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APPLE II DISK DRIVE AND MONITOR STAND
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Hi all,

I am making sketches of my Apple II disk drive and monitor stand.

It is pretty simple to build (out of wood). It helps to separate the 
devices so that they can be pulled out to fix without unhooking and 
un-stacking everything.--Also allows room for easily installing and/or 
removing a System Saver fan.--Also allows for some air (cooling) space 
around the devices.

Is anybody interested in building an Apple II disk drive and monitor 
stand?

Yours truly,

James Davis
JPD.Enterprises@Live.com

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Read/review my BASIC PARTS FOR ASSEMBLY, MY SKETCHES, and all of the 
INSTRUCTIONS/ADVICE & OTHER IDEAS before proceding with construction.

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BASIC PARTS FOR ASSEMBLY:

2 - SOFTWOOD SIDES - 12" x 4.5" x 3/4"

2 - HARDBOARD SHELVES - 15-1/2" to 18" x 12" x 1/4"

4 - HARDWOOD LEGS - 12" x 1" x 1/2"

16 - FLAT HEAD WOOD SCREWS - #8 x 1-1/8"

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MY SKETCHES:

These are just penciled-in (and highlighter smudged) sketches.  They 
are not professional mechanical drawings.  So don't bug me about their 
poor quality.  They are good enough to get the idea across.

If you don't like my sketches, make some of your own with the 
dimensions you use and any other details you deem necessary for your 
construction of this project.

	Sketch-1: 1st. Draft (better detail for woods and screws)

	Sketch-2: 2nd. Draft (half size with more dimentions)

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INSTRUCTIONS/ADVICE

1. Purchase the materials: (See below and above: "Basic parts for 
assembly")

1a. Get some yellow wood glue, too.

1b. You will also need to get some white wood primer to paint the 
parts before assembly.  It is very difficult to paint inside the Disk 
Drive cubbyhole after assembly.  [I found this out the hard way!]  
Before painting, tape off the wood surfaces that will be glued 
together.  Paint over the primer with a colored finishing coat.  Use a 
semigloss or satin (durable-epoxy) paint in whatever color you like.

[For color, I suggest either the color of your Apple II (textured 
pastel yellow-beige or platinum) or a contrasting color like 
wintergreen (pastel green {The original cheerful color of TUMS antacid 
tablets!} my favorite color for this project) or the color of the 
screen surround on your display monitor (e.g., light brown, like on 
the Apple Monitor II).]

2. Cut the wooden materials squarly to size and sand all edges.  
(Change any dimensions you like, first.)  When the time comes to 
assemble the parts, all joints should be glued together with yellow 
wood glue.

2a. The 2 - SOFTWOOD SIDES - 12" x 4.5" x 3/4"

Buy two one foot boards of white pine with square edging.  They need 
to be a softwood like pine because they are what you are screwing all 
the other pieces into.  Hardwood might split.  If you get this wood 
pre-primed, then you will only have to finish and prime the sawed 
edges.  (The board may be marked as 1" x 5" lumber, but those are the 
dimensions when it was unfinished lumber.)  Measure what you intend to 
buy to be sure of its finished width and thickness; then square-cut 
two one foot lenghs with a fine-thoothed miter-saw and sand the saw-
cut edges smooth.  You can fill in any flaws (on the edges and 
anywhere else that needs it) with latex painters caulk.  Then prime 
and paint the surfaces that will be visible.

[On my two prototype stands, the shelves and the sides were cut from 
hardboard and I used four softwood corner blocks (12" x 1" x 3/4") to 
screw into, joining everything together.  But, in hindsight, it would 
have been easier to do it as illustrated above!]

2b. The 2 - HARDBOARD SHELVES (15.5" to 18" x 12" x 1/4"):

Be careful not to purchase paperboard (aka: melamine) instead of 
hardboard!  They sometimes get mixed together at the big hardware 
stores (e.g., Ace, Lowes & Home Depot).  They look very similar.  
Paperboard is easy to bend and scratch or cut into with a knife (and 
it absorbs moisture when it gets wet).  Hardboard is not easily bent 
or scratched (and does not absorb much moisture when it gets wet)!  Be 
aware that melamine may be available pre-primed; and that hardboard is 
not usually available pre-primed.

The screw holes (for screwing into the softwood side boards) through 
the top and bottom hardboard shelves should be 1" or 2" in from the 
front and back edges and 3/8" in from the side edges of each shelf.  
There are four screw holes through each shelf.  (All screws that will 
be pependicular to each other (vertical vs. horizontal) should be 
separated by at least 1/2" horizontally on center!)  Drill out screw 
holes for #8 flat-head screws [with a flat-head/counter-sink 
(specialty) drill-bit].  (Pilot holes into the softwood side boards 
are optional, but recommended to help prevent splitting the dry wood.)  
Then prime and paint the surfaces that will be visible.

2c. The 4 - HARDWOOD LEGS - 12" x 1" x 1/2"

Buy four one foot (equal) lenghts of hardwood moulding with square 
edging.  (Get two more if you intend to put rails on the top-shelf 
sides.)  The legs need to be a strong, dense, straight-grained 
hardwood because it is what will be supporting all the weight that 
will be put on the stand.  (Diagonnally-grained hardwood is no good 
for this!  It can split under too much weight.  So, be carefull 
selecting the wood for the legs.)

