I needed to get a handle on my CD collection, which was spread between various boxes, crates, cases and stacks. I got the idea for mine from a wooden rack I saw for sale on the internet that looks like this:
But I needed something with a capacity around 1,000. So, I drew up plans to double the size of the one you see. I found Lowe's sells 4 foot wooden dowel rods (half inch diameter), so I picked up a bunch of those, 3 boards (1x8 and 6 feet long) and a drill bit to make the holes. From the plans I had drawn, I made a cardboard pattern to uniformly mark the holes for the dowel rods on the board which will be used in the middle. I drilled those holes all the way through, and then laid that board on top of the side boards and scored the hole positions with the drill bit. Then I used those marks to drill 1/4 inch holes in the correct spots on the sides. Here's what the pieces look like before being totally assembled.
After all the dowels were in the middle board, I had to place it on top of one of the sides, fill the holes with elmer's wood glue, and then try to stick each dowel (all 33 of them!) into their holes.
This first side wasn't so bad, but then I had to flip the whole thing over and do the other side! It was much harder to get the other ends of the dowels in there respective holes without pulling them out of the other side, but somehow I got it to work. Sorry there are no photos of this, as it was a very hectic part of the process with all the glueing.
Some miracle was performed and it measured the same width at top, bottom and middle, so I cut 4 pieces of 1x2 and screwed them into the sides and middle to brace everything. I drilled pilot holes using a 1/8 inch bit (I think) and #6 wood screws.
Those 1x2s had enough left over to make some feet for it, so I put those on, stood it up, and here it is empty.
And here it is filled up!
To recap, this rack is 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It has 11 shelves and will hold over 1200 CDs! I started listening to and buying metal CDs in 1992, so that is 18 years worth of accumulation you see. Right now it is only sorted by genre. I'll need another weekend to alphabetize everything. The top left shelf is black metal and the rest of the shelves on the left are all death metal! The third shelf down on the right is Traditional and Progressive metal, fourth shelf is Doom, Stoner & Sludge and shelves 5 to 9 are Thrash. Ten is rock & alternative, and eleven is stuff I need to sell/give away.
I'd had this idea for a couple of months and spent quite a bit of time planning it and thinking through the construction process in my head before I bought the materials and built it. It sure feels go to have my plan be a success!
Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:17 am by metalfutte
Subject: I Built a Custom CD Rack - PHOTOS! 
