Bah, Ikea, you win again.
Bah. Ended up scrapping my pitiful plans to build a set of stands for the front speakers and going with an Ikea shelf (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S29871804/). Having something that'll be adjustable and actually stable and straight (heh) (and not made out of badly hand cut 2x4s) seems to be worth the extra few dollars it costs.
Total cost: $90+ :(
Oh well, the shelves will double nicely as shelves for other things.
I do wonder if I invested in a set of power tools, I'd be able to do better. In terms of powered tools, I currently have a cheap jigsaw and a power drill.
I've been eyeing a belt sander (??) and a circular saw (at least $40). The latter would let me make slightly cleaner cuts than a hand saw + miter box. Or a miter saw, which I had the pleasure of using back in Black Maskers. Oh, those made cutting 2x4s so bloody easy. They're at least $90 though, and they're limited to 2x4s and other straight things, and I wouldn't be able to use it to cut sheets of wood (which the circular saw will do for me).
I've been spending way too much on this sound system, really. Granted, most of it was the AV receiver which was paid for with the accumulated $300 cash back on my Discover Card over the course of 2+ years. ($300 => $400 cruchfield gift certificates.) The 7.1 Onkyo speaker set was on Amazon for about $200, used via Amazon Warehouse. (5% cash back via Chase Freedom though). The left and right speakers are going on broken halogen lamps that I've repurposed for this - pretty nifty - the wiring can run inside the halogen lamp bodies. So aside from the gas (<5 mi@44 mpg) spent picking up the lamps, they were free. The back left and back right speakers will go on the wall for now. I have a friend offering me more lamps, but I haven't gotten them yet, and I'm also not entirely sure they're the right type of lamps yet.
And I'm finally using the aluminum screen / mesh I got a long time ago. It'll be covering the speaker screens, so the kitties can't shred the speaker screens. Hopefully. I imagine I can't prevent claw pricks, but hopefully the material will prevent major shredding.
Hm. I'm rambling. It's been a while since I've done this, I guess.
Total cost: $90+ :(
Oh well, the shelves will double nicely as shelves for other things.
I do wonder if I invested in a set of power tools, I'd be able to do better. In terms of powered tools, I currently have a cheap jigsaw and a power drill.
I've been eyeing a belt sander (??) and a circular saw (at least $40). The latter would let me make slightly cleaner cuts than a hand saw + miter box. Or a miter saw, which I had the pleasure of using back in Black Maskers. Oh, those made cutting 2x4s so bloody easy. They're at least $90 though, and they're limited to 2x4s and other straight things, and I wouldn't be able to use it to cut sheets of wood (which the circular saw will do for me).
I've been spending way too much on this sound system, really. Granted, most of it was the AV receiver which was paid for with the accumulated $300 cash back on my Discover Card over the course of 2+ years. ($300 => $400 cruchfield gift certificates.) The 7.1 Onkyo speaker set was on Amazon for about $200, used via Amazon Warehouse. (5% cash back via Chase Freedom though). The left and right speakers are going on broken halogen lamps that I've repurposed for this - pretty nifty - the wiring can run inside the halogen lamp bodies. So aside from the gas (<5 mi@44 mpg) spent picking up the lamps, they were free. The back left and back right speakers will go on the wall for now. I have a friend offering me more lamps, but I haven't gotten them yet, and I'm also not entirely sure they're the right type of lamps yet.
And I'm finally using the aluminum screen / mesh I got a long time ago. It'll be covering the speaker screens, so the kitties can't shred the speaker screens. Hopefully. I imagine I can't prevent claw pricks, but hopefully the material will prevent major shredding.
Hm. I'm rambling. It's been a while since I've done this, I guess.