Wow, my first ever DIY project!

A little background info before we start:

I recently cobbled together a fantastic sound system after doing some considerable research (AVSForum.com ). I'll just copy one of my posts from this thread: http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?s...11887&st=20



Of course, once you pay roughly $630 for a sound system, you want some nice speaker stands to go along with it. I therefore went to BestBuy thinking I would have to spend at most $70-80 for 2 pairs of speaker stands. Imagine my shock when a decent pair of speaker stands would cost me around $110! So in total, I would have to pay $220 just for four stands...yeesh. There was now way I was going to pay that much money on stands when I only paid $630 for my sound system!

So what did I do? I marched right on over to Walmart and bought some cheap cast iron speaker stands. Now the thing you must realize is that these stands were $30 a pair, a price that was more to my liking. I went home assembled them together, and eventually came to the realization that the stands were made for miniature speakers, not for the bookshelf-size speakers I had. I decided that I would make do, and managed to secure my speakers to the stands. Once I was complete, I knew immediatly that the stands were not going to cut it. They were leaning precariously, and were on the verge of toppling right over. Something had to be done.

I realized that I would need the assistance and ingenuity of the LL community, and made a post requesting their (your) help. And who should answer but the great SamuraiJack! He guided me over to his DIY speaker stand post, found here: http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12364.

In addition to SamuraiJack's original project, I also used the following DIY speaker stand project to guide me along: http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/stubby_e.html.

And so, my first DIY project was born!

Here are the materials I used:

- (4) 3" Schedule 40 PVC Pipe
- (4) 12" x 12" Oak block
- (4) 8" x 8" Oak Block
- (1) Black Spray Paint for plastic surfaces
- (8) PVC Pipe Fittings (Edit: turns out that they are called commode flanges. Thanks Billy A!)

We cut the PVC pipes down to 4 31" lengths. This, however, is not necessary if you want to have your front speakers at ear level. In that case, cut two of the PVC pipes down to approx. 21" and the leave the other 2 pipes at 31". This way, you'll have 2 front stands which will be at ear level, and 2 rear surround stands which will be above ear level.

The oak panels we got at Home Depot (well, everything's from Home Depot to be honest). As oak is actually kind of expensive at around $5/foot, I would recommend buying pine, as that is only approx. $1/foot. I found the oak panels in a discard bin at home depot, so I was able to get them on the cheap. Just remember, the bottom panels should always be bigger than the top panels, as that lends to the stability of the speaker stand.

The black spray paint was a special spray paint which is for plastic surfaces. I highly recommend getting this as it makes the speaker stands much more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

The PVC pipe fittings are my modification to the SJ Speaker Stand project. I actually went through the entire process of drilling holes in my oak panels, purchasing the threaded rods, nuts, and washers, when my brother discovered the pipe fittings. At ~$5 per fitting, they were the most expensive part of the project, but the most essential. The pipe fittings actually fit on either end of the PVC pipe, and screw into the panels themselves, greatly simplifying the project. All you have to do is align the fittings so that they are in the center of the oak panels, and screw them in. Thats it!

Ok, everyone, get ready for the total cost. Drrrrrumroll........$62 for everything! Making it $31 for a pair of high quality speaker stands. Money well spent, says I!

Excellent!
I love watching people make these. You can do all kinds of fun variations with them.
Very glad I could help.

Lots of pics please?

SJ

Definitely, SJ! Once I get home from work, uploading the pics will be the very first thing I do.

Ok, pic time!
This photo is of my brother sanding down one of the oak plates:

Some of the building materials gathered together:

Note: we actually ended up returning the screw rods, washers, and nuts as we realized we wouldn't have to use them.

The power drill we borrowed from a neighbor (makes my cordless seem downright puny):

Woohoo, the finished product! The black spray paint we used came out very nicely. All we did was spray the pipes with some household degreaser, wipe them down, and spray the pipes with the paint. Let dry for 1 hour, and you have a beautiful looking pipe:

A quick note; I actually haven't secured anything down yet. I haven't put any sand inside the PVC pipes, as SamuraiJack has suggested, but to be honest, my non-audiophile ears haven't heard any sort of difference in the sound quality of the speakers. I may still put sand in the pipes as a way to weigh down the stands, but I'm sure that once I have them screwed down, they will be quite secure.

