Wood racks and humidity

I have several Maple racks in my basement in Ohio including Butcher Block Acoustics 3" thick shelves. I do run a dehumidifier in the spring, summer, and fall and have not had any problems at all.

Hi Conlad -

May be too late to the party, but I have several, if not most of the racks/shelves mentioned already here and feel the need to comment:

The Symposium Acoustics Segue shelves and newer Foundations Ultra Top 4 shelf rack I now have (5 months old) are the "best heard" and the best value I have found and own for reasonably priced and "best value" products of their type.  They are not prone to humidity variations.  I have been through a few racks....
I bought (ordered) this rack from DevaAudio (Kansas); best value found.

The (also) new SolidSteel S3-4 rack I have is not even in the same ballpark as the Foundations rack - price-wise or quality-wise.  I also have the older SolidSteel 5.4 welded steel rack and in the past used ~2" thick Michigan Maple butcher block (out of Petosky, MI) shelves cut to fit this rack. While it looked nice I wanted better - the rack would visibly wobble when a nearby door was opened or closed -  so I bought Symposium Segue shelves to fit, but it was still not optimum.  So I went with the Foundations rack.  It is clearly superior to any other rack I have used and mentioned here.

The Foundations rack (designed/made in the USA) uses 1" thick shelves similar to the Segue.  The bottom appears to use a sealed and finished fiber-like material.  The top is aluminum.  The SolidSteel (made in Italy) S3 shelves (28MM thick) are a painted MDF on one side and a rather thin sheet of composite material (laminate) on the other, considered the top.

The Foundation legs are almost 2" dia. and are solid aircraft grade aluminum; they are bombproof once built up.  This rack is extremely solid (no pun, really).  The S2, 3, and 5 racks all use a hollow aluminum that is fairly soft and thin walled that measures 30MM dia.  Even really torquing down on their legs when making the rack will not prevent it from being anywhere as steady as the Foundations rack of the same number of shelves.

Yeah, I know it sounds like I do this sort of thing for fun...
...I should also note that I designed and had built an 2 x 4" oak framed 3 shelve turntable rack with the mentioned Mich. Maple BB as a top.  It is rock solid but likely not the best; yes, wood does "move".  I keep a combo humidity/temp meter in the room to monitor as needed.  Ironically, I need a humidifier sometimes, not a dehumidifier.  And I am from the Midwest so I do know about basements of suburban Detriot homes.

Finally, I have tried many DIY attempts with Ikea wood products and while it was fun and looked very nice it was no were near what I got with the Foundations rack. 
Hope the above helps Conlad.

dadsears

Conlad, I make gallery furniture including $60,000 conference tables and $30,000 entryways.
Sealing wood will not keep it from expending/contracting with humidity. It just slows it down. Air dried is always best but it has to accommodate to the environment for at least three years. Kiln dried is faster but tends to case harden and can do some very strange things when cut due to tensions created in the drying process. Very few of us have the luxury of using air dried wood.
Real butcher block has an end grain face and is very unstable with humidity changes. As long as it is not trapped it is fine, for cutting board use. No self respecting wood worker in his right mind would use it in cabinetry. What most people call butcher block is butte joined long grain narrow boards which may or may not be stable depending on how the wood is cut, joined and what species is being used. A panel made this way using quarter sawn mahogany will be very stable and would make a great rack if you could afford it. Any quarter sawn wood with the grain oriented up and down in the panel will do very well as the panel will change in thickness with humidity instead of width as you would see with flat sawn wood. However no good woodworker would trap a solid wood panel in a frame. They would float it to give it room to expand and contract. 
In an environment that has deep humidity changes it is best to use a plywood construction with solid wood edging. I have made panels 2 inches thick with a 1/4 inch thick surface veneer that are still doing well after 28 New England Winters (my front doors).
If you like the look, Mahogany and Teak are the best woods to use in this application as they are the most stable. Maple is the most unstable. Oak and Walnut are in the middle, white oak being the best. It is important that the grain be oriented in the same direction throughout or the board will fall apart in time. Just look at the end grain. It should all be pointed in roughly the same direction. Oil is the best finish in this application. Surface finishes like lacquer and polyurethane will crack eventually. IMHO polyurethane is the worst finish ever concocted by man. It looks awful and is a PITA to refinish.  
If you have your eye on something send me a photo and I will tell you what I think. 

Mike

Not to hijack the thread but mijostyn, what would your opinion be on using clear redwood for a stereo rack? I have 4 -  2" x 12" x 7' of clear redwood I bought in 1976 that I was thinking of using. How would you cut it and glue it? Lo-boy with 2 full length ( approx. 5' long ) with 2 half shelves. Threaded pipe frame.

Boss302

Thanks very much, dadsears and mijostyn, for your well informed suggestions. I haven’t yet bought a rack but had about concluded that the Solidsteel S-3 is unlikely to be a big leap beyond my current Sanus model. I have been eyeing the Symposiom Foundation racks and those by Adona, both more expensive than I would prefer. It seems that my environment is hardly ideal for a wood rack. And dadsears, thanks for the tip on the dealer.