I made this myself for £70! What d-ya think?

[Jules]

A weekend of measuring, mathematics, and a trip to B&Q resulted in this creation.

It has adjustable shelves, rounded edges ( I went through 3 jigsaw blades!) and it houses all my equipment (even my turntable that had been relegated to the loft due to space constraints)

It measures the same width as the Ikea Oppli (150cm) so it is not huge, yet because its made to measure it also holds the (not small) centre speaker at the correct position. It is Rock Solid too!

It cost me £70 for the wood, £3 for screws, £1 for wooden dowels and £1 for plastic screw caps. £75 in total.
It would have cost several hundred pounds to have this made professionally... the question is, can you tell this is an amateur effort.

NB.. the wood was cut to my specs at B&Q, so the only thing I had to do was round of the edges and screw together. It wasn't hard.
The hard part was working out the plans and what I needed in advance.

If you like this project and would like to have a bash yourself, I'll happily post my plans in more detail and purchase requirements.

I'm a rubbish at taking pics... sorry.

[NGD Boy]

looks very nice...could we see a wdier shot of it, and what's it made from ?

cheers
Carl

[Jules]

I can't get far enough back with my camera (sadly just a mobile phone one) to get it all in a wide shot. I'll try to borrow my brothers camera later.

It's made from 19mm thick particle board in Maple finish. The finish is really nice and hard wearing, and its much sturdier than the standard 15mm stuff you usually see. I think its a new line at B&Q.
Don't be put off by the words 'particle board'. At this thickness, providing it doesn't get wet (and why should it?) its incredibly strong. I jumped on it when I'd finished and it didn't flinch.
Just take care with the cutting and finishing and noone would know the difference.

It was around £11 per 2000mm long sheet, I bought 6 sheets.

[Jules]

borrowed a better camera and managed to get this.

[Knightshade]

Obviously hard to tell from the picture but i'd say it looks very professional. The only thing about it and don't take this the wrong way, if you do manage to chip it it's pretty much ruined. Something you don't have to put up with with solid wood....
Also rather than screwing it could you not have biscuit jointed it? You wouldn't have had the scew heads to cover that way.
This sounds like i'm pulling it to pieces but i'm not. Good job!

[chrisowe]

Good effort Thinking of having a go at building one myself as I can't seem to find one to my spec anywhere. I'll have to take a trip to B&Q.

[Revaan]

looks very well made... and a very nice job.
I'm too scared to put my AV equipment onto something I ever made

Anyhows, I'd use the money you saved on a new carpet mate

[sidetoside]

top job mate well done

[stuart07970]

Look at my oppli stack, with plenty of centre speaker space!

[evilash]

nice work jules! if its not too much bother i would the plans for the unit! i was thinking of two opplis put togther but fancy a bash at your design instead!

[hornydragon]

Originally Posted by Jules

A weekend of measuring, mathematics, and a trip to B&Q resulted in this creation.

It has adjustable shelves, rounded edges ( I went through 3 jigsaw blades!) and it houses all my equipment (even my turntable that had been relegated to the loft due to space constraints)

It measures the same width as the Ikea Oppli (150cm) so it is not huge, yet because its made to measure it also holds the (not small) centre speaker at the correct position. It is Rock Solid too!

Bloody hell how much kit?
I could make out:
Xbox 360
Turntable (debut?)
Denon amp
Denon DVD (2800?)
Panny DVD-R (E30?)
Sky+ (PACE V1?)
Pioneer Freeview
Sony? Tape deck
PS2

Whats the other stuff?

[Jules]

- Amp (Denon K-A1SE)
- DVD (Denon DVD-A1)
- XBox 360
- PS2
- Tuner (Sony 777ES)
- Turntable (Project 2)
- CD Recorder (Pioneer)
- MD Deck (Sony MDS940)
- Sky+ Box (Version 1)
- DVD Recorder (Panasonic E85)
- Freeview Box (Pioneer)
- Tape Deck (Aiwa AD-F810)

+ I've now added a NAD C542 CD player. (Awsome machine)

How you may wonder?... picture to follow soon.

[Jules]

Evilash,

Here's some very scatter brained instructions for you. Hope it helps.
Use these with pictures I have posted to give you some idea.


The wood is 18mm thick 450mm x 2000mm chipboard in Maple finish. It has a maple effect front edge, and a plywood effect rear edge.

What you’ll need:

4 or 5 sheets of 450mm x 2000mm (depends how many shelves you want)
1 sheet of 325mm x 2000mm
1 pack of 100 countersunk chipboard screws
2 packs of ‘iron on’ edging strip in Maple finish
1 pack of wooden dowels
1 pack of plastic screw covers

Total cost will be about £75 (or about £15 more if you need more shelves)

Ask the nice gentleman at B&Q to cut you the following size pieces.


450mm x 1512mm (3 pieces) - makes each ‘tier’
450mm x 310mm (4 pieces) - the lower level support peices
450mm x 500mm (1 piece) – the centre speaker shelf
450mm x 470mm (as many as you need) - these are the left & right side shelves, so as many as you need)
325mm x 310mm (4 pieces) - The upper level support peieces
60mm x 1512mm (2 peieces) - used to brace the cabinet at the back.


I made it in 4 stages.
- I made tier 1 and the 4 supports
- I made tier 2 and the 4 supports
- I fastened Tier 1 and 2 together.
- Lastly, I screwed on Tier 3

Notice, the upper tier supports are narrower. This makes it possible to screw down into the lower tier. It also prevents the centre speaker from being 'surrounded' by side panels which muffle the sound.

1) The first thing I did was to to round off the edges of each 450mm x 1512mm piece to a 3 cm radius. I simply used a compass to draw an arc and then cut it with a fine jigsaw blade.
Then, carefully iron on the edging strip over the edges of these newly rounded peices

2) Round off the 'plywood' end corners of 2 peices of 450mm x 310mm. (You don't want any sharp edges at the back do you?)
The apply the edging strip.

3) Screw in these 2 support peices To the ends of the lower tier. NB.. screw them in 3cm from the front edge.

4) Measure the distance to the middle supports using the 470mm wide shelves. Then screw in the middle 2 supports (450mm x 310mm) flush to the edge.

Thats stage 1 done!
Now to stage 2....

1) Screw in the middle tier supports (325mm x 310mm) to the ends of Tier 2.

2) Carefully measue where the middle supports should go, using 2 x 470mm shelves and 1 x 500mm shelf as a guide. It will be a very tight fit so make sure. Screw them in.

That's stage 2 done!
Now to stage 3

1) Screw in tier 2 to the Tier 1 supports

That's stage 3 done!
Now to stage 4.

1) Screw in Tier 3 to the Tier 2 supports.


Almost done now. These are the finishing touches.

- It should be solid, but for extra strength screw in the the 60mm x 1512mm length pieces to the back of the unit.
- Round off the front edges to your shelves.
- Measure your shelf height, then drill holes for the wooden dowels and insert
- Insert shelves
- Add plastic screw caps.


All done.
Feel free to ask any questions if this makes no sense.

P.S. I take no responsibility if you balls it up. Similarly I take no responsibility if you injure yourself in the process, or it collapses afterwards.

Seriously though, take your time and make a nice job. If you do it well and screw everything nice and tight... it will be rock solid and you can be proud of your creation.

[Jules]

So here it is. Version 2.
A change of plan meant I was to keep my trusty old KEF THX speakers in place of the iQ's. The extra width needed for the TDM23 centre meant the PS2 and Feeview box could stand vertically at the sides.
That meant more height was made available, which meant the NAD C542 CD player (awsome machine) could make its way in.