How To Build A DJ Stand For Under $30

By Muxx - January 30th, 2010 - Gear, Tutorials - View Comments

You could go out and buy a professionally made DJ stand that fits all of your gear perfectly but where’s the fun in that? Instead, build your own for under $30.

After running around the thrift stores, checking out the vinyl bins (nothing good) I found myself standing in front of the home items section staring at a door – I knew I could make something.

For under $30 you can build your own DJ stand that is sturdier than hell to absorb all the vibrations and you get from the music and you get to have some fun while you build it.

The materials

For the DJ stand , I used only 2 items:

  • A Large, Solid Wood Door (preferably without grooves)
  • 8 Cinder Blocks

You may also want to have a few items on hand:

  • A screwdriver
  • Paint (optional)

Using a door for your DIY DJ stand

Using a door for a DJ stand

When I was standing there, looking at the doors, I knew I needed to build a DJ stand that would be able to hold a lot of equipment (turntables, mixer, speakers and the various drum machines and midi controllers I had laying around).

When you pick out a door, you want to find one that is solid wood. It’s going to be really heavy but you’ll want a solid wood door because of all the vibrations you’ll pick up from your speakers and movement while DJing, these vibrations could skip your tracks.

I bought the door for $10 but I’m sure I could have haggled them to $5. Loading the door in the blazer was the toughest part but I got it in there.

Once you get it home, you’ll need to remove the door knob which is done by unfastening a few screws and popping it out.

At this point you can choose to sand it down or paint it. For mine, it already had a decent paint job on it so I was done with it.

Using cinder blocks for the legs in your DIY DJ stand

Build A DJ Stand With Cinder Blocks

Next you want to have something for your door to lay on, I chose cinder blocks.

Cinder blocks are great because you can get them for a little over $1 each at a Home Depot or any other hardware store.

You want your DJ stand to be right around waist level so you aren’t bending over while mixing – it hurts your back. Likewise, you don’t want your stand to sit too high up else you’re going to feel uncomfortable reaching upwards to mix.

I’m a little over 6 feet tall so I grabbed 10 cinder blocks in total.

Build 2 ‘legs’ of cinder blocks stacked on top of each other, 4 blocks per leg. Using 4, it set the height right where I wanted it, waist level.

Putting it all together

Build Your Own DJ Stand

Now that you have your cinder block ‘legs’ stacked and ready to go, all you need to do at this point is to throw the door on top.

You may need some help if the door is really large or very heavy so grab a bud and get it up on top of the legs.

Viola! You have yourself a DJ stand for under $30.

Hooking up the little things

After you have your stand set up you may want to add a few other things such as a surge protector strip so you can plug everything into without having to bend over or crawl underneath to hook all the power chords up.

I had an extra surge protector strip sitting around so I bolted it down into the door with a few screws so it didn’t slide around.

Now with a flick of a switch, I can power up everything without messing around with additional wall sockets.

Throw in some monitor speakers

Remember the 2 extra cinder blocks I picked up? They didn’t go to waste. I took one of each and placed them on the end sides of the new DJ stand to set my monitor speakers on top of.

This works wonders because the vibrations from the speakers and distort the sound if they are moving around plus it put them at about chest level.

If you want to blend in the cinder blocks to your new DJ stand just grab a can of spray paint and color up your blocks, done and done.

Okay, yeah I was cheap

But that doesn’t mean that the stand isn’t shit, it’s actually really great. For under $30 you could build your own stand that is 6ft x 4ft wide, think of all the stuff you can set up there.

At the moment I place my vinyl shelf up on top so I don’t have to bend over and hunt for them in crates on my floor.

It doesn’t look like the best thing in the world but the thing is a beast.

So, it’s your choice: pay $150+ for a DJ stand or make your own for under $30. Think about it, $120 that could be going toward new gear or vinyl – that’s good thinking.

Here’s to all my DIY readers out there, cheers!

Have you made any DIY DJ equipment or stands? Post a comment below and share how you did it and what materials you used!

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  • Excellent guide, man. I have a DIY stand too, kinda. I picked up a keyboard stand for $25 at a local music store and got a shelf from Home Depot for around $15. It fits a pair of CDJ-1000s and a 12" mixer, with some space for things like my external sound card and the Serato interface, if I stand them up vertically. Then I put up a smaller shelf above it and that holds my laptop and speakers. The keyboard stand isn't quite as sturdy as cinder blocks, and the shelf is not as wide as a door, but it works if you have limited space available. And it's nice that the speakers are at ear level instead of waist level. I definitely agree with you about the ridiculous prices of some of the stands they sell. A laptop stand alone is often more than $100.
  • Muxxex
    Wow, that sounds like a really great DIY set.

    It's great to have everything right where you need em to be so you're not crouching over. Keeping the speakers at ear levels really make a difference, just that small angle can throw off the acoustics sometimes.

    $40 is really great for it to work so well with all of your gear.
  • oktave
    i would like to see a picture of it man, this sounds ace. post it up when you get a chance yea?
  • Muxxex
    Sure thing, I can get one this afternoon.

    (Need to clean up around it a bit, it also makes for a perfect place for beer bottles haha!)
  • oktave
    lol, sweet man thanks! stoked to peep your stand. peace
  • Muxxex
    Camera ran out of batteries last night, forgot to set it to charge so I'll have to dig for the chords.

    The great thing about the stand is that the door is probably 7-8ft tall and about 4ft wide. I can fit my decks, shelf with my vinyl and some books, monitors and a bunch of midi gear that I've collected. Plus the giant painting of Buddha my friend made for me some years ago haha.
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