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PartTimeProjects Sand Filled Amplifier Stand

The goal here was to make a stand/ shelf for holding one of these DIY amplifiers. I wanted something sturdy and heavy but I don't have that many tools and saws, so I could not make it out of metal. Looking at commercially available stands, they are mostly made out of at least some metal. I could fasten a metal plate to some wood though, so decided to make the top metal (cold rolled steel) and the rest from wood. I also used wooden spikes and filled the base with sand to make it extra-heavy.

It was not that tough, I went to home depot and got them to cut me a plywood sheet 22x19 (inches) for the bottom and got some 1x1 wood cut to fit around the edges and brace the middle. These were glued to the plywood and then screwed in. I bought a piece of 22x19 metal from Metal Supermarkets, but it turned out to be too large, so I had to cut it down with my dremel, as you can see it was very hard to cut a straight line and I used a lot of the cutting discs, but hey no tools = not perfect!

During the process I sanded, primed and painted this gloss black, and inset some long spikes from Parts Express.

I used insdustrial sand from Home Depot (about $6 for a 50 lb bag, used less than 1/2 bag, check the section in the store that has the concrete mix), and put the metal cover in sitting on some speaker gasket tape so that it could make a good seal preventing the sand from leaking out.

I did a LOT of sanding with coarse then fine sandpaper (by hand) to make this come out as a smooth glossly black stand, but no amount of sanding could get this even close to flat, so I decided to live with the imperfections. I think I would have needed a sander or planar, with different, high quality wood, to get something that was glossy smooth.

In the end this is sturdy and very heavy, seems to work great.

Here are the pictures.

Step 1: The bottom panel and side panels, as well as the brace in the middle.

Gluing the bottom panel and sides
with center brace. Painting the glued & sanded bottom
and sides with primer. Drilling and countersinking the bottom
and sides. Painting the bottom and sides
gloss black.

Step 2: The metal top plate, cutting, drilling, countersinking, sanding, painting.

Cutting the top metal plate. Sanding, drilling and countersinking
screw holes in the top metal plate. Painting the top metal plate.

Step 3: Adding the sand and foam tape to seal in the sand.

Adding the foam tape. Nice California sand! Adding the sand.

Step 4: Finishing up- screws and spikes

Screwing in all the screws
from the top/bottom/ sides.

Ooops, forgot to mention that
the spikes were put in the bottom
back in the beginning.
Here they are, nice and out of focus.

Ok, and now we have it finished, one super heavy and sturdy amplifier stand.

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Cutting the top metal plate.	Sanding, drilling and countersinking screw holes in the top metal plate.	Painting the top metal plate.

Screwing in all the screws from the top/bottom/ sides.	Ooops, forgot to mention that the spikes were put in the bottom back in the beginning. Here they are, nice and out of focus.