I have been building furniture that rack rails can fit in to so that I install systems in to what look like a regular cabinet for under TV's but have the benefits of a rack. It has made the install much easier. We also have done stand alone racks That everybody uses but there much more attractive so we don't have to put them just in the basement anymore. We have a design for an a moire also that is soon to be built. We are looking soon to build for not just are own clients in the coming months and wanted to know what people on this forum thought and if it would be a product that your companies would be interested in. Just to let you know these aren't built in my garage we have a large woodworking shop and are expanding it to handle the added demands of new orders.

Are you doing custom build-to-order? Or are you going to have a few core designs with some custom options like doors, trim, hardware, feet, etc?

As far as I know, Salamander is the only furniture company making rack mount A/V furniture. It is nice...but you are limited to the designs and finishes available....nothing custom.

I think you have a great idea and surely there is a market for it. It will probably be a niche market, but nonetheless you should be able to do well enough to justify the business. Market it properly, and get the word out there with the right people. Cost will be the major factor today.

Do you have any photos or a website yet? :) I want to see. I have had some ideas in my head about building similar furniture for myself....just never have been quite motivated enough to dive into it yet.

If you are familiar to Salamander, then 80/20 aluminum is best candidate. I've seen other used standard rack rails for custom amoires...I was Speechless, these guys need to put down their crack pipes.

Audiophiliac... You just stole my thunder!

We are going to do both . Custom will be a little more expensive thou. But the cost will be only a lil more than a salamander or bello but made from high qualiy wood and a look that the wife and interior designer will like. The website is coming. We have an interior designer involved so the designs will be something the wife wants and than easily justifies the add cost by clients.

Indigo, salamander in my opinion doesnt go well with the decor in a lot of house I work in. The clients houses I'm in spend big money with interior designs and most of their stuff is too modern . Aluminum in a 10 million dollar home that has a 17k coffee table and 20k rug in the family room . no thank you

The reason I mentioned Salamander because they are using aluminum for framing as well as shelves support. I've used the similar aluminum in some custom cabinets to support and adjust shelves spacing. They are designed to be inside the equipment compartment, so they are not visible when doors are closed.

By doing this, I get to be able to adjust shelves spacing without have to deal with PITA shelf pegs.

When I read this I thought you were wrong. Now I see I'm just confused. Do you mean they used 8020 aluminum, which is a grade of aluminum, or aluminum products from the company 80/20?


What does this mean? Middle Atlantic gives specifications for cabinetry to be made for rack rails to be mounted in. Are you saying they're crazy? Are you saying you've not yet seen it done right?

I built switching systems (from scratch) for a hi fi store back in 1972, and all a carpenter needed was two pieces of rack rail and the finish dimension of the opening. He made five foot tall racks that held everything. Aren't there people around today who can do this in shorter heights?

 Feel free to steal this idea if you'd like.  

When I first got into this business, some 25 years ago, I used to think to myself while I was trying to wiggle a 300lb armoire away from the wall how nice it would be if somebody made a nice piece of furniture that wal already "prewired".

What I mean is design a piece of furniture that houses equipment and a TV, a few shelves on the bottom, some on the top, and put faceplates and wires (HDMI, Component) in.  After you run the wires down the back of the equipment, a "backer board" the length and width of the piece of furniture covers them.  

Thereby eliminating the rats nest of wires behind entertainment centers

This was long before I started using racks.  

To answer your question, I'd be interested to see your designs as well.  

I've always hated the rats' nests, especially as the wires seem to tangle all by themselves when you turn your back. But clients who have their own armoire or other furniture want to use those pieces, and the cables always come in particular lengths, not the lengths we need.

I first faced this when building audio stores; we'd need a cable six and a half feet long, and my choice was either six feet or ten feet. Useless demo facility or instant mess, those were the choices. We can fabricate RCA cables with cable and connectors, but just try getting exactly the right length HDMI cable!

Then, in the chosen armoire, you need to provide enough slack to pull and turn the component; otherwise you need enough slack to pull it onto some structure you build so the component sits on it at shelf height. One client had pull-out shelves, so you needed slack to turn the component, then slack to pull out the shelf... and the same at the other end. Shelf to shelf wiring required ten foot cables. When you push the shelf in, the slack just hangs in the back.

Hasbeen's idea is also difficult to deal with, because if you do make something with everything in it, it's likely to weigh more than a hundred pounds, which is not something I'd want to be lifting into someone's cabinet.

Sorry, but I think we're stuck with rats' nests.

Glad I am not the only one.

Seems like the difficult part will be cost effectively shipping the finished pieces and getting them to the destination without damage.

It's common for me to work with local cabinet makers to design pieces that fit racks like the Middle Atlantic SRSR and CFR series as well as proper ventilation.

A lot of times a cabinetmaker is already associated with the job so they can easily make matching pieces.

For smaller jobs that aren't new construction or remodel it's still easy enough to bring in a local custom cabinet/furniture guy to get the job done so for me it seems easier to go to someone local for this type of work.

Unless you can build pieces for substantially less than a local shop I'm not sure what the benefit would be?

Sb , this would take a lot of the hassle out of dealing with the local shop. We are setting it up to be cheaper . The guys I'm dealing with are working it out because they can be built quicker if there doing 4 or 5 at a time . They wil have what we call a cut sheet . A cut sheet will say 2 pieces this size 4 piece this etc. The wood worker can built 4 in the time it would take your guy to built one. Shipping will be a problem for people like you in ca. But I'm am thinking of working with dists which would cut down on shipping costs. There are a lot of things for me to over come. But the finished product will be worth any extra cost since it is designed by installers .

My point is to add this to the above:
Especially the last three feet, where you put the loaded cabinet into some other cabinet.


This requires us to have four or five customers needing identical cabinetry. Maybe if you had these cabinets in storage (oops, costs $$) you could send them out nationwide when some second, third, etc client needs the same size.


This is standard operating procedure for any shop, and actually even for me just making a shoe holder out of MDF. Its goal is to arrange the parts so that there's the least waste on any sheet of material. A true manufacturer would also take a cut sheet that wasn't completely efficient, and ask engineering if some piece dimensions could be changed slightly to get more pieces out of the raw sheet. If you're starting with fixed dimensions, there will be more waste in this step than a large shop would have.


I take it you're discussing savings here. The woodworker needs four times the space (costs $$) to build four, and he can build four in maybe the time it takes to build two individual ones. Not one.


Why wouldn't shipping be a problem for distributors? We have distributors in CA, so this doesn't quite add up.


Absolutely true. The first thing, probably, is that these units will be deep enough to actually hold all the A/V receivers that are on the market!

Keep in mind, too, that you can't put a correctly built 20" deep prefab into an armoire that's only 17" deep. I'd suggest that you look long and hard at KD. IKEA has made an international business out of KD, because when it's knocked down, you don't have to pay for shipping ANY cubic inches of air!

Hi Bruce,

I just posted some photos from a job last week that was done with a local cabinet company.  This is a corner mount unit, but similar to others I've done.

One benefit I still see with working with a local cabinet shop is that they can truely make something custom (In this case it matches existing base cabinets and bookshelves already built into the room).  The other reason is that they build them in and cope around moulding, etc.

Anything off the shelf will be more of a free standing piece which I don't think would be as desireable for most of my work.  I'm still interested to see what you're cooking up... any photos yet that you could post as examples.

A downside to the custom pieces that my local shop does is cost and lead time.  Not an issue on every job, but I could see needing less expensive alternatives sometimes.

Here's a link to the photos I posted with the custom cabinet:
[Link: remotecentral.com]