Well that's it, it's over! No more buying LPs.*

As a lifelong building tradesman (and occasional cabinetmaker) and having dealt with a great many wanna-be DIY types over the years, I can confidently say that this is not good advice. No offense to the poster but there is nothing to recommend here by way of appropriate advice for the larger portion of the population. How can anyone design anything when they have no experience with material options, joinery techniques, fastener awareness, basic structural requirements and so on? Hardware stores don't sell wood and even more rarely have any woodworking tools. At a cabinet shop you'll risk being laughed out the door. Counting on a home center or lumber yard to cut to exacting specifications is pretty naive. They won't do more than a few cuts for you anyway until they start charging. Anyone who doesn't own a drill certainly does not have a shop (although I'll concede they may have space to work). Suggesting that one won't have to use screws but could use dowels is...um, pretty clueless (not wanting to be vicious but it's true). No table saw, mitre box, joiner/planer...

"That's it" he says. I don't think so. (But hey, orange crates will hold records so someone can probably bang a few of those together.)

 

Now that’s where having some wood working skills would pay off. That wouldn’t be too expensive to build. But I’m not one of those with good build skills! What a lovely unit though.

 

This was what I was about to do last weekend, but instead I just ordered that Kallax shelf unit from Ikea.

 

Oh come on....you don’t think wood dowels will hold it all together with hundreds of pounds of records added?

Looking at that nice one with drawers that slide out, it looks deceptively simple but I’m sure it’s not!

 

This is the route I take. I keep records I'm willing to trade or sell in another room in tubs. My shelf holds somewhere between 800 and 1000 (I never counted). I just want to have a shelf with good records. At some point, I'll add on but that'll be when I have a bigger place, more money, etc. I tend to purge through them every half year or so and decide what to keep and what not to.

 

For getting the most for your money, decent looks and space efficiency, I can’t imagine doing any better. I have four of them and that should do me forever. They have held up very well, and come in lots of colors. You’ll be pleased.

 

Or....

One in and none out

 

Oh boy

 

This makes me think “grab the Loricraft and some MFSL record sleeves” and I’ll be right over! Course, I might want to bring them back home with me!

 

Luxury! We had to get up half an hour before going to bed....

 

I should have mentioned that this is a quote from a famous skit by Monty Python....

 

Any warps?
.

 

I suppose that's why record store's did the flipping thing in the first place.

I would listen to more records, if I didn't have to "flip" through them sideways.

True, but unless you have a lot of space, a lot of money or both, and have a large record collection the flip thing doesn't work you the way that you might hope that it would.

I was considering, that I could be happy if I grabbed say 30-records or so, maybe more, from their spine out group and placed in a flipping rack, listened to them, bup them away and grabbed another batch.

 

Not on the ones on the bottom

 

Here in Belgium, every hardware store who sells tools and wood (maybe you have a different name for it in the US?) is able to cut and saw to exact dimensions, some have even pc controlled cnc machines to do this. You pay of course a very small fee. As for mounting, I allready made a few (audio and other) cabinets myself only using a combination of glue and dowels (and the occasional screw), having no problem whatsoever with weight etc ...

 

It must be a Belgian thing. Too many liability laws in the USA.

 

Oh man...very tempted! Only question is what to do with all those Ikea sections I have. But seeing the covers while flipping through changes the while experience. The covers often make me want to play an album. Spines just don’t do it. I think I’ll have to get those! Will need four, but that isn’t bad and I love that they are free standing. I used to have crates on a table but it just looked so cheesy. I wish my Ikea units were easy to ship. I hate selling on Craig’s List but that may be the only way to get rid of them.

Yikes...I was just going to order one but shipping is $79! And I need at least four. Guess I should email them and see if they can do better on qty.

 

It was the shipping that stopped me. Otherwise, I would have ordered one this evening. I even have a space for it. And who knows, for the cost of shipping vs. my time to source a local cabinet maker who might want more money anyway...

Flipping is the way to look at records, not spines on shelves.

 

Liability issues?
@BrokenByAudio, here's a photo I posted earlier in another thread.
I finished this audio cabinet a few weeks ago (the tv cabinet, I made 2 years ago). I have never followed any course or woodworking lessons or whatever. I use my hands, my brain, some pretty basic tools (I don't even have a table saw!) and because I wanted to use dowels instead of screws, I watched a bit of youtube, that's it !



Only dowels, wood glue and.....2 screws. Massive 2 inch mdf (2 layers of 18mm panels). Weighs a ton.....not your average 'orange crates bolted together' as you put it. It will take 2 persons to move it.
Finished it off with several coats of wood lacquer (satin gloss), but I guess I should have payed a professional to do this as well?
I prefer the enjoyment of looking at it every day, realizing I did this myself without any 'professional' in sight and spending my saved money on more records and cd's !

As for the flipping records cabinet off ebay, that's as basic as it gets concerning wood'skills' so if you don't mind a challenge, build one yourself! You might even enjoy it !

 

Yes it does! Combined with wood glue, dowels will be stronger than any screw .

 

This is probably true. I have an oak antique secretary that was built sometime around 1900. As far as I can tell, the only screws in it are the 4 that hold down the lock that's inlaid in the top.

 

Bever70, that's a fantastic piece of work above. Truly interior design p0rn at its most erotic !

 

Is that a refrigerator, or a sub? I would never leave my listening room if there was a fridge in there....

 

Looks good. Congratulations! But my larger point is that most people don't have the basic aptitude that you apparently do have and DIY projects tend not to turn out well if not end up in a lot of wasted money and frustration. I took issue with your rather flip way of minimizing the challenges.

One of the things I see consistently in people who (usually) fail in such efforts is simply a lack of patience. Enough of this stuff can be learned, superficially anyway, by watching YouTube, reading instructional material, etc but people tend to underestimate the time commitment.

In terms of your finishing, did you brush or spray the lacquer? If the former I would certainly have let a professional spray lacquer. Of course then you'd need a truck to take it to someone to do the job.

And I'm curious where you chose to employ the two screws.