DIY cheapskate challenge: FEET.

Arkay

Arkay

Lunatic Member
I'm stuck looking for a solution, and decided to throw it out to the creative crowd here, just for fun (and hopefully some good ideas we can all benefit from):


Short version:Here's the mental challenge for y'all: what commonly available, cheap things make GOOD feet for audio gear?

Full version:
I've been thinking about some of the clever DIY tweaks people have come up with, here and elsewhere. Some of the better ones that come to mind include:

  • Speaker cables made from CAT 5 computer cable.
  • Hockey pucks as vibration absorbers, along with those commercial rubber-cork laminates and a range of other things.
  • Inner tubes and bouncy balls and other isolation-table ideas.
  • "Flexy table" racks.
...and many, many more.

What many of these have in common is that they use CHEAP, COMMONLY AVAILABLE items to make audio things that FUNCTION WELL, and also look pretty good.

In some cases, the exact same thing found outside of an audio shop works as well as the audio version, but at a cheaper price. Bubble-type spirit levels come to mind; a hardware store sells them for much less than an audio shop.

BUT there is one area I haven't found many good ideas for: gear FEET. Not the anti-vibration things you put under the feet, but the feet themselves.

I have a couple pieces of gear (a couple of amps and a turntable) with damaged feet. I want to sell them cheaply or give them to friends who are not audiophiles, but I can't reasonably do so with some feet missing. I don't want to pay the high prices charged for "audio feet", when the gear isn't worth that much. I'm looking for something that (1) looks decent, and (2) functions well enough (i.e., has some anti-vibration/dampening characteristics) and (3) won't cost much. It could be actual "feet" sold for some other application, or something entirely different, pressed into new service as gear feet.

I've thought of cabinet knobs from Ikea, but most of them either have zero dampening properties, or look too much like the cabinet knobs they are.

So here's the mental challenge for y'all: what commonly available, cheap things make GOOD feet for audio gear? Ideally, two sizes would be great; one smaller, one larger. Thanks to anyone who participates with a suggestion.
 
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I have gotten feet at Home Depot. Small rubber feet that just screw on the bottom of the gear, they are probably meant for small kitchen appliances.
 
I have used some leftover rubber feet that are like stickers. They have worked very well so far.

I would assume a Home Depot would have similar items.
 
spartanmanor said:
I have gotten feet at Home Depot. Small rubber feet that just screw on the bottom of the gear, they are probably meant for small kitchen appliances.
Click to expand...

+1 on that. When I made speaker stands, I picked up a few 4 packs of little rubber feet from home depot. 2-3 bucks a pack IIRC.
 
Now if they would just open a Home Depot in Hong Kong, I'd be set. We have LOTS of hardware shops and specialised shops: I can find dealers who only carry umpteen heating elements, or only handle jackhammers, or safety gear or rubber goods or fire extinguishers or trolley carts and wheels, or general hardware shops by the dozens which take up less space than one department of a Home Depot, etc... ad nauseum... but NO Home Depots here. One or two department stores that MIGHT have something like that. Anyone have a generic idea, or brand name, or specific appliance-type they were used for, or something search-able, that can be found without a Home Depot around?

Also, I need something larger, too: something that looks like big, vibration-absorbent turntable feet.
 
My wife had an aerobic stepping platform that was gathering dust in the closet. I took the foam blocks that were used to increase the heigth of the platform from it and put them under my speakers to act as isolation pads.
Works great as its a high density foam.
 
