DIY Speaker Stands

OK; before I even get into the project let me get something out there:

I probably could have purchased some speaker stands for the same amount of money that I spent on this project.

But they wouldn’t have been EXACTLY what I needed, and most likely they wouldn’t have been as well built.

When all was said and done this project cost me approximately $130.00 – although I have enough materials that if I spent another $25.00 on lumber I could have easily made one more set – and still had other materials left over.
All materials were purchased at my local big box home improvement store (Home Depot)

For this project I used

-A plank of Red Oak
-Some 3″ PVC pipe
-2 sections of All-Threaded rod
-Various Nuts, lock washers, and cut washers
-Metallic Silver spray paint
-Stain
-Rope caulk
-Sand

Since Home Depot’s lumber selection is nothing short of AWFUL, the only Red Oak that I could find was a stair tread.
But; if you ask nicely you can most likely find a Home Depot associate who is so desperate to avoid doing some type of an assigned project that they’d be willing to cut the lumber for you. (if you pre-measure and mark the lumber; and teach the Home Depot employee how to use their saw) Which will save you a bunch of time at home.

For my stands I decided to use 11.5″ squares for the base and 8.5″ squares for the top.

I also picked up some cheap-o drill bits since I don’t have any good bits left that aren’t out for sharpening.

After marking the center points on each piece of lumber I used my drill press to make a recessed hole for the all-threaded rod and the nuts:

After making the recess the appropriate depth for the washers and nut to rest flush I swapped the bit and drilled the hole all the way through for the all-threaded rod.

What it should look like –

Recessed side:

other side:

Then you mark and cut your PVC so that the speakers will be at ear level when you are in your listening area – in my case it was 27″ – To get a straight cut I used my chop saw – but I didn’t take a pic of that.

After I cut the PVC to length, I marked the all-threaded rod to the appropriate length and then cut it with my dremel and cutting wheel – which I also didn’t photograph ;but I will share my embarrassment. The cutting wheel broke while I was cutting the rod and it spun back and hit me in the face; cutting my cheek. But “I’m good”

Next I sanded the lumber to a nice finish with 220 grit sandpaper and stained it with a semi transparent white stain to match my other furniture.
Again, to match my IKEA TV stand I painted the PVC with a metallic silver spray paint. I prepped the PVC by rubbing off any sharpie, etc with an acetone soaked rag – sanding it with 150 grit sandpaper to take off the gloss – and then cleaning again with acetone before painting.

Then I assembled the bases by threading two nuts, a lock washer and a flat washer on the top side of the base plate and a flat washer, lock washer and nut on the bottom side. I also coated the rod with blue loc-tite.

Next I used a cut-off section of PVC to mark where the PVC for the stands should sit on the base plate – and then wrapped rope caulk around the all threaded rod and the base plate in order to create a seal with the PVC and keep the sand inside.

Oh, this is rope caulk – you pull it off the roll and press it into place.

Then applied another bead of rope caulk on the PVC pipe and pressed the PVC into the base

Time for sand!!!

Once the stands were “filled” to the top I temporarily finger tightened the top in place and then picked up and dropped the stands several times to “tamp” the sand down and settle out any air.

Before settling: