Ikea Expedit discontinued. Has anyone has tried the new Kallax as LP storage?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by oregonalex, Aug 2, 2014.

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  1. danner

    danner Forum Resident

    Location:
    Birmingham, AL
    Even better idea!
     
  2. hogdaddy

    hogdaddy Active Member

    Location:
    alabama
    I recently bought one of these at Walmart since their is no Ikea store nearby. I bought the 2x8 shelf and I am happy with it.
    It holds LP's and I have stereo gear on top of it laid sideways.
     
    c-eling likes this.
  3. _rod_serling_

    _rod_serling_ Forum Resident

    Location:
    florida
    are people still obsessed with the expedits over the kallax's ? i have both in my storage setup (3 kallax 4x2's, 1 expedit 4x2, 3 kallax 2x2 stacked on top, 1 expedit 2x2 stacked on top). they are both built just as sturdily. the plus with the kallax's is that they take up less space. i would not have been able to fit 4 expedit 4x2's next to each other on the wall i have them on because of the extra width. but with the kallax's in the mix it all fits. i have them on a wooden floor and i use all of the felt pads that come with them on the bottom. i have pushed/slid all of them, full even, around my room , during "speaker location experiments" with no ill effects. the only thing special i do when i build them is dump large glops of tightbond II woodglue in every hole that gets a dowel. though because of the massive honeycomb structure inside i'm not even sure if much of the glue stays where the dowel goes in.
     
  4. psychtrailmix

    psychtrailmix Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    I purchased a couple Kallax tower shelves mainly to put my speakers on and I'm very happy with them. Nice and sturdy. And they're super easy to assemble! Can't beat it for the price.
     
  5. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    Almost two months on, mine are vertical, no weight sag or such, very nice, probably going to pick up another
     
    morinix likes this.
  6. Nathan Aaron

    Nathan Aaron Forum Resident

    Well, I gave up on the bolt to wall option. Due to the wall moulding at the floor the wall mounts Ikea includes in the package won't reach the wall, from the shelf. Does everyone's house not have wall floor moulding? I found this an odd one! Plus, they don't include the screw/bolt you have to use to attach it TO the wall? That's just nuts if you ask me. But anyway, I'm just gonna go with my metal L brackets helping out the corners and hope that keeps everything together. I have a feeling I'm just being an extra big worrier, especially since it's on a wood floor (not carpeted) and I have no plans to move it around. Plus the only thing that'll go on top are knick-knacks (not a stereo, tv, heavy items.) So I starting filling up the shelves last night! I think this will hopefully help me with keeping my exploding collection down, as I simply don't have the space to have multiple shelves like this! :)
     
  7. mdphunk

    mdphunk Sharing in the groove

    Location:
    Northern VA
    I had the same experience. Because of the floor molding, I would have to tip the whole 4x4 back in order to attach it to the wall. My turntable is on top of the unit, so that's obviously out of the question for me.

    I'm thinking about attaching a latch/hook kind of thing so that there's protection from the whole thing tipping over, but only for childproofing reasons. The shelving unit is really stable otherwise.
     
    Nathan Aaron likes this.
  8. Vinyl Addict

    Vinyl Addict Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    In most cases, floors tend to slope up toward the wall/floor molding, especially with hardwood floors. Did you guys check it with a level when you had it pushed up against the molding? I know mine were tilting away from the wall. Mine has my TT on it too (pics on page 4). I had to level mine with plastic spacers I had. I put them under the kallax unit. This left me with ample room to attach them to the wall. The kallax does not have to sit flush against the wall in order for the brackets to work.
     
  9. buzz

    buzz Member

    Location:
    United States
    Just wanted to mention that the "Nornäs" mentioned earlier in the thread did indeed show up on the U.S. IKEA website and are in stock at my local ikea.


    buzz
     
    audiolab1 likes this.
  10. mdphunk

    mdphunk Sharing in the groove

    Location:
    Northern VA
    Mine is on carpet and perfectly level. The bracket wasn't long enough to attach it to the wall...thick molding I guess?
     
    Nathan Aaron likes this.
  11. mikemoon

    mikemoon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    I mentioned these on another thread I think and they pretty good. I've own 4 of these but did some rearranging and added a 4 x 2 Kallax horizontal. The Kallax is nice and better build but not having a back is a PITA to me. It is much harder to remove and replace vinyl. I'm not sure why they don't have an option for this and I just assumed it came with one as it makes sense.
     
