Wham !!!! Thanks for taking the time to "step up to the plate" Ken. Your post was quite detailed and TRULY offered insight as to how to get "something for nothing" (almost). The fact that you had the courage to mention that the Ikea design had similarities to your more expensive Neuance shelves shows that you aren't afraid to tell the truth. Even if it may come at some personal expense. Kudos and hats off...
As to Dave who started this thread, PLEASE don't take offense to my comments or some of the others. I too have done EXACTLY as you have done. Only by playing with various racks and materials was i able to learn the difference between them. One might not believe the difference that a rack can make until you experience it first hand. Your willingness to help others and provide a basic design for those less initiated is to be applauded. As you mentioned, the results that you achieve with this "homebrew" design compares to others for dimes on the dollar.
As to the "project" that i'm working on, let me give you some background. Here are some of the criteria that i was looking for when i came up with this "plan".
1) I wanted a rack that was versatile in terms of adjustable shelf height. I've never found any "pre-built" rack that offered appropriate spacing for the components that i end up running.
2) I wanted a rack that was rigid in construction. I do not like ANYTHING that is not stable.
3) I wanted a design that did not make use of the shelves as being directly anchored to any part of the frame i.e. the shelf should not be a "stressed member".
4) I wanted shelves that were strong yet low in mass. Heavy shelves tend to "deaden" the sound and rob the dynamics, harmonic structure of the music being reproduced i.e. they lack "prat".
5) I wanted a rack that ALL shelves were isolated via "spikes". Most "high end" racks only isolated the top one or two shelves.
Given the above info, i found NOTHING that was mass produced and met ALL of those requirements. Target and other similar designs did not have variable shelf spacing, most of the shelves were not "isolated" via spikes, etc... Threaded rod racks typically made use of heavy, high mass shelving materials, the shelves were directly anchored and part of the frame structure, etc... I was stuck between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to go but build my own.
I stumbled across a Premier design that looked like it had potential with some "tweaking". Premier was closing them out and a local dealer just happened to have a few on hand. As such, i bought all of them that they had at their two locations ( 3 four shelf units and one 6 shelf ). When all is said and done, i have 18 shelves to play with.
The basic design looks VERY similar to a Target rack but built in a "modular" form. Dimensions of the square tubing "shelf frame", the wooden shelves, etc... are identical to a Target from what i can tell. The major difference between the Premier and Target is that instead of having fixed height with welded risers ( Target ), Premier chose to use various length risers to accomodate different component heights. To achieve this, Premier welded flanges to the four outer corners of each "shelf frame". Each flange has a 1/4" diameter hole drilled in it. They then use hollow metal tubes of various lenghts with a thin threaded rod running down the center. The hollow tubes are primarily for cosmetics as it covers the threaded rod. When the overall rack is fully assembled, you tighten down locking caps on top and bottom. This squeezes the hollow tubes up against the top and bottom of the flanges of each shelf frame to "compress" the rack together. In stock form, the frame is NOT as solid as a welded design. On the other hand, it did offer more versatility and still allowed one to pick and choose shelves while keeping them "free floating" or "isolated".
This is not to mention it is WAY cheaper from a manufacturers standpoint in that they can now ship the rack "broken down" in several small packages. The Target type rack is "welded" & "fully assembled", which makes it WAY more expensive to ship.
In order to achieve what i want, I intend to use the individual "shelf frames" of the Premier anchored directly to the threaded rod. Each "shelf frame" will be locked in place with a nut above and below each flange. As such, the frame should not twist or flex in the least once leveled and tightened down. While this is no different than how most threaded rod racks anchor the shelves, i am NOT anchoring the shelves themselves. I am only anchoring the square tubing frame that the shelf rests upon. I can then use whatever shelves that i want and simply drop them into the rack frame. All of the shelves are "free floating" courtesy of upturned spikes. Speaking of "spikes", i'll have the bottom of the threaded rods screwing into downward facing "points".
As such, i will have achieved all of the design goals that i was looking for. Flexibility of shelf height, ridigity of structure and isolation for each shelf. My questions to Ken ( and others ) are as follows:
1) How do you think this will work ? Am i wasting my time & money ? High / low points of a design like this ??? Please be BRUTALLY honest. I can take it (at least you guys won't hear me whimpering....)
2) What diameter threaded rod would you recommend for the risers ? Thin and lower mass or larger and heavier ??? I can go anywhere from about 1/4" to 3/4" diameter by drilling out the flanges.
3) Should i use the same threaded rod for the three racks that i'll need for this system ? One rack will house my low level components ( Tuner, CD system, TT, Cassette, Preamp, Electronic Crossover ) while the other two racks will be holding three amplifiers each ( tweeters, mids, woofers for the left and vice-versa for the right ).
Any / all comments welcome and appreciated. Sean
>
