Just a side note...
Speaker stands are an odd little niche all their own. Some people think of them as speaker extensions, while other people think of them as furniture. This build is intended to cross the line into both areas. A little form, a little function...


So her I am with a little problem...
I bought a screen that is fantastic. Its stupendous and its bright. I love it. The problem is that it also covers my two main speakers and there is no room for adjustment. As a temporary fix, I drag some small speakers out of some dark corner, hook them up to my B ports and use them in front of the screen.

"Great Idea!" you say, but the soundstage is now down at the floor. So I go looking for speaker stands, get extreme sticker shock, and remember that I used to build these all the time. For about 20 bucks you can have yourself a pair that looks good, sounds good*, and meets the acceptance factor of the wife.

Its a simple build. With the right tools you can do this in a few hours. Less if you dont care about the finish.
I'll start posting the pics tonight, but so far here is what we will need.

(2) 2.5 foot pieces of PVC pipe ( you can vary this size in any way you want)
(2) pieces of 1/4 inch threaded rod that have a few extra inches on them as compared to the PVC pipe
(?) Nuts for the 1/4 inch rod. We will probably use three for each stand.
(?) washers...sure why not...
(1) Sanding block. Finer grit.
(1) Can of Plastikote or Fusion spray paint.
(2) 6 x6 inch plates for the tops
(2) 9x9 inch plates for the bottom. I will just use standard pine. You can use fancier woods if you like.

Coming soon...The assembly starts!

SJ

* Jack? What do you mean "sounds good"? Speaker stands dont sound like anything. Very True. A good speaker stand should not sound like anything at all. Oddly enough some of them DO make noise. Small rattles, sympathetic resonant frequencies, and diffraction can all play a part in their construction. We are looking for a heavier base, that is difficult to rattle and strong enough to support a 20 lb speaker.

The victims for this test are the most pathetic speakers in the world...a pair of Radio Shack 4 inch 2 ways. How good can they sound? Right now, they sound ( on a 1-10 scale...) at about a 2.5 or a 3. By the time they are perched, Im hoping for a rating closer to 5 or 6. If that does happen, then I will chuck these in favor of some better quality compact bookshelfs and call it a day. The stands will stay, so its worth it to do a good job.

Okay now for a few pictures. What we are after here is the look of an expensive speaker stand. This is actually easy to obtain. This particular design has been around for a long time. I learned how to make this when I was about twelve. Just about any round tube will do as long as the walls are thick enough. I prefer to use the grey PVC pipe they use in construction. Here is a very beat up piece which is just begging to become something a little prettier.

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Paired with another of the exact same height you have a pair of tubes. I based the height of these so that we could get speakers from 3 inches to 14 inches tall in good level with the ears of the listener. In each application this height will vary. You can see the sanding block off to the side. Use one of the flexible blocks and rough up the outside. Basically you want to take off the gloss on the pipe and expose nice fresh PVC. The one on the right has been sanded. The one on the left has not.

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Apply your favorite color paint to the tube after you have cleaned the outside off with a dry cloth. For this application Im using black satin. I have seen these tubes coated in everything from basic white to crushed velvet. Wallpaper to shag carpet, there isnt anything you cant put on these. I once made a pair of these covered in sisal fiber to serve as scratching posts for the cats. For that application we made the bases out of slate.

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For the bottoms I like to use a classic combination of 9x9x1.5, which is actually just a 2x10 cut down and squared off. For those of you who dont like measuring, ( like me) lay a cross pattern to find the center of the board. Drill a pilot hole for the rod with a 1/4 inch bit, them recess the hole slightly with a 3/4 spade bit. You can get all kinds of fancy with the woodwork, or not at all. Nobody will see the bolts or rods after you are done. The only thing you want to do is make sure the nuts are below the surface of the wood.

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Close up of the hole...

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With the bolts in...

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View from the top. You can use only one bolt, but I like to use one on top as well because it holds the rod in place and will make for easier filling later. Filling you say? We will get to that later. Hope you have cats...

