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Something I Didn't Consider with Vintage Receivers

terra1 said:
I guess if you are going to try the pieces of wood as a possible solution, I might also apply some adhesive to the bottom of the pieces and apply some kind of padding like felt to avoid scratching the cabinet.

These are not particularly elegant solutions, but sometimes when you don't have a lot of custom racks, we get creative. I have even used large empty prescription bottles, empty speaker spools, or Deoxit plastic caps as risers to provide more room for venting hot amps when stacking.
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Poked around in the garage last night - I have what would be perfect. A strip of granite - 3/4" thick and 4" wide. If I could only manage to cut it into strips 20" long, I'd be golden. It's black so would be subtle and very rigid and 3/4" seems good to provide more ventilation without raising up the top receiver by too much. But I don't think my circular saw will cut it without a special blade and not sure Home Depot will make cuts like this for me, even at my own risk.

If anyone in Bay Area (San Jose) has the means to cut this granite strip, please let me know!
 
Shelves? How about these??

racks2.jpg
 
captouch said:
Poked around in the garage last night - I have what would be perfect. A strip of granite - 3/4" thick and 4" wide. If I could only manage to cut it into strips 20" long, I'd be golden. It's black so would be subtle and very rigid and 3/4" seems good to provide more ventilation without raising up the top receiver by too much. But I don't think my circular saw will cut it without a special blade and not sure Home Depot will make cuts like this for me, even at my own risk.

If anyone in Bay Area (San Jose) has the means to cut this granite strip, please let me know!
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I was actually thinking about going to a hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes. They usually have pieces of wood that are much less than 4" wide (maybe even 1 1/2 or 2 inches?) and you can easily saw them to size. They might even have some plastic Plexiglas pieces that could work.
 
terra1 said:
I was actually thinking about going to a hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes. They usually have pieces of wood that are much less than 4" wide (maybe even 1 1/2 or 2 inches?) and you can easily saw them to size. They might even have some plastic Plexiglas pieces that could work.
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I nixed the granite idea once I realized that only one surface was polished, so the unfinished surfaces would look pretty bad. Plus, if I ever DO need that granite, would be good not to have sawn it into pieces.

I just picked up 4' piece of pine for <$5, sanded it, and am in the process of painting it. Will probably apply a coat of polyurethane on it afterwards, put some felt feet on it, and see how that works. It's about the same 4" wide. I did think about narrower pieces, but I thought a bigger base (given I'm technically in earthquake country) might be better. Who knows, it may look like crap, but we'll see. At least it'll save the Kenwood. But hopefully it doesn't look too bad.
 
I've never really liked the rack look and have opted to mod 1950's thru 1970's Danish Modern furniture (Mid-Century is another term used) to hold most of my equipment. It all has the basic lines of our gear, is built extremely well using walnut and teak, and you can always use the different parts as components in a total design on something. The only wood I have to buy is maybe edge banding....most of the time there is enough scrap solids to rip down some better/thicker banding though.
It shows better than beautiful and easy to incorporate lighting,electrical,glide and pivot hardware, takes the same finishing products we already have on hand.....it's better...and in picking the right piece, most of the work is already done. (Lots of guys have nailed this look in "Listening Spaces".)

Aside from the super well engineered custom racks, it just doesn't get better and most of the "made for" stuff just looks horrid and cheap IMHO. (I even like the look of that basic metal rack 10 times better!) The biggest concern is making sure you have good air movement and hooking up some silent fans (in the skirt of the cabinet) takes care of that. Just about to finish up my "new one" and will take some pics as soon as I can make time to get all the color blending and finishing done.
 
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