studio furniture

[Anthon]

I do my own woodwork for audio projects.

It does take a lot of effort and money to buy the proper materials and tools. To get nice results you need a hand router - you can make pretty much anything with it. It can make very clean cuts in the wood.
I recommend using wood you can find at your local hardware store.
It might be pricier then salvaged wood - but in the end, there goes so much effort into making furniture, that it is just not worth your while saving on the materials. All things considered they are not that expensive.

I don't recommend materials like press boards, MDF etc - they do not age well. Scratches and bumps look awful on it.
Massive oak is my favorite (or what you call butcher board wood). Boards of 1.8cm thick would work nicely for rack cabinets.
I use massive pine for speaker cabinets.
If you can connect it with dovetail/finger joints, it would make it rock solid. A dovetail jig and a router is a good investment if you want to make quality woodwork.
Properly built furniture from good solid wood will last ages.

 

[TwentyTrees]

For those based in or near the UK, I can heartily recommend http://chunkystudiofurniture.co.uk - lovely pieces made from massive pieces of good quality reclaimed wood. You have to like the rustic aesthetic (which I certainly do!), but their racks are very solid and well made and I’ve found them a pleasure to deal with. Two thumbs up!

 

[pucho812]

chunky studio funiture....  looks fab.

 

[alexc]

I've been doing some diy woodwork   

I'm no carpenter - started with some guitar amp speaker boxes, and now some hifi speaker boxes and also racks for my lounge room studio.

My wood of choice is softwood - radiata pine - it's plentiful where I live and cheap too. 

I find using hardwoods winds up way too heavy!

Pine is fairly light, but when completed and oiled up,  a decent sized rack or box is still very solid and weighty. I can't stand synthetic and particle board. I don't mind good ply wood but that is fairly expensive around here.

Radiata pine has a nice grain, it works and sands easily and takes finished well.

I like Tung Oil   It hardens up the wood surface, stains the light colored pine a beautiful honey color which darkens with time. You can cut it with turps to get various penetrating mixes and the use the unmixed heavy oil for later applications

After a year or two, the wood becomes very satiny smooth to the touch.  No real need for buffing or polishing, though in some apps it will make a decent shine (like on guitar necks and bodies).

I get 6m boards of 24cm wide and 20mm thick pine  for around 33usd each delivered. I can get a 28 ru rack together using maybe 100usd of materials.

I'm now starting to get a bit more fancy, using add on mouldings and features done with a small router 

 

[pucho812]

So are you buying plywood sheets? ???

 

[alexc]

Nope - I use well machined planks of pine - 6mx 24cm x 20mm as raw material.

I glue sections together for 48cm widths generally and then make racks and stuff as well as speaker boxes.

 

[pucho812]

Ah o.k.

 

[efinque]

Not exactly studio furniture but something along those lines..

Here's a link to the thread in djforums.

And a CAD drawing..

EDIT : I didn't build the stand because I don't think it holds the weight of CD players/a laptop (nor did I have those at the time) but instead I built monitor stands (they're actually rod holders in a boat these days..)

 

[Whoops]

For those based in or near the UK, I can heartily recommend http://chunkystudiofurniture.co.uk - lovely pieces made from massive pieces of good quality reclaimed wood. You have to like the rustic aesthetic (which I certainly do!), but their racks are very solid and well made and I’ve found them a pleasure to deal with. Two thumbs up!

I Love that thanks so much for the Link,
that's my kind of style

Beautiful pieces

 

[TwentyTrees]

I Love that thanks so much for the Link,
that's my kind of style

Beautiful pieces

You’re very welcome! I love their stuff - mate of mine has his entire studio kitted out by them, looks fantastic. So jealous.  ;D

 

[Whoops]

The sound diffuser looks great

 

[analag]

DIY

 

[shabtek]

Yeah.




And treat for fungus and termites!

 

[Gold]

I recently discovered Tung Oil. I used it on birch ply wood on the ceiling of a cabin. It looks great. I have a Danish Modern kitchen table and chairs that I grew up with. It could use a refinish and re upholstery.  I understand Tung Oil is the classic  finish for Teak Wood.

 

[shabtek]

Real tung oil takes time and patience like weeks to months depending on temp/humidity.

The stuff called tung oil with solvents and additives us much easier.

 

[Gold]

I used pure Tung Oil. My GF is sensitive to solvents. We had to stay in the cabin while we worked on it. It looks fine to me but I’m no cabinet maker and since it’s on the ceiling you don’t see the flaws. We also used milk paint for the same reason. Milk paint is really cool. It doesnt look like modern paint.

 

[efinque]

The oil based wax' are usually very messy to apply but when they dry they'll make a nice finish.

I've used mahogany on few projects... it's a tad expensive but worth it I guess.

EDIT : you can use a sponge or something to apply it too.. there's a special polyurethane brush tool for applying beeswax. One would then proceed to polish it.

EDIT 2 : you could also use Tolex/similar cloth but it's a bit of an overkill for studio furniture and it requires a bit of time and patience to install.. here's a DJ booth console I made for a venue back in 2012 (pretend there's no beer can)

EDIT 3 : sorry for the picture dump.. there's a company called Zaor that makes custom studio furniture.

 

[shabtek]

There in a few recently produced episodes of "the old furniture guys" on youtube.
I loved their show in the '90s.

A good tip they gave me is to put a splash of paint thinner in the paste wax (minwax not bees) can and work up an emulsion to saturate your applicator rag or
Brush: goes on smooth and thin, no lumps or chunks.

 

[john12ax7]

As a novice woodworker,  I find the general finishes water based stains easy to work with and give quite nice results.

 

[scott2000]

As a novice woodworker,  I find the general finishes water based stains easy to work with and give quite nice results.

Good to know!

Thanks!