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Record Bin From single 4 x 8 Sheet of Plywood - Plans

Okay, this thread has really inspired me! I have about 1500 LP records and will (hopefully) be moving into a house from an apartment if the sale goes through. I will have my very own record room in the basement bedroom! For years I have dreamed of building my own record bins. I am going to make it a reality in the near future thanks to this thread!

I have one shameful secret that has kept me from posting on this thread in the past. In addition to being a Noobie at anything audio, I am a complete carpentry nnob as well as a tool noob. I am talking I had no idea of what a Philips head screwdriver was until this year (and now I have forgotten again)! There cat's out of the bag. I have no tools beyond screwdrivers and hammer, and have no idea what I will need with this.

I have no idea what would to buy, how to stain, or anything.
Can someone make a TOOL/PARTS list?
I want this to be my first carpentry project.

If it helps, I want to emulate to look of Teak furniture from the 1960s/70s.

Any help appreciated. Can I have ALL the cuts done at Home Depot (i'll pay), or do I have to cut most myself?

Any help with wood selection too. I don't mind spending $80 on a piece of wood. I want these to last.

thanks
 
I can try to get you started.

HD will make cuts for you but they won't be accurate enough. I would suggest to get a circular saw and a straight edge for a guide to rip the plywood to size. They make straight edges for this purpose. Just use a couple of clamps to hold in position and run the saw up against it. Besides a tape measure, that is all you'll need to cut the boards.

To put it together you'll need drill and more clamps. I'd suggest a cordless drill. You'll use it to drill pilot holes and and drive the wood screws in. I used wood screws that look similar to deck screws. They drive easier and don't twist off.

As for what type of wood to use. You could buy walnut plywood but it's expensive and being your first project you'll probably make a mistake or two. I made mine out of baltic birch plywood. It has cabinet grade facing and no voids. Very stable and takes stain extremely well. I used 3\4" for load bearing panels and 1\2" for the rest. You can see mine earlier in the thread.

To get the color the way you want it, I'd take a piece of scrap wood of what you use to build it and a sample piece of what you want it to look like to a local paint and stain store. If you don't have a sample drawer or something like that they should have cards with stain colors to chose from. They'll mix up a stain for you to make the color you want using the scrap piece of wood so it comes out right.

Other items are a good wood glue like tri-bond and some veneer banding to cover the bare edges of the plywood. HD has iron on banding that works good. A triangle square will also help with assembly. Also some 220 grit sandpaper to prep it for stain and in between coats of stain. Finish it off with some polyurethane. That's it in a nutshell.
 
Better add a block plane and sanding block if you're going to use something other than a table saw to make the cuts. These will give you a cleaner edge to iron or glue on veneer edging.
 
AudioNoobie said:
Okay, this thread has really inspired me! I have about 1500 LP records and will (hopefully) be moving into a house from an apartment if the sale goes through. I will have my very own record room in the basement bedroom! For years I have dreamed of building my own record bins. I am going to make it a reality in the near future thanks to this thread!

I have one shameful secret that has kept me from posting on this thread in the past. In addition to being a Noobie at anything audio, I am a complete carpentry nnob as well as a tool noob. I am talking I had no idea of what a Philips head screwdriver was until this year (and now I have forgotten again)! There cat's out of the bag. I have no tools beyond screwdrivers and hammer, and have no idea what I will need with this.

I have no idea what would to buy, how to stain, or anything.
Can someone make a TOOL/PARTS list?
I want this to be my first carpentry project.

If it helps, I want to emulate to look of Teak furniture from the 1960s/70s.

Any help appreciated. Can I have ALL the cuts done at Home Depot (i'll pay), or do I have to cut most myself?

Any help with wood selection too. I don't mind spending $80 on a piece of wood. I want these to last.

thanks
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Noobie, you don't say where you are located, maybe someone near you could help you cut the plywood and more. I know I would be willing to do that.
 
Audionoobie, from what I get from your post, I would suggest that you search around to see if you can find someone local to help you with this project. It is fairly simple, but you need to have at least a little experience with how to measure and make the proper cuts, and how to join the materials together. If you make mistakes at the start it may very well discourage you from ever attempting anything like this in the future. If you get proper guidance, you may find yourself with a new hobby that will give you many years of enjoyment. Just like anything else, there are details you need to be aware of in the beginning. After you have completed a project or two, it all makes sense. Best of luck to you.
 
