Building an equipment rack, need suggestions

[corvettez06]

Hey everyone! I'm building an AV rack/equipment rack to hold my video and audio technology. I am basically going to go for the threaded rods with washers and nuts design if you know what I'm talking about, if not, http://www.myhometheater.homestead.com/rack.html I have the MDF wood already (just not cut up) and I have enough to make 5 shelves is plenty for me.

I have just a few things that I have today to put on it, my receiver, a DVD player, and a shelf to put remotes until I make use of the rest of the shelves.

I have a few choices that I would need to make. Do you guys suppose a 36" (sorry but I'm American and that's the unit we use here!) would be okay with 5 shelves? The only other choice would be 72" unless you guys could tell me an easy way to have the 72" threaded steel rods cut without costing too much money. (I don't have any tools here at home)

I also want to paint the MDF wood before I put it together and I want it to be black. So I have three choices of paint: flat (no gloss), semi-gloss, and gloss. What would you guys use? I am kind of clueless as to what a equipment rack would have if I baught one from the store.

And my final question for this posting is: are there any special lighting ideas you guys have for furnature like this that would make it really special? An example would be this: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=942727
Now I don't really think that idea would work that well with this rack because I have already tried that idea with a different stand and it didn't work well. The plexiglass was too thin, the light bulb was too dim, and that stand was really disapointing to me. So anyways, I love LED light bulbs because they last nearly (or what seems like) forever and they don't eat up batteries very fast and they are bright most of the time. Do you suppose I could stick a super bright LED light on the bottom of each shelf (except for the bottom one) by making a hole in the shelf's bottom and putting an LED in that hole so there is only indirect lighting and not any direct light hitting my eyes? Do you have any other ideas? Colors of lights? I prefer to run any lights on batteries (AA, AAA, etc...).

You might be wondering about my budget. Let's pretend I have the entire rack with the exception of the lighting covered within my budget. I wouldn't want the lighting to cost me any crazy amounts. I'd say up to 20-30 U.S. dollars max.

Any comment or suggestion helps. Attached is a picture of the design I drew (sorry, I have never taken drafting and I doubt that I will so bear with my handwriting and my drafting skills!)

-Ryan Hankins

[Knightshade]

Just a few thoughts, I think i'd use gloss black but in the form of a spray paint. Followed by some thick spray laquer. The result would be a much more even finish and high gloss black does look very nice.
As for the lighting? Ultra bright LED's would be my choice wired into the underneath of the shelves shining down on the equipment or sometimes if the rack is to be a central feature. have them shining backwards lighting the wall. Both ways can work well.
The difficult thing with an open rack is hiding the cables. A job even more difficult with thin legs. In the end I scrapped the thin legs and went with a long flat rack with thick legs.