How do I find a stud...............

You may find you have plank walls.

Figure what part of the walls your unit ( :lol: ) will cover
and feel free to use this space to knock holes to find studs, fish wires, or stash crack.

Note that if the bar scene doesn't work for you, I've also heard that personal adds can be quite effective.... ;-P

Gooserider

LOL

Reminds me of the old "Fly United" poster.

Thanks Goose, I'll keep that in mind. About stashing the crack, won't the dog still be able to find it.............

simply do a search and type in "woodsman" i am a stud in my own mind...

You have a dog that smokes crack?
Is he looking for a stud too? :kiss:

Cute kenny. I was asking in the situation when they do a raid on the house for drugs, don't they bring a dope sniffing dog with'em..............

They brought three to my house and wondered why they found no crack.
(Why would I save them any?)

I have heard (but not verified by testing) that drug dogs can be discouraged by mixing cayenne pepper with the crack... Or even leaving out the crack...

Gooserider

OK- thanks for all the colorful suggestions. Now- what do I build a cabinet out of? And what would I coat/ paint it with? I've taken measurements and have an idea that I'd like the top and sides to be 1" thisck wood and the shelves within to be 1/2".............................

I imagine your wood and finish choices would be "personal preference". I've built some speaker enclosures and stuff out of MDF, but its heavy. I'm also partial to covering everything with remnant shag carpet circa 1973 (something with paislies, or that bright fire orange color). Friend of mine built a corner lamp stand and painted it with some type of faux stone paint. Very cool texture.

Wood shelves need to be at least 5/8" thick to prevent them from bowing. 3/4 is better. I would build it from sanded birch plywood 3/4" and stain it a nice cherry. With some nice maple moldings.

Agreed, especially with a 36" span - I would say at least 3/4" and preferably with some sort of reinforcing strip underneath....

Gooserider

A cabinet that size can be secured to the wall by a million different types of fasteners, no stud necesary.

I have a 52" long shelf made out of 1/4" but it's only 10" deep and supported on all edges.
P.S. It's white.

Yeah- I'm thinkin' to go white so it blends with the wall. Wow- never thought of a shelf flexing. The amp at the bottome would be the heaviest of the items, guess I'll put another foot down there in the middle, thanks guys, alotta stuff I didn't know..................

If I was building something like that, I'd use 3/4" plywood for the body and shelves - If staining, I'd use birch or other fancy material, but for painted shelves I'd just use A/B fir plywood and save a couple bucks a sheet. Use 1/4" luan for the back, and put some strips of 1x2 on the front edges to both stiffen things up and hide the cut edges of the plywood. Possibly I would add one or two narrower strips to the underside of the shelves in the back and / or as cleats to give them some added support.

Given that you are going to be putting electronics stuff on the shelves, pay extra attention to allowing for adequate ventilation, and also provide the holes needed to allow for passing cabling between all the components. I would put at least two vertical sets of holes in, one on each side so that you can run your AC wiring on one side and your signal cables on the other. (AC and signal wiring should be kept separated as much as possible to avoid interference.)

Gooserider

Thanks, goose. The concern for heat dissipation for the electronics was taken into consideration with making the bottom shelf taller space for the amp so heat could dissipate. Here's a pic of the side(s) I'm thinking of making. For strength I've thought to so with 2x6, a good grade of wood or course..................

That would certainly work, but it is a bit overkill - we are talking shelves, not a house... :cheese: I think using 2x? stock would end up looking disproportionately heavy.

3/4" plywood on the sides would give plenty of strength, and facing it with 1x2 or similar stock would give a substantial look to the face as well as covering the plywood edges. Another alternative might be to use a ladder like structure as you are suggesting, but in a more appropriate size, like 1x3 or 1x4. Plywood sides and a luan back also has the advantage of giving a lot of resistance to diagonal racking - something that would require a bit more attention to if using boards for the structure. Depending on the length of the unit, you could even make the entire thing with one sheet of 3/4" - especially if you can make it a nominal 16" wide instead of 18" (so as to be able to get three shelf widths out of the sheet) If you did 16" wide plywood with 2x2 edging strips, you would still end up with shelves that were very close to 18" deep...

Gooserider

Ever hear the term 5/4 (five quarter)?

In some contexts, but I'm sure you're anxious to explain what YOU mean by it... %-P

Gooserider

I dun mean anything by it. It was just an idea.
No 2x look yet substantial.

True on the look, but any time I've seen people using the 5/4ths terminology, they've mostly been talking about hardwoods like oak, maple, etc.. Given that the OP was talking about making a painted peice as opposed to stained, I didn't see any real advantage to going to the more expensive hardwoods, instead of sticking with your basic fir or pine...

If the OP had been talking about doing a stained finish, I would have suggested something more on the order of birch plywood with oak or similar trim, or possibly using all hardwood boards, which the clear finish would have justified.

Gooserider

I thought I read, "what would I coat/ paint it with" and figured he was open to staining.
Nevermind. :sick:

As far as carrying the weight, you can check out this site.
Al

http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator.htm