10 Build Line Bulletin № 001
Posted Jul 2026

Forbidden Record Stand

I want a record stand that I can’t have — or, how I learned to pirate hardware.

An absolutely perfect record stand that fits in my space is only sold in New Zealand. You can’t get it in America. I needed it.

It looked easy enough, but I want it exact. I didn’t want some squared off, basic-looking thing. I want this shelf.

The original record stand, sold only in New Zealand — The original — sold only in New Zealand, and never here. This is the shelf I wanted.

The first problem

If I’m going to build my own, I have to come up with dimensions and drawings for it. The trouble is I don’t know how to do any of that in modern CAD software.

Learning to use the tools to make the thing you want is half the fun, right?

Thankfully the vendor posted some rough dimensions, and we know how large an album cover is and can make some inferences between that and the thickness of the wood. I fired up Fusion and spent my lunch hour watching tutorials and fumbling for days.

Fully dimensioned Fusion 360 sketch of the side panel — The side panel, fully dimensioned. Those 18.30 mm marks are the plywood thickness — backed out from the one measurement I could trust: the height of a 12-inch album jacket.

3D solid model of the record stand in Fusion 360 — Flat sketch to solid model. The exposed ply edges aren’t a compromise — they’re the whole look.

Off to be cut

With the model done, I exported the panels as DXF, nested them onto a single sheet, and sent them off to a shop to cut. Then came the hard part: waiting.

DXF cut file with all panels nested onto one plywood sheet — Almost every panel nested onto a single sheet, ready for the CNC. Off to the shop.

It fit the first try

Considering how little information I had to go on, it all came out great. I changed the design in a few ways to fit my space better — a record flip bin on the left, turntable on the right — and despite it being my first ever CAD work for something like this, it all fit the first try.

The finished record stand in John's home, loaded with records — Home at last. Flip bin on the left, turntable on the right — sized for the one corner it had to fit.

Turns out the surest way to get the thing you can’t have is to learn how to make it — and mine fits better anyway.

More on this line: back to the full schedule.