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The black tube resting on the base. It makes a nice contrast. You can make the bases any flavor or color you want. Im a big fan of wood so Im going to leave these in their natural state. This is the point where you can get a good feel for how much of the rod you will want to trim. In this case I will have to trim about 2 inches.

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I think they will look "dignified" when they are finished. But what I really need right now is the acceptance of the wife. WAF ( wife approval factor ) is crucial to the DIY mentality. If its ugly, she wont want it in the house.

The top piece of the stand is a 6x6x3/4 pine piece. When you find the center for this, you might want to cross the lines inside of the pipes diameter. You can sand them out, but its a pain.

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Rough fit of the stand. Its important to get a good feel for how they fit together before you go for a permanent bolt. Dont do it yet, so you can sand and finish the wood before the final assembly. If you want to go for a neat effect, try some molding on the outside. Its easy to cut and put on and it really dresses the piece.

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Looking okay so far...

Nice...how do you insure that the pvc pipe is centered in relation to the wood and threaded rod? Eyeball it?

Actually, its not a bad as you might think. Just use a cross bar that is the same width as the inside diameter of the pipe and drill a 1/4 inch hole exactly in the center. Works like a charm. I will post more pictures soon. Truth is these are only about half done. You can get fancy and use a hole saw plug too, but the crossbar works very well.

SJ

And the battle continues...
To keep these centered properly the easiest way that I have found is to use a cross brace inside of the tube. All you need to do is cut a piece of wood that will fit in the middle of the tube that will take a 1/4 inch hole...

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I usually make four of them. It should be snug if you can but a few mm space isnt too bad.

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I round off the ends a little bit to make sure they will fit inside the tube.

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One on the bottom...

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One on the top...

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Before you go any further you will want to make sure you want to keep your pieces. This is a shot of the cheap pine I used for the base. As you can see, a light sanding goes and long way on these.

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This is a picture of one of the pieces stained with special walnut. I chose special walnut because ( it was what I had...) because it will make a close match with the 15 year old pine tounge-in-groove in my living room.

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Testing the tolerances and the fit. Looks okay.

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Finished for now. Not bad for 22.50 USD....

Remember, Audio "accessories" are the biggest rip-off in the world next to the "no rust through" warranty...
You CAN make nice stands for a fraction of what they will charge you!

Next, we will discover if they need to be dampened or not...if you have cats this where they start to pay of...really!

The stands can now be brought inside and tested with your living room etc. You may decide to take a little off the rods. I always seem to leave a few mm extra when I'm doing this. If you decide to move the rod, make sure you go up, rather than down. The next step for this setup is to place some rubber feet on the tops which will give you a few extra mm clearance. If you move the rod down too far then you will have wobbly speaker stands.

After we place the "footies", the next step will be a listen and then the optional step of the sand/cat litter fill.
Its a matter of personal opinion, but some folks swear by this method. The sand and cat litter will absorb any extraneous vibrations and make the speaker seem slightly larger in terms of producing bass.
Does it work?
Well its a matter of personal taste for each person. The one thing I can tell you with certainty is that the added weight of the sand makes the stands less likely to tip over


SamuraiJack

Great project SJ!! And well described also.
I made some of these a few years back and they work great.
I used a router and circle jig to slightly recess the PVC into the bases and sealed with a little silicone. Works great to keep the sand in.
And as you said the price is wonderful.
Audio accessories definitely are the biggest ripoffs on the planet.
It is amazing what they charge for some things and what people will pay for also.

Thanks RemDaddy!
I used to do the router thing, but it seemed a bit much, so in trying to keep the costs down for people I came up with another "interesting " way to do the sand...

Got yah curious yet?

Well, I let this one get away from me, didn't I? The stands are in my living room now enjoying a brief stay, but I promised a simple way to weight them down, stabilize and make them better, and reveal to you the answer to an ages old mystery.
So the answer is...

Socks!

"Socks" you say?



