DIY Home Bar built from IKEA Stuff

 

It had been an aim of mine for some years now to build myself a bar at home for entertaining friends regularly, but somehow time and inspiration just simply did not allow for it. However several weeks ago I decided to stop procrastinating and just get down to it. The bar in the photo above is the final result and below I will explain how I got there.

Things to do with old Vinyl Records # 8 - Guitars!

Well this is a new one for me, a record covered guitar. Very nice, and original!

More information about this splendid guitar here: BINGHAM VINYL RECORD GUITAR

...and then a couple of guitars with vinyl record scratch plates that are quite cool:

Things to do with old Vinyl Records # 7 - Handbags!

Fancy your very own designer handbag with a cool music theme? Well here is your answer, LP handbags! Just remember not to use good records for this or you will break my heart, just use the really warped or scratch damaged ones that are not playable any more. Thanks!

Wood Glue method for Cleaning Vinyl Records

I have never tried this myself, but from what I have heard it works really well for very dirty records that have deeply embedded dirt that can't come out with regular cleaning. I would test it first on a record you don't mind potentially ruining, but my logic dictates that it should be ok as long as you follow the simple instructions given here.

Refoaming a pair of Snell E3 speakers (it's easier than you think)

When buying a second hand pair of speakers that are older than 10 - 20 years it is always a good idea to check them carefully for foam rot. Over time the foam surrounding the speaker cone can get perished and quite literally fall apart. The sound quality will be severely degraded when the foam is a gonner and especially the bass will be affected badly, and if left unattended you will eventually cause permanent damage to your drivers which will potentially be very expensive to replace.

Look at these examples of speaker rot I found online:

 

It's a very common problem but fortunately it is also very easy to remedy. For those who feel they cannot take on a DIY project like this most hi fi repair shops can do this repair fairly easily and at a reasonable cost. For those of us with some basic DIY skills repairing our own speakers is a piece of cake and much cheaper than having someone else doing the refoaming it for us.

Things to do with old Vinyl Records # 6 - Art!

Possibly the most difficult of the lot in technical and creative terms. Could be fun to try though, so let me know what you have done and send pics of course!

Recreate the Disco Era! - How-to make a Disco Ball

Got all that old disco music and want to throw a great disco theme party? Well you will need to get the mood right and this easy DIY disco ball would be just the right thing to help you get your boogie down:

Don't have any disco music to have a disco party? No problem, Amazon have a brilliant 5 cd collection of classic disco music that will keep you jiving for hours! Click on the link below and have it delivered to you in super quick time:

Things to do with old Vinyl Records # 5 - Lamps!

These look like they require a higher level of skill than some of the other examples, but I think with a bit of determination they should be doable.

Things to do with old Vinyl Records # 4 - Bookends!

Probably the easiest of the lot and very practical too!

Guest Post: "Acrylic Flexy Rack" by Arnold Cruz from his blog "The road to nirvana"

I recently looked into upgrading my shelving for my hifi setup and in my searches I came across what looked like a very good looking and practical shelving system called the Flexy Shelf (or Table) and had it in the back of my mind to build one and post my results here on Vinyl Philosophy. As it turned out I went with the wall mounted shelves instead, mainly because I already had almost everything I needed lying around at home.

Despite this I still wanted to do one and continued to look at other peoples attempts to plan my way forward. In my searchings I came across a particularly nice looking example on the website of Arnold Cruz at The road to nirvana and then proceeded to ask him if I could repost his Flexy Shelf post right here on Vinyl Philosophy so that more people could benefit from what I think is one of the prettiest Flexy Shelves out there. So with his permission here it is:

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Acrylic Flexy Rack

An article on the online site TNT Audio inspired me to try working on a version that suits my personal preferences. The original article calls for MDF shelves, but I decided to go a notch higher by using Acrylic (or sometimes called Plexiglass).

My first version was based on the layout and measurements of the original article and looked like this:

My 7 Simple Tips to improve your Listening Experience

While most of us dream of having the space for a separate listening room just for our music listening pleasure the reality of the matter is normally somewhat less dreamy. The fact is most of our sound systems are located in the lounge areas of our homes and this area normally also serves as a tv watching room, family congregation room, games room, chill out room, reading room, etc.

Few of us will ever have the same high level listening room as this one that was custom built by ModWright Instruments on their premises:

...but we can dream can't we? ;-)

Things to do with old Vinyl Records # 3 - Clocks!

In the third post in this series we continue to explore the possibilities of things to do with your old records once they are too scratched and otherwise damaged to be used as a viable source of music listening pleasure. We have all thrown away old damaged LP's, but I am highlighting here that at our vinyl's retirement age we could turn that old friend into something more practical and beautiful, and it is even good for the environment folks! Recycle, recycle, recycle... now we can tell our lefty friends that we have done our bit for the environment!

My personal favourite, clocks!

Things to do with old Vinyl Records # 2 - Bowls!

After posting about vinyl record tables that various creative people had made to convert old damaged vinyl records into something useful, I came across what must be the easiest thing to make from an old vinyl record. A simple bowl. I found a whole lot of them when searching online and because it looked quite easy I couldn't resist and had to do one myself! I documented it with my cell phone, so please excuse the photography, but it is good enough to get the idea.

First step was to find a junky old scratched up record, and I had one of those. Then I found a stainless steel bowl in the kitchen that would serve as my "mould":

This one seemed about the right size so I drew a dot in the middle to make it easier to line up the disc when I put it on top of the stainless steel bowl like this:

Things to do with old Vinyl Records # 1 - Tables!

At some point or the other we have all had records that were just simply too scratched or damaged in some way that prevented us from being able to play them. Mostly we just toss them out and hope to be able to purchase another copy some time soon to replace it, but in this series of posts I will look at how other people have reused their old vinyl in creative ways. I may even try out some of these myself!

First up, Vinyl record coffee and side tables:

If you come across any other creative ideas, send me the link and I'll look at possibly posting or incorporating them right here on Vinyl Philosophy.