Built a stand to put things over a Mac mini

For the Listening Station™, intentionally constrained by the dimensions of the IKEA Knarrevik ($10 when I got it), I needed to put the Schiit stack on top of the 2014 Mac mini I’m using as an audio source. Unable to find a ready made solution that did what I wanted, I hacked this together

Parts / tools:

6061 T651 Aluminum Sheet Metal 10 x 10 x 1/8(0.125") Inch Flat Plain Aluminum Plate ($15)

Sign Standoff Screws Advertising Screws Stainless Steel Wall Standoff Mounts Glass Acrylic Nail, 8 Pieces (0.75 x 1.96 Inch) ($9)

DEWALT Drill Bit Set, 14-Piece, 135 Degree Split Point, For Plastic, Wood and Metal (DWA1184) ($10)

A 7.2V Black & Decker cordless drill I already had ($27 at Walmart? Edit: Found the original receipt; it was $19.88 in 2007); roughly equivalent to this I think ($29), but if I was doing it again I’d get something like the beefier 20V MAX Cordless Drill (BCD702C1).

Shooting glasses I had lying around (equivalent to these) ($11).

The stand-offs being .75" in diameter, I measured 3/8" in from each corner in both directions and drilled pilot holes using a smaller drill bit:

Pilot hole drilled

Then used a 3/8" drill bit to make the actual mounting hole:

3/8" hole drilled

Fit check was perfect:

Fit check from the top

Fit check from the side

The finished product is exactly what I was hoping for:

Finished

It provides a stable base for the Schiit Magnius and Modi 3+:

Base for Schiit stack

And fits in the IKEA side table perfectly:

Mac mini, built riser, Schiit stack, in IKEA table

A simple project but I haven’t done anything like this in a long, long time. I’m really stoked with how it came out, considering the limited tools and materials I had to put towards the project.