# Amp rack help, what wood to use?



## 89grand (Nov 23, 2006)

I'm going to build a 2 story amp rack for my 2 JBL amps. They are both the same size so that helps, but what I'm trying to do here is use 2 platforms made out of wood about 16" x 14" and I'm going to use threaded rod through all 4 corners. I found some aluminum tubing that looks sort of like small conduit that I'm going to cut to size and that will slide over the threaded rod between the two platforms so it will look like this tubing is holding up the second level. Actually it will be because the holes in the wood will be just large enough for the rod to pass through but the aluminum conduit is a little bigger. I'll probably use a nut at the very top and bottom to hold the whole thing together, but will come apart in case I need to access the bottom amp.

The tubing looks cool after I polished it with some Blue Magic metal polish, it almost looks chrome, anyway back to the subject, I'm curious what wood to use for this. I bought some 1/2" MDF and had Home Depot cut it, the problem is that is sucks for drilling holes in it, it's pretty much falling apart. 

What cheap wood do you guys recommend for building this amp rack? It's bad enough I already wasted $20 on the MDF, some brackets and stuff before I realized the threaded rod is a better idea so I don't want to waste any more time and money on MDF, or any other inappropriate wood.

BTW, this is going to be painted, so something pretty smooth would be ideal.


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## scott_fx (Mar 31, 2006)

why dont you just skip the wood part and use teh mounting holes on the amp to run the rod through?


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## 89grand (Nov 23, 2006)

I thought about that, but if I do, the mounting holes would be useless in any other mounting setup because I would have to reem them out at the bottom to the same size all the way through. Plus if you've seen the GTO series amps, they have a weird mounting bracket type plastic thing on the amps. It wouldn't be that easy to do without ruining the plastic mounting brackets.


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## fit_tuner (Aug 14, 2006)

have you thought about using material other than wood? possibly like metal strips? that way u could kinda get the "floating" amp rack look, and you could just bore out holes in the metal and just use bolts/washers on the threaded rods. and you could just mount the amps to it... dont know how feasible it is for you, but just an idea


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## 89grand (Nov 23, 2006)

I have thought of ways to do something like that too. That would be cool.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

Im surprised you are having issues with MDF. There must not be much of a difference between the tubing and all-thread.

try just adding washers to distribute the force put on the aluminum tubing. That should fix just about all your mdf-munching problems.


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## STI<>GTO (Aug 8, 2005)

89grand said:


> I bought some 1/2" MDF and had Home Depot cut it, the problem is that is sucks for drilling holes in it, it's pretty much falling apart.


First, when you drill MDF, make sure your bits are very sharp. If you are drilling anything over 1/4", I would use a forstner bit.

Second, make sure you have a solid backer board underneath your MDF, and drill all the way into that. This will prevent tearout around the hole you are boring. It sounds like you have some scraps now.

MDF is great for painting, but you'll have to fill in the edges with a glue/water mix, body filler, plaster, etc... The edges soak up paint like crazy. I don't think you need to look elsewhere, MDF is perfect for what you are trying to do.

Rick


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## 89grand (Nov 23, 2006)

Whiterabbit said:


> Im surprised you are having issues with MDF. There must not be much of a difference between the tubing and all-thread.
> 
> try just adding washers to distribute the force put on the aluminum tubing. That should fix just about all your mdf-munching problems.


I never got far enough to find out how well the tubing will work, but it should workfine. The MDF was falling apart in the drilling stage. I think I'll use a washer on both the top and bottom though just so I don't run the tubing into the wood if I tighten it too tight. The tubing is somewhat larger than the threaded rod, maybe twice the diameter.

I'm going to buy more MDF today and try this again, but going about it a little different this time.


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## 89grand (Nov 23, 2006)

STI<>GTO said:


> First, when you drill MDF, make sure your bits are very sharp. If you are drilling anything over 1/4", I would use a forstner bit.
> 
> Second, make sure you have a solid backer board underneath your MDF, and drill all the way into that. This will prevent tearout around the hole you are boring. It sounds like you have some scraps now.
> 
> ...


Yeah, my drill bit wasn't very sharp, I'm going to pick up a new one.

The backer board or lack of one, probably did contribute a lot to the MDF falling apart. I'm going to do this again but using a backer board this time around.

Great idea on the glue. I noticed the edges did take a lot of paint on some scrap I was messing around with.

Thanks for the help.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

Ah I see, I didnt understand the original post then. I thought the drilling went fine but you were having assembly issues with the mdf! 8\


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## 89grand (Nov 23, 2006)

Well here's an update. I went back to Home Depot, bought another 2' x 4' 1/2" sheet of MDF cut into 3 16"x16" pieces, I also bought a new 5/16 drill bit and tried it again. This time I stacked all 3 pieces together clamped them and drilled through them and everything came out fine. I'm only using two pieces so the third piece was just a backer board.

Maybe the first stuff I had sucked, or my old drill bit did, or my technique did. But, all is good now.

Thanks for the advice.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

very cool!


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## STI<>GTO (Aug 8, 2005)

Congrats!


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## PSYKO_Inc (Dec 11, 2006)

I think my amp rack is kinda sorta similar to what you're trying to do. I built the whole thing out of MDF (mine has the sides made of MDF, but I like the bolts and tubing idea) and wrapped it in matching carpet.


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## dragonrage (Feb 14, 2007)

I don't think I like the lack of ventilation for that bottom amp... Unless it's just the pic...


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## 89grand (Nov 23, 2006)

It does look pretty tight. Mine has 4" of clearance from the bottom platform to the top one, it should be enough I hope.

It's a nice looking rack though.


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## PSYKO_Inc (Dec 11, 2006)

Thanks  As for the ventilation issue, it looks tighter in the pic than it really is. There's about an inch of space between the top of the subwoofer amp and the bottom of the shelf, and I haven't had any issues thus far. Even after playing a few bass-heavy songs at a high volume, the heatsink still feels ice cold to the touch.


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