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The truth of the matter is that I hesitate to call
this a "Home Theater" because to me "Home Theater" implies a
dedicated room. Obviously this is not the case. Like so many
Hawaii houses, a dedicated room just for TV is rare, especially since
there aren't too many basements in our homes.
I suppose it's more accurately described as a
entertainment center, although (to me) the level of customization and
work involved moves it beyond a Sauder woodworks wall unit. Maybe
is seems like that because we did all the work ourselves and it took up
a couple of month's worth of weekends.
Most of the really big cuts
were handled by Home Depot, for example the shelves are a 2 foot deep
sandwich of MDF and 1x2 wall studs. I had the Home Depot cut the
4x8 MDF in half lengthwise and I brought home the 2x8 pieces. This
way I only needed to cut them down to the correct 72 inch width to fit
in my space.
Overall, it was a great
learning experience since I've never worked with a router before, never
built drawers, or applied real wood veneer laminate before. The
only real drawback I can see is that Fran is thinking of all kinds of
new woodworking projects for me......
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This is where we started, a
Mitsubishi TS-5085, top of the line circa 1992. |
We cut back the carpet to
set a base for the new TV stand |
I extended all the outlets
to reach above the lower shelf/base. |
The basic drawer frame was
built outside and carried inside like this. |
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From here on, everything was
build in place and custom fit. |
Trial fit for the TV and
Velodyne subwoofer.
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The new side wall that
provides a mounting point for the shelves. |
Placing the first shelf,
notice that the top has not been added yet. |
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The lower shelf was added
and the tops glued and screwed. |
The construction of the
shelves should easily support the equipment. |
The shelves are a sandwich
of 2 each 3/4 MDF and 1x2 studs, |
The slots for the wiring
were a dilemma, round holes behind each piece, or one long slot? |
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The whole
upper assembly all painted and finished to match the walls. |
Detail of the drawers.
They are on full extension ball bearing sliders. |
The outer side of the new
support wall has small shelves for displaying items. |
We put the TV on a sliding,
swiveling base to allow us to pull it out for wire hook up. |
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Everything is installed and fired up for the first time. |
Notice that we're still
using the Mitsubishi HTS-100 Dolby Pro Logic surround processor. |
This is a look at the TV
pulled out & swiveled for servicing. It can be pulled out much
further if needed. |
The framing for the cover
under the TV was probably the trickiest part. |
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This frame had to have holes
for the speaker and IR receiver for the TV. This meant I couldn't
make the whole thing out of grill cloth. |
I ended up with a design
that had a 'window' for the IR receiver and removable speaker grills. |
The drawer faces were also
difficult, the gaps are very small and the level of precision was very
difficult to achieve without a table saw. |
The finished product. The
drawers are now covered with a teakwood veneer to better match the
furniture in our living room. |