Back to the project...
Get a few socks that don't have mates anymore and give them a new purpose in life. Fill them with sand and put them inside the tubes after you have assembled the bottom stages of the stands. You can also use activated carbon, which is great for various odors, or you can use the infamous Kitty litter/sand mix. The socks will allow you easy access to the stands should you need to shorten them, or makes some other adjustments and you don't have to worry about leaking stands since the socks will keep it all in. I like to use dress socks because they seem to be tougher. I put about a half cup in a section, tie it, then fill another section. Looks like a sausage and its easy to load by draping it into the tube in a circular pattern. Now your speakers will be less likely to fall over, will stand vibrations better and possibly yield some better mid bass.

SamuraiJack

So its been a few weeks and I must say I am happy with these little guys. With the new elevation of the speakers combined with the surround from behind the screen, the sound stage is much better than before. It actually gives it a more theater like quality for those of you that remember the early DOLBY movies.

The wife approval factor on these is tremendous and she is very appreciative of the amount of money we saved, even going so far as to comment that she would like a TV stand like that. Who can say no? Im alos going to replace the milk crates covered with towels that I have my main speakers on.

Milk crates and towels?
Yes, I had a cat who like to exercise his claws and I used the towels as a distraction from the speakers. I still have the original grills.

So I have decided that I am going to build a TV stand and a pair of speaker stands for my larger speaker to bind them all together. So I guess this is now officially a project...

If you'd rather not fill with sand, at the very least completely fill with rags or towel etc. That empty tube will have a particular resonant frequency and everytime your speaker hits that note, those stands will amplify it just like a pipe organ. Filling will fix that 100%. The added bonus of sand is the mass loading effect which will reduce the amount of vibration that gets to the floor. Remember vibration = sound. Wood floors resonate like violins!

For those that have quality audio gear, here is a worthy enhancement: Try and use 4" pcv tube. Instead of the threaded rod, get some 1" pvc . Cut it 1" shorter than the length of your 4" tube. Glue a 1" pcv flange on one end of the 1" pvc tube. Suspend the 1" and its attached flange centered inside the 4" (flange up). Fill the 4" and 1"with sand while suspended. Nothing but sand should be contacting the 1"/flange assembly, it should completely foat in sand. Mount your top wood plate to the top of the flange with screws. Sit the speaker on it or better yet use spikes.
Benefits of this method are, you have provided a solid mount for the speaker without direct coupling it to the floor.
This is not snake oil folks, just simple physics. There are further improvements if anyone is interested, but you'd really want top quality stuff to take advantage of it. Sj's stands are certainly good enough for most applications tho.

I will most likely be using a variation of this design, but I won't be using any support down the middle of the PVC

Yep. But like I said, these stands are designed to be inexpensive. Once you start mounting 1000 dollar speakers on these, youre going to want to custom design your stands. I had a friend who probably spent two months search for the ideal stand for his speakers. In the end he made one similar to your design but made it with solid core on top of gel material with sand surround. Heavy and good.

Glad to see folks interested in these. They have been around since dirt....

SJ

These were the basis for the design of my DIY stands that I just finished. The main thing I changed was removal of the threaded rod down the center because they alone cost more than the entire stands, which clocked in at a staggering $14 total, or a discount of $6.50


you can see the whole build here, or just look at the basic rundown of my alternate design
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?s...c=15393&hl=


No rod down the middle so I bolted wood in each end of the 3" PVC and screwed the base and top to these. They are wedged in for added security and I used silicon to create a seal since they are filled with sand.




The tops.. slightly larger than the footprint of the speakers with a rim so they won't slide off

finished

Very nice. The elimination of the bolts at the top and bottom was why I used the threaded rod, but I bet you could use drywall screws and then cover them with plastic filler...

Ridge is a nice touch too!
Well done!

Speakers are mounted with stands? Or just "sitting" on them!?

mine are just sitting. The ridge and rubber should stop them from sliding off, but of course, if they get bumped hard someone better yell timber. If I encounter problems with stability I will bolt on a black strap which I can tighten over the top

These are really good ideas

I have been looking for an alternative to commercial speaker stands

Thanks