The top had a few lizard engravings put in it for fun, and it looks pretty good with the old top and new base. When I sanded the old finish on the top, which I assume was Wattyl Estapol, it was/is as hard as a rock, no wonder it lasted so long. The good thing about this project is in conversation with a contractor at work he recommended using Mirotone Mirocat Premium Lacquer as a clear coat. I sprayed the Mirotone Stain (same as my cabinet) on the Tassie Oak Base and then put the Mirocat on top and it looks great and was about the easiest lacquer I’ve sprayed with. Which of course means I’m probably going to have another go at my cabinet, there’s every chance I’ll sand thru the veneer doing so sucker for punishment.

I also made a Laser alignment pointer for the CNC which was built from scratch and amazingly it works really well, I sent quiet a while thinking it would end up in the bin. A week after I finished it, I had my first mishap with the CNC in a long time and the lase came in very handy to get things squared up again.

So, it’s back to my sons Stereo Table, then his new amp, speaker leads, modify his preamp and Streamer so the whole system works together and I think he is done! Yer I’ll get back to my cabinet someday!

[DQ828]

Well the boy is happy with the desk and his Stereo Table re ready to spray, I'll assemble it after it's sprayed and hopefully I wont have to respray anything, spend your life taping up things doing it this way!

 

I made the original Streamer support out of black 6mm Acrylic sheet but didn't like it so I had a second from 4.5mm Clear, the only issue is it's a bit like a spring board I will fix the Streamer to the support so it's not going to fall off. I think I will give it a test run and it's it's too flexible I might add some braces or make a new one out of 6mm.