  12. _rod_serling_

    _rod_serling_ Forum Resident

    Location:
    florida
    with all of mine i do not use the wall brackets either. the only time i have seen one actually move is if a cube is say 2/3 full and all of the records shifted at once-so i am just careful when rearranging or straightening records on the shelves not to let the records all quickly shift. i've slid an ~85% full 2x4 standing upright 1/2 way around the room before. as long as you go slow and push near the bottom it is very stable.
     
  13. mikemoon

    mikemoon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    I'm not really handy and wouldn't know where to start here but this is what my brain was thinking the other day as a solution to some degree (without all your fine details).
     
  14. _rod_serling_

    _rod_serling_ Forum Resident

    Location:
    florida
    i just use a 1 1/2 in wide thin wood strip doublesided taped in the back of each cube so that the record front edge is flush to the front of the shelf. i use 3 ~1.5 in long pieces at different angles evenly spaced. once they are stuck -that's it lol. i recently had to remove them from my 2 older expedit 1x5's as i re purposed those for something else and it took a lot of work . i had to use a DE razor blade and slowly slice under each one until i had cut enough so that i could pry them up.
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2015
    mikemoon likes this.
  15. The Entertainer

    The Entertainer Forum Resident

    IMHO, some plywood held together with biscuits is going to be about 50x stronger than any of that particle board stuff ikea puts out and probably cheaper to boot.
     
  16. thirtycenturyman

    thirtycenturyman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    No question about it; plywood is a much better material for this application; however, comparing apples to apples, pricing would be several hunted percentage points higher.

    There's actually a shelf system that I was eying at Crate & Barrel a few months ago that would be perfect, but it was also north of $1k. I'll try to find a link to it.

    The Kallax is ok. Nothing that I'll have for my entire lifetime, but for now it does a great job and looks pretty good in the process. Seems study enough, especially with the bracing I described above.

    Are you taking orders to build 100% plywood shelves for $150 each? Finished in semigloss white? If so, sign me up!
     
  17. Vinyl Addict

    Vinyl Addict Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA

    Yeah, must be. Mine is 3/4" molding I think. Theres 2 sets of holes also for more adjustment options.

    I love my Kallax's though. They are my TT stand and LP library all in one. Im even adding some led lights above the TT area
     
    morinix likes this.
  18. Nathan Aaron

    Nathan Aaron Forum Resident

    - There was NO way that bracket was going to reach the wall, with the placement Ikea had put the inital drilled holes into the boards for the "attach to board shelf" portion. Anyway, I did use a level, and it was 0.02 rad (whatever rad means.) So I figure 0.0anything is extraordinarily minor. Though I'm not a builder or anything.
     
  19. Nathan Aaron

    Nathan Aaron Forum Resident

    [​IMG]

    Work in progress. I'm now taking my small sleeved collection (if you could only see the stacks and stacks of "unprocessed" vinyl I have. Sigh. - Forever project!) from the old (now bowing) Target shelf, and moving it to the new Ikea Kallax shelf! When I'm done the bottom row will be pretty much full as well. Hopefully next week. Right now you're looking at the female/jazz vocalists, and the male/jazz vocalists vinyl. I thought I had all my vintage vinyl organized by release date, etc. but wow was I wrong as I go through each artist! :sigh:
     
  20. Vinyl Addict

    Vinyl Addict Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    Which Target shelf did you have that started to bow? The BH&G piece?
     
  21. Nathan Aaron

    Nathan Aaron Forum Resident

    I've had it forever. I think it was just Target" brand. Pretty much looked exactly like the Kallax except on wheels (that's probably why it started bowing) and it only had 9 cubes total.
     
  22. jimiclones

    jimiclones Forum Resident

    1/4" plywood would probably work well.
     
    Aftermath likes this.
  23. audiolab1

    audiolab1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    Looks like Canada has it too! :righton:
     
  24. audiolab1

    audiolab1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    I have had an entire room full of Expedit units packed with LPs for over 10 years now and have never had an issue with them. They are all properly secured to the wall/studs and I added wood glue to the dowels during assembly, but otherwise they are stock. This business about plywood is all well and good, but two sheets of decent ply will run me more than a complete Expedit/Kallax unit. You may not "like" particleboard, but it is perfectly suitable when used properly...even if it's not very pretty to look at. Luckily mine is all hidden away and not in the living groom.
     
    e.s. likes this.
  25. thirtycenturyman

    thirtycenturyman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    I
    ...if you're a fan of your shelf deflecting under the weight of LP's. 5/8" minimum, 3/4" would be best.
     
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