This pic is of the base. As you can see, all I've done is taken a PVC pipe fitting and slid my PVC pipe into it. I intend to screw the fitting into the oak board once I'm certain I've finished with the stand.

Underside of the top plank depicting the PVC pipe and the pipe fitting (again, the fitting is not secured to the top board). As you can tell from the pic, we did a simple once over stain, a hurried job to be sure, but my brother and I don't mind .

A side view of the stand. You can't see it in this picture, but there is a minute gap between the board and the pipe fitting. Once again, once we've secured the fitting down, that gap should be eliminated.

My final thoughts on the project:

1) I absolutely loved doing it! I've never built anything in my life, so I was quite pleased with myself on how this project turned out. I saved quite a bit of money, built a product that looks better than anything I could have bought, and have the satisfaction of knowing that the stand is something that I built with my own hands.

2) The top plates where the speakers sit measures 8"x8". As it turns out, the pipe fitting's diameter turned out to be almost exactly 8". So this meant the edges of the pipe fitting touched the edges of the top plate. Therefore, I would make the the top plates 9"x9" if I could. It doesn't really negatively affect the design of the stand, but you still want the top plate to be a little bigger than the pipe fitting.

3) Make the two front speaker stands shorter. The surround speaker stands turned out to be the perfect height, but I need to cut the front speaker stands shorter, as they are above the viewers listening level.

4) The PVC pipes are not cut straight as we used a hand saw to cut them. I would highly recommend using a miter saw to cut the PVC pipe straight. This didn't make too much of a difference, but if you want your speaker stand to stand perfectly straight, you'll need to strap down your pipe and be certain that you have a steady, non-wavering hand.

Just a few notes on the PVC portion of your project. The fittings that you used are comode flanges 3" over the pipe. Also the it does not matter if your cuts are straight if you glue the flanges to the pipe. I have to say I like the look of your finished product. Good Job!

Thanks Billy! I actually saw the flanges at Home Depot while getting my PVC pipe, and decided that they would make the speaker stand easier to build. I thought about gluing the flanges to the pipe but decided that I wanted the ability to adjust the size of the pipes later on (something I would not be able to do if I glued the flanges to the pipe). Again, thanks!

I like the flanges quite a bit. The would seem to lend themselves to a round stand and top. The only thing I dont like is that they are so clearly part of household plumbing...Maybe something a little less commodish...Do they make a solid flange similar to this?

Still I really like that touch ( Its my own personal thing that reacts to the toilet part...)

I'm a bit confused, SJ. Are you asking if there is a flange without all of the "gaps" in it?



Hahahaha

One thought that I had would be to get a 3" PVC cap and attach the cap to the wood then insert the pipe so even the screws are hidden. It might be difficult to find the right kind of cap with a flat top. I think that would keep the look clean like the origianl design with added simplicity. Here is a link to the type of fitting i'm talking about. Lasco fittings

Yep. I seem to recall seeing one, but I cant remember where...

One question, does the pvc pipe transmit the audio through vibration due to them being hollow? I think I probably would of filled them with sand just to be safe.

Sand is always good, if not for the weight quality alone. I prefer the kitty litter mix. It seems to be a better dasmper combined with the various spaces the socks produce. You can get VERY fancy with these if you want , but the quality becomes very subjective after a while. Its mostly about matching your speaker stands to your floor. Some people Isolate and some people bolt em right to the floor. You have to do whats best for your ears. Thats why I like this design. Its cheap and can be modified on the fly for any number of reasons.

SJ

BTW. A friend of mine just finished a pair of these in the Greek Column style. He kept the wood and used that 45 degree angle molding with the groove in the middle. All the did was liquid nail them to the outside of the tube after he roughed it. I used to screw them in and cover with a trim piece, but this worked great. Very Nice.

The stands look great Billy A good job ,to SJ you could always recess the base part of the flang in the bottom of the supporting wood base that way you will only see the female coupling of the flange this might give you the lok that your looking for, just a thought.

RR