Hi,
Zeineth2 suggested that I throw my $0.02 to this conversation. Feel free to contact me at rhwoodworker {atsign} cox {period} net if you want more info.
White oak would probably be fine. Unlike red oak, it actually looks good, particularly if you show off the quarter grain by rotating those 2" legs 90-degrees. I.e., flat grain side goes left and right, 1/4 grain goes front-to-back... that way you'll more likely see the fleck pattern of white oak. I could look up the specific density of white oak if you'd like, but the density and hardness just might approach hard maple.
If you'd like to keep with the arts & crafts look, consider through tenons, wedged tenons, or interlocking joinery instead of straight (and rather banal) M&T.
For the shelves, you could save a dung-pile of money (used to buy more albums or CDs) by getting MDF and doubling it up with West System epoxy. The shelves come out to 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" thick, weighing... I dunno, 25 pounds each? I did this on two audio racks that I *just* built for my home, and they're superb, rock solid. If I'm not mistaken, MDF deals with vibration quite a bit better than granite. I'm looking into building a layer of Sorbothane into shelves, but haven't done the research, yet.
Now, for the fun part: I'm a woodworker, but my wife is a decorative paint artist. If you want, we could discuss building doubled MDF shelves and having her paint them to look like granite, marble, or any of hundreds of other finishes. She's really quite remarkable in what she can do - the best around. On our racks, we just went with basic black, but she uses proprietary products that are the best in the business. She could give you the look of granite or marble, and the weight of MDF for a fraction of the price you'd pay for real rock.
That's a start. Shout out if you want to talk about this.
Best regards,
Rob
Zeineth2 suggested that I throw my $0.02 to this conversation. Feel free to contact me at rhwoodworker {atsign} cox {period} net if you want more info.
White oak would probably be fine. Unlike red oak, it actually looks good, particularly if you show off the quarter grain by rotating those 2" legs 90-degrees. I.e., flat grain side goes left and right, 1/4 grain goes front-to-back... that way you'll more likely see the fleck pattern of white oak. I could look up the specific density of white oak if you'd like, but the density and hardness just might approach hard maple.
If you'd like to keep with the arts & crafts look, consider through tenons, wedged tenons, or interlocking joinery instead of straight (and rather banal) M&T.
For the shelves, you could save a dung-pile of money (used to buy more albums or CDs) by getting MDF and doubling it up with West System epoxy. The shelves come out to 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" thick, weighing... I dunno, 25 pounds each? I did this on two audio racks that I *just* built for my home, and they're superb, rock solid. If I'm not mistaken, MDF deals with vibration quite a bit better than granite. I'm looking into building a layer of Sorbothane into shelves, but haven't done the research, yet.
Now, for the fun part: I'm a woodworker, but my wife is a decorative paint artist. If you want, we could discuss building doubled MDF shelves and having her paint them to look like granite, marble, or any of hundreds of other finishes. She's really quite remarkable in what she can do - the best around. On our racks, we just went with basic black, but she uses proprietary products that are the best in the business. She could give you the look of granite or marble, and the weight of MDF for a fraction of the price you'd pay for real rock.
That's a start. Shout out if you want to talk about this.
Best regards,
Rob