Making a Custom Music Gear Rack

In this video I'm making a custom rack to hold music gear such as preamps and effects processors. This easy DIY build saved me a lot of money over buying a pre-made rack.

[@riseofthemachine2623]

One more tip for building a DIY 19" rack with slanted side panels: Leave adequate space on the bottom for the lowermost piece of gear to fit in without bottoming out on the case due to the downward tilt.

[@jamesedinger4956]

It's easier to load equipment in a rack if you lie the rack on its back. When you load it standing, you can bend rack ears if a unit slips your grasp with only one screw inserted.

[@jimmy_jamesjams_a_lot4171]

Grrrrumble grumble! The many, MANY skill sets that I really gotta keep sharp and constantly invest in, so that I can save myself some moolah in all of my musical efforts!! I LOVE your aesthetic, with ALL wood and dowels instead of nails and screws! Much respect there! You really invest a dedication towards really making it yours, where here I honestly thought you had just modified a bed stand / bookshelf from Ikea, having judged the photos before I viewed this video, so you’re making stuff look really professional since fooled me with your impeccable work! The dowel joinery and finish are really cleaN. Can you do that dowel joinery in acrylic?!! If so, I’d love to see a demonstration of that! THANK YOU FOR SHARING!!

[@sapphiretink]

Nice looking cabinet. I liked that you let the wood show instead of staining or painting it.

[@DaisyHollowBooks]

This was good. Very inspiring. I want to build something similar to this.

[@jonwikan3986]

Nice rack build! The blue tape doesn't really work for tear out on any saw but lightly scoring a line on the side of the blade that stays with the piece that you will be using with a sharp utility knife before sawing will mitigate the tear out, as well as moving slowly with a good sharp crosscut blade. Dowels are a good idea when joining end grain! On end grain glue doesn't hold very well. An old timer trick is to apply wood glue to the end grain and let soak in for a few minutes and then re apply glue and then clamp it up. Luckily with plywood only every other layer is end grain. Remember wood glue such as Titebond 1has an open time of about 4-6 minutes before it needs to be clamped @70F 50%RH.

[@fabianvasquezjr8852]

Want to build a tiltable rolling rack case that swivels on itself then you can tilt it back to vertical when done. Just have to figure out the radius of the semi circle to make it work and be stable at all angles.

[@lachaineguitarededavid]

Beautiful and clean !!

[@MrMqwse]

great design!!! I hope you glued the dowels in first before you cut them down!

[@SolidRockBluesBand]

Nice build!

[@dappawap]

I like the music with the jangly guitar

[@Andrew-kk2ry]

Great work! Thanks for sharing.

[@hungryzapatos2664]

Nice work on the videos, try to keep more coming out.

[@user-nu7xx7pc1d]

great job and video!,

[@VincentDagenais]

Very nice man!

[@FranklyNorman]

Nice work!

[@Kineticartist]

beautiful!

[@kevinlentz7604]

Good job ❤

[@Joey.Darkwoods-Studio]

Nice build! So you went 19" even inside?

[@oldsaintvic13]

Great video man, subscribed. trying to come up with a design and this helped a lot!

[@californiabuilds2561]

Thanks so much! Glad to hear it did some good for you!

[@bobtee7899]

Really Nice Man!!

[@omramosr]

Excellent!!! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@WARDISWARD]

Good stuff

[@dirface]

Beautiful

[@roblexx]

Quedan muy bonitos, desde luego, pero los racks al suelo son verdaderamente incomodos.

[@jojittv9573]

Hi hello new subscriber boss idol fr. Jojit nice video

[@MiscerVids]

My wife appreciates when I trim my long curly bits

[@yancikwei2386]

that’ s very very cool~！~！wow~！~！

[@guitar360seb]

About halfway through it’s really lookin like a 412 amp speaker cabinet

[@iwillman26]

awesome

[@StefCaron]

2:50 : what brand name of jig did you use for the dowels? I've been looking for something like that for months, and can't seem to get my hands on something small and inobtrusive like the one you're using.

[@californiabuilds2561]

Stef Caron hey bud! This one is made by Rockler and they have a few sizes available. Check this link to see em: www.rockler.com/doweling-jig-kits

[@patrickjoseph3412]

should have glued the dowels in

[@LaWhiteHouse_]

I have a question, i know some rack units work with tubes, this case the presonus pre amp(second slot) has one tube, this doesnt affect ventilation??? Im planning to get some tube unites for the rack, but i was considering to leave a space between units that use tube

[@californiabuilds2561]

Devenir Oficial that’s a great question. Since the front and back is open I haven’t had any issues with ventilation. But I actually ended up moving the rack gear down by a couple spaces due to the size of the power transformer for the presonus studio channel. The two rack gear pieces are just different enough depth to not play well together. The stock gear racks you can buy out there will ventilate similarly to this one so if you’re good with those, this’ll be just as good. :)

[@LaWhiteHouse_]

@@californiabuilds2561 Oh that sounds great, thanx man:)

[@BrainToMush]

What's your source for the rails? Thanks!

[@gerrysantos724]

‘hope you did hold your breath while at 0:29 because you were not wearing a dust mask or any sawdust protection stuff..

[@californiabuilds2561]

I’ve since learned about the art of dust masks...they are always near me now!

[@lanzauno]

quality vid man!

[@LeslieDugger]

sweet! Do you have the plans written up anywhere?

[@californiabuilds2561]

Leslie Dugger thanks for watching! I don’t currently have plans available but if that’s something you’re interested in, send an email to [e-mail] and let’s see what we can do!

[@2548jov]

what are dimension of your project?

[@fnonaka]

U're perfeccionist! lol

[@johnbean2596]

2:25 don't cut towards yourself

[@DjGeorge124]

5:25 how fo you cal that metal parts so i can search for ?

[@californiabuilds2561]

Studio124 hey there! I’d recommend looking for “8u rack ears” and you can find them. There’s a lot of suppliers for them because they work for both music gear and computer equipment

[@DjGeorge124]

@@californiabuilds2561 thank you !

[@suesaturday2691]

What this dude needs is a better table saw.

[@themanlyadventuresofianrun6290]

How is the side to side wiggle on this guy?

[@californiabuilds2561]

The Manly Adventures of Ian Rundquist great question. It’s actually non existent I’d say. The joints are still tight and I think the shelf stabilizes it really well.

[@Michael-pq4qe]

You are a G

[@MarkSchuster-ym3iy]

I see it looks like you bought the metal angles to screw your equiptment to. Why not just rip wood and screw your gear in to the wood. No nuts needed.

[@chrishall5985]

Miter joints! 🤦‍♂️ Its such a simple cut and makes the rack look so pro yet 90 percent of wood made racks opt for the lazy joint which is functional but kind of offensive to the eye compared to a miter joint.

[@californiabuilds2561]

I can appreciate that. I personally like butt joints over miters. :) Maybe a future version could showcase mitered edges though. I’m curious of strength in the joint. Probably with plywood it doesn’t make as much of a difference but with solid lumber I’d expect that the miter joint may not hold up as well given the end grain to end grain. Sounds like a good thing to test!

[@guidopellegrino6029]

Can you make me a couple

[@Jail-Left-Wing-Traitors]

STOP putting background music to videos with *narration* .. it ONLY makes it HARDER to hear what you are saying and is VERY distracting ... *EVERYONE STOP DOING THIS* .. we are NOT here to listen to music !!

[@anthonybianco1982]

looks pretty average for all that effort to be honest.