The two screw holes (for screwing into the softwood side boards) 
through each leg should be centered 1/2" in from the front and back 
edges of each leg and 1/2" in from the top and bottom edges of the 
side boards.  (All screws that will be pependicular to each other 
{horizontal vs. vertical} should be separated by at least 1/2" 
horizontally on center!)  Drill out screw holes for #8 flat-head 
screws [with a flat-head/counter-sink (specialty) drill-bit].  (Pilot 
holes into the softwood side boards are optional, but recommended to 
help prevent splitting the dry wood.)  Then prime and paint the 
surfaces that will be visible.

[On my two prototype stands, the legs and top-rails (and the shelves 
and sides) were cut from the hardboad that I had leftover from an 
earlier project years before.  Twenty-four or so (12" x 1"  x 1/4") 
extra strips were cut from it.  I used two strips (glued and screwed 
together) for each leg.  {I was remodeling my kitchen at the time I 
started this project, so my cabinet maker actually did the cutting of 
the hardboard pieces for me, using his portable table saw.}]

3. The 16 - FLAT HEAD WOOD SCREWS - #8 x 1-1/8"

If you don't want to get a specialty drill-bit for #8 flat-head screws 
or a counter-sink bit, you can use round-head or pan-head screws, 
instead.  (But, then you will have bumpy stands that look like they 
have warts!)

[On my two prototype stands, I used drywall (sheet-rock) wood screws 
and countersunk them deep enough to caulk over them to make them 
disappear--(after assembly and before painting).  Also, as an after-
thought, I used pan-head wood screws to attach top-rails to the inside 
of the extra inch of each leg protruding above the top shelves, on 
each side of my two stands.]

4. The cubbyhole BOX you make should be open at the front and back.

If made properly: glued and screwed together, your Apple II stand 
should stay square and not collape sideways under the weight of any 
monitor.  If your stand gets overloaded and starts to collapse, add 
some right-angle metal brackets to it on the backside for 
reinforcement.

If you do not want to use 1/4" hardboard for the BOX top and bottom, 
you can use 3/4" thick (shelving) wood; but, the extra thickness of 
the shelves will eliminate the extra inch of the legs that protrudes 
above the top in my sketches; and, it will raise your disk drives an 
extra half inch and your monitor an extra inch upward.

The distance between the top and bottom shelves of the BOX should be 
at least 4-1/2" to allow for some airspace above your disk drives (and 
for different drive heights).  The opening is 14" wide.  Two Apple 
Disk II drives will fit side by side in this cubbyhole.  Four half-
height drives should also fit stacked two high and side by side in 
this cubbyhole.  Apple DuoDisk drives will not fit in this cubbyhole 
(they're too wide {>14"}) unless you make your BOX wider (16" to 18" 
{instead of 15-1/2" which keeps the legs as close as posible to the 
sides of an Apple II computer}).  Apple DuoDisk drives will fit on the 
top shelf (without rails) under a monitor, though.

The bottom of the BOX needs to be 6" up the legs, above your computer 
desk or table, to allow room to insert or remove a System Saver 
(cooling fan & power switch), after inserting or before removing, 
respectively, (e.g., sliding) your Apple II under the BOX.  This 
distance also allows for an inch or so of airspace above your Apple II 
computer [which is also a good place to put the floppy disks you may 
be working with (e.g., swapping in and out of your disk drives) when 
you are working with your Apple II].

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OTHER IDEAS:

1. Make two or more Apple II stands as illustrated above and stack 
them up.  The legs would be interlocking.  Two of the legs on each 
stand would need to offsett 1" backward on the front and/or back sides 
to prevent stepping.  The odd stands (every other stand) would be 
turned around 180 degrees.

2. Make two or more cubbyhole boxes [or arches (e.g., one shelf with 
legs)] and stack them up.  Use (1" dia. by 4" to 6" tall) dowels [or 
1-1/2" square pegs (e.g., 2" x 2" lumber)] at the corners so that they 
are open on all sides.  Screw the shelves into the dowels.  Clip the 
boxes together with some of those swivel-handled paper-clips if 
necessary [e.g., those (1" wide x 1/2" high) clips that are triangular 
when viewed from their end-sides and their handles will swivel to lie 
flat to the wood surface].

3. Use right-angle aluminium bars for the legs around each corner 
instead of wooden legs.

4. Use right-angle aluminium bars to make a frame to hold plywood 
shelves.

5. Use standard electronics cabinet hardware (e.g., erector-set angle-
bars with bolt-holes) to make a frame to hold standard shelves.

6. To save your time, and material and labor costs: buy an Apple II 
Monitor stand (a 30+ year old piece of painted plastic) like the one 
that was listed at $150 on E-Bay!  It's probably cheaper in the long 
run!

7. To save your time, and material and labor costs: buy the stackable 
wooden-arch Apple II Monitor stands that used to be sold by office 
furniture stores.

[And, while you are at it, do what I did: Get one of their (matching-
in-style) tower-computer desks (19"d x 37"w x 30"h) that are on 
casters and have PC-keyboard and Printer/Copier/Scanner slide-out 
drawer-shelves.  Put one or two of your Apple II computers and their 
Disk-Drive/Monitor stands (that you built) on top and use the upper 
slide-out as a writing surface.  Use the lower slide-out for your 
P/C/S, as was intended.  Use the tower cubbyhole to stack-up your 
floppy-disk containers.--Or, put a shelf in it for your Sider Hard-
Disk Drive and Tape Backup Units to sit on over your FD/C-stack.]

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