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Having just expanded my home entertainment system prompted me to pen this article. The build may not be inspirational but I thought the the concept may be worth an honorary mention.

Do you remember when you wanted to swoon to the dulcet tones of Glen Miller or shock the kids with a dose of Tom Lehrer or imbibe in something more up tempo like Arlo Guthrie's tale of Alice's Restaurant back in the days when Dr. Pepper was still a Sargent administering to Lonely Hearts before it was Clubbed by a Band of political correctionists. You suddenly discover that one of the wires has come adrift somewhere at the back of your stereo system preventing you from giving your beloved neighbours another reason for noise complaint. Did you find you were faced with one of those tight manoeuvres that even an anorexic mouse has to breathe in to get through?

You spend an hour tracking down that loose wire only to find that it originally wasn't loose at all and you now have two loose ends that now somehow need to be reconnected. Reminds me of those adds on TV where the little lady of the house struggles up some stairs with a recalcitrant garden hose tangled around her ankles. We don't have that trouble at our house as I got my builder to move the upstairs downstairs and now the missus just struggles in a horizontal plane.

Anyway back to my story. In the days when a decent entertainment system consisted of a turntable, a tape deck, a tuner and an amplifier with two front speakers and if you won a lottery third division could afford rear speakers, with second division front speakers and if you hit the jackpot of first div. a sub-woofer. To further complicate things some jerk invented a video player and all us other jerks had to add that to our system. Well back in those days Wi-Fi was something that you smoked and its smokeless trail was jet to be discovered, so all these components had to speak to each other through some sort of cabled umbilical cords that was discretely hidden behind the electronic boxes to stop the kids and visitors from tripping over them (litigation was unheard of in those days… even from belligerent neighbours). Then when one cable came lose you practically had to knock out the back wall to get to the rear of the system… or... spend the next week rearranging the components to permit front access to the back panels. I'm sure there's an "I remember" thought bubble over most of us mere males' heads as we reminisce.

Being a lazy Alex, I resorted to another namesake called a lazy Susan. I built this tower and mounted it on the aforementioned turntable.


It was only made out of pine, but lovingly with staggered dovetails and sliding dovetailed shelves. Drowned in five coats black stain and finished off with water based satin varnish.

Ok, I was a tad mean with the stain but only the spiders and cockroaches can dob me in to the rabbi,


But it left the TV stand sort of "clutter free"...


Once the tower was dutifully placed in a corner of the room (as I didn't have a round Colosseum), I could slip all my electronics onto the shelves and then with a dexterous twist of my muscular wrist, turned it around to so I can readily tackle the chore of cable crossovers upon the back panels whenever I wanted, without the complimentary access hassles.

The wiring at the back (and surroundings) is still like a dog's breakfast, however, now it's easy to get to and more resembles a generous canine serving out of a can.


All I can say is that for a Wi-Fi house, all this cabling is pretty sick… and I don't mean that, in yuppie speak.

Nevertheless, the other day (or the other month… if you read this in a month's time), it was a breeze to add a new TV set top box to my existing system by the simple access to the back of the units to tackle the wiring without too many blown circuits and frizzy hair-do's.… between the occasional casks of vino of course.

And to think… now days with Wi-Fi, all one really needs is a 140mm x 70mm footprint (I have small feet) somewhere in your house, for one of those obnoxious iPhone/Android thingy-me-jiggers to rest on, to get you and the missus toe tapping to the embarrassment of your aged kids that refuse to leave home… and without the need for wires to boot (no not wires on the kids… they just need handcuffs)…

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Comments

· Registered
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1,558 Posts
The worst part of any "Hifi System" is all the cords going everywhere and trying to remember which goes where..
 

· Registered
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10 Posts
Great idea and very utilitarian! Excellent execution as well. Where did you get you "susan" bearing? How big is it?
 

· Registered
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5,698 Posts
... Where did you get you "susan" bearing? How big is it?

- drbyte
Hi drb', here is the Australian supplier and specs. I used the 12" one. I doubt it'd be that economical to jump on a plane and purchase one from them, however, you could probably get one from Rockler. Otherwise just do a Google using the details in the link to source locally (or a cheap import). I have a cached supply of different sizes and use them extensively in the workshop and around the house.
 

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... trying to remember which goes where..

- crowie
Crowie... A Hi-Fi is boy's toys.. keep the missus away from it so that she won't be tempted to clean around it and that way you can easily draw lines in the dust for a reminder.
 

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2,671 Posts
Great project!!!
The only thing I really need is that wireless head set.
 

· In Loving Memory
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5,826 Posts
You did a wonderful job on this entertainment center. An entertainment system is exactly what I need to build for my wife. If I can scrape up the time I sure do hope that I can do as good a job as you have done. I've never built one and I know that it will be difficult to find all of the hardware, etc. We used to manufacture some things similar to this with the 32mm system and European hardware but that is ancient history now to me. I just looked at your projects. You do really nice work. Congratulations.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com
 

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123 Posts
Another great build, Alex.
 

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Great job. My wife and I have been wanting me to build some sort of entertainment center for a while now. This could give us a few more ideas. thanks.
 

· Premium Member
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11,339 Posts
Just to be clear. This is not my entertainment tower.

Sorry, couldn't resist. ;-)
 

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5,698 Posts
Just to be clear. This is not my entertainment tower.

- Lazyman
Ah, Lazym', you can jump on the turntable, spin yourself around out of sight and drink to your heart's content b4 the missus finds you missing…
 
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