Furniture bumpers, sold at the local hardware store for cheap. Available in brown and black. Some match audio gear feet height exactly. The ones I put on a Sansui TU-517 brought the faceplates of the matching amp underneath within 1/32 ".:D They have a hole that will accomodate the original chassis screw or the screw and a washer: Bumpers
 
spiderhead69 said:
My wife had an aerobic stepping platform that was gathering dust in the closet. I took the foam blocks that were used to increase the heigth of the platform from it and put them under my speakers to act as isolation pads.
Works great as its a high density foam.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see those regularly in the scrap-metal recycling place. A possble source. Thanks!

westend said:
Furniture bumpers, sold at the local hardware store for cheap. Available in brown and black. Some match audio gear feet height exactly. The ones I put on a Sansui TU-517 brought the faceplates of the matching amp underneath within 1/32 ".:D They have a hole that will accomodate the original chassis screw or the screw and a washer: Bumpers
Click to expand...

Great - I can check for those. Thanks! :scratch2: Maybe door bumpers, too?

Keep 'em comin', guys... :thmbsp:
 
What about drilling a hole through a hockey puck? They make kid sized pucks that are a little bit smaller and wouldnt look too out of place on modern gear.
 
I was revisiting my suberball isolator, and was looking for something cheap and common to keep it from rolling around.

While I know you said you weren’t looking for an isolator, this would provide both.

I found a standard ¾” nut held and seated the common small superball well, and looks good. I don’t care for its height, but, there is a solution for that. I’m heading out today to pick up some jam nuts that size. A jam nut is a nut that is half or less of the height of a standard nut.

For your use, I’d go one step further, and drill a small hole through the ball. Then counter bore another hole maybe ¼” deep for the head of a screw. Then you screw this ball and nut to the bottom on the unit. Instant foot and isolation…

The nut stand can be used to hold the ball steady during the drilling operation.

I’m planning on using RTV to bond the super balls from the bottom of the nut, but for your use that would not be needed.
 
Target pharmacy uses rubber rings on the prescription bottle necks. I knew the minute I saw these what use they would have!

They are 3/8" thick and have a high tack; they really grip well onto most any surface.

I put 4 of these under a Pioneer DV400V player that would slide around easily. Problem solved!

Any Target stores in Hong Kong?
 
I've used rubber stoppers before. They come in all shapes and sizes. I've drilled a skinny hole down the center, then a slightly larger one at the bottom to fit the head of the screw. They are in use now by a 60 lb tube amp, and haven't squished :no: - because i got big ones :thmbsp:
 
Large gum pencil erasers could easily be cut to a size that wuld make a nice size foot. I haven't tried it but double sided foam tape might be an easy way to mount them or you could easily drill a hole and counter sink it. Do the larger hole first other wise the bit may just pull on through caught in the smaller hole.

I also use gum ball machine sourced superballs that are only about 3/4" diameter under both of my TT's mounted in pockets cut in the MDF base.
 
The superball thing sounds great, but for turntables you'd have to make sure that the screw did not touch the surface the unit is sitting on. i.e. it has to be countersunk. This is true for any foot I would think. Otherwise the screw forms a vibration transmitter from the table right up into the unit. Wouldn't matter for amps, etc. of course.
 
One requirement that I have is that it has to LOOK good, too, and not like someone glued a kid's rubber ball on the bottom, even though that might give outstanding performance. Should not look immediately DIY, if possible. But it's nice to hear about all ideas that work, even the uglier ones.

The rubber stopper idea is one I'll look into, since those are precisely round, of suitable material, and also come in black. Some of the ones used for chemistry labwork even come with holes pre-drilled in them, which might be useful. The slight angle to the sides could give them a more "foot-like" appearance. Thanks for the idea (and all the others, too).

I'm sure y'all have more ideas out there...
 
Not my auctions, yada yada yada...

isolationfeetsmall.jpg


http://cgi.ebay.com/Rubber-Isolatio...VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

f1686_25.jpg


http://cgi.ebay.com/Lots-4-F1686-25...ryZ47095QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

9106.jpg


http://cgi.ebay.com/4-9106-GIANT-PA...ryZ47094QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

DSC_2287.JPG


http://cgi.ebay.com/ANALOG-SYNTH-RU...ryZ38071QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

etc.

Search: rubber feet on the bay.

Enjoy,

D
 
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