Thanks for your advice X2Turbo! That really helped get me started on the path! I guess a circular saw is on my Xmas list!
John James - I will take your advice. It turns out I have a friend who is coming to town that does carpentry, if he has time to see me, i will get him to help me do some cutting!
I just went out today and bought a book on basic carpentry to get me started.
thanks!
 
Hi I know I'm not an active user here and nobody knows how I am but I still wanted to share the LP bin I built today since I used the plans from this topic and modified it a little bit to fit in my small living room and It still just needed one 4x8 plywood but I made it a little bit narrower (15 3/4) instead of (20 3/4)

anyways here it is :)
IMG_2475s.jpg

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ФрэнсисМ said:
nice it would be useful to have a drawer on mine too except it would be impossible to access the bottom LP's since my middle row kinda take the place of the drawer =/ anyways I like your version too!
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I like the look of the middle row. Kind of a 'now playing' shelf. I bet you could make a draw face out of that. The draw behind it, so the whole face would open out. Cool.
 
ФрэнсисМ said:
I haven't thought about it, great idea!! It would be a good way to use the lost space behind it! :)
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This is my second favorite thread on the internet. It was a slow work day and another member posted a picture of a similar bin that he had made from a single sheet. I decided I liked the idea of a single sheet design and worked it up in Solidworks, then started this thread so others would have the plans. The plans have changed a bit because of this thread and the various versions are posted in the first post.

If you have a sketch / plans for your version and would like to post them here, I'll add them to the first post.

My favorite thread is the 'Airplane on a conveyor' thread on ls1gto.com. That was too much fun and kept paying off. Even after the Mythbusters proved the point.
 
I built my first record bin last year and couldn't be more happy with the way it came out, thanks all the people who contributed to this thread. :yes: I'm ready to make another as my record collection keeps growing for some reason.

I pulled out from the wall so it could pose for the phone camera.
IMG_20140719_080909740_zpsxb12pm6e.jpg
 
Just try it, you will impress yourself.

I think some people are making this sound harder than it is. I am not experienced with carpentry at all, but I was able to build and paint mine in about 4 hours without any help. I didn't use any clamps, the guys at Lowes made perfectly straight cuts, and I used a much cheaper jigsaw with no problems. It came out looking a bit different because I skipped a few of the smaller cuts, but I've gotten nothing, but compliments on it. The key to starting out is "don't worry about perfection." Just do it the way that works for you. I used the wrong kind of wood, I had to paint it more than once, the cuts weren't perfectly straight, and I got some of the measurements wrong. Who cares? That's how you learn. Here is a picture
 

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Filazafer said:
Just do it the way that works for you. I used the wrong kind of wood, I had to paint it more than once, the cuts weren't perfectly straight, and I got some of the measurements wrong. Who cares? That's how you learn. Here is a picture
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Excelent advice. :)

I love the bees and finish. It almost looks as if it came out of a old country shop.
 
I have been following this thread for quite a while. I just finally got around to building my own. I added casters to mine in case I ever need to move it around. I would like to add a "now playing" little shelf in the front but don't know how I'm going to do that yet. (Not sure how to rotate my attached picture, sorry)
 

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I'm in the midst of building one right now. I have a really silly question. Would it make more sense to stain and poly the wood before I put it together? It just seems like it would be easier but everyone assembles first and then stains so I was wondering if there was a good reason for that.

Thanks.
 
I was wondering the same thing kethdredd. I'm thinking of doing this project real soon and was planning on cutting the pieces then staining/finishing them first before assembling. It seems to me that you'd get a better result this way, but what do I know. Maybe someone with a little more Ron Swanson in them could explain why this is or isn't a bad idea.
 
Acousticat said:
I was wondering the same thing kethdredd. I'm thinking of doing this project real soon and was planning on cutting the pieces then staining/finishing them first before assembling. It seems to me that you'd get a better result this way, but what do I know. Maybe someone with a little more Ron Swanson in them could explain why this is or isn't a bad idea.
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Staining before assembly make for an easier staining project. And the stain soaks into the wood so scratches caused during assembly are less of a concern than if you painted. The biggest challenge is to get an even color stain on each piece if done this way. I prefer to have a project built before I stain.

If you stain first, and then find an edge that doesn't quite line up, you will have to sand the edge to match (If you are picky). In that case you will have to re-stain that area and the chances of getting an even tone are low.
 
Well I just thought of another reason... Once built, the piece is freestanding which would be much easier to stain than doing boards one side at a time. I knew there was probably a good reason!
 
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