# media cabinet



## rasp (Mar 20, 2012)

*demolition and wiring*

my parents took off to mexico for two weeks. it's a good place for em. anyways, i figured i'd surprise them upon their return.

my dad wants to hang his 52" sharp TV on the wall. so last thursday after they left for the airport, I took out an old drywall knife and started cutting away. I used tapcons to attach a length of 2×4 to the block wall. I covered that 2×4 with a thin piece, and then another full size 2×4 to make it flush with the front edge of the framing.

I had to move two studs further apart (4 inches~) to allow for a box to fit in between them. I fit an L-shaped 2×4 beam in between the studs to support the weight of the media box. all the wiring runs through the 2×4 wall into the utility room. I used a piece of 3/4" inside diameter flexible PVC conduit. Inside this conduit, an ethernet cable, a coax cable (just incase), HDMI cable, and speaker wire, for the center channel speaker. the HDMI plug was a bit too wide to fit through the conduit. i had to file down to the two sides of the plug so it'd fit through. if you can find it, i would suggest 1" inside diameter for future projects like this.










I don't have any experience with serious electrical stuff, so I called in a handyman. He added a receptacle in the utility room and relocated another one to behind the television mount. he is coming back to repair the drywall in a few days.










This is as far as I've gotten. I have a 3/4" sheet of maple plywood in the garage. I haven't made a concrete plan for the media cabinet itself yet.

will be cutting that sheet up soon though. parents come back this thursday!


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## crashn (Aug 26, 2011)

rasp said:


> *demolition and wiring*
> 
> my parents took off to mexico for two weeks. it's a good place for em. anyways, i figured i'd surprise them upon their return.
> 
> ...


better get crak'n, drywall is a slow painful process that I hate


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## Sarit (Oct 21, 2009)

rasp said:


> *demolition and wiring*
> 
> my parents took off to mexico for two weeks. it's a good place for em. anyways, i figured i'd surprise them upon their return.
> 
> ...


This is probably too late, but would this have been a good solution?

Datacomm 50-3323-WH-KIT Flat Panel TV Cable Organizer Kit with Power Solution


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## rasp (Mar 20, 2012)

rasp said:


> *demolition and wiring*
> 
> my parents took off to mexico for two weeks. it's a good place for em. anyways, i figured i'd surprise them upon their return.
> 
> ...


Yeah, too late. Drywall is up. thanks though. i was looking for something like that in home depot and they didn't have it. 50 dollars is quite a bit of money. I bought two new boxes, a few receptacles, it came to 12 dollars or so.


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## rasp (Mar 20, 2012)

*drywall up*

my friend came over last night and fixed up the drywall for me, and got the first coat of mud on.

i could have probably tried doing this myself, it's a few patches and some mudding, but i wanted it to look professional and be done on time, and i just so happened to have a friend who does this for a living. i appreciate his help very much and facilitated him as best as i could. i have experience working on job sites as a labourer and cleaning up is a familiar task.



he's coming back tonight to sand, cut the opening and apply second coat of mud.


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## rasp (Mar 20, 2012)

*cabinet begins*

well, didn't exactly meet the deadline on this project. my parents came home and I had two coats of primer on the walls, and no cabinet. but I would rather take some extra time and ensure it's nicely made than rush, make serious errors and have to buy another sheet or deviate from the original plan.





using an oak straight edge and a circular saw, I broke the 4×8 sheet down into manageable pieces, ripped and crosscut them to size, and machined a 3/4" wide 3/8" deep rabbets in the necessary locations. I edge taped the pieces with iron on maple edge banding. i'm very weary about using iron on edge banding, but this location should not get too hot . I have heard stories about people using toasters and kettles in their kitchen, and having the edge tapes peel.

the sides are rabbeted to accept the top, bottom and back, and the top and bottom are rabbeted to accept the back as well. I plan on gluing these joints together and tacking them with some brad nails, there really isnt enough material to warrant screwing them together.



the cabinet is on it's right side in this photo. the hole is in the top.

the top has a 2 3/8" hole cut in the center to accommodate a puck light. the hole is located roughly 10 inches from each edge, so drilling it on the drill press was impossible. I cut this hole by drilling a 2 3/8" hole in a scrap piece with an adjustable spade bit. (these actually work very well if you turn down the drill press RPM and take your time cutting) Then I drilled a 2 inch hole in the center of the finished piece with a hole saw, centered the 2 3/8" hole around the rough 2" opening, and traced the 2 3/8" hole with a flush trim bit in a router.

I also made a quick adjustable shelf template with a scrap piece, and drilled the holes. I bought some grommets and pins for this project, during my last trip to Lee Valley. I plan on making a more professional, accurate and repeatable shelf hole jig as seen on the New Yankee Workshop, but for this job a quick template will suffice.



The back has more cut outs, made with the drill press and table saw, to allow for ventilation of the amp, as well as ease of wiring. Instead of having to slide the amp out of the box every time an adjustment needs to be made, I made the hole large enough to allow complete access to all the inputs/outputs, but small enough that the amp covers the edges. The narrow slit is 1 inch by 10 inches long. I'm going to make a pair of 1 1/2" standoffs and have a piece of maple behind that hole, so you still see woodgrain instead of a black void. I edge taped the inside of the square opening, and radius'd the slot opening. I will sand these very smooth so you do not risk cutting your hand wiring the system up.

Going to sand and finish these pieces tomorrow, assemble the cabinet tomorrow night if all goes well, and install soon as possible. I had some issues getting my table saw to cut square, which eventually led to loosening the trunnions and trying to hammer/adjust them into alignment. After a few hours of checking and re-checking with a caliper, the best I can do is within .010", it was originally .025". the blade does not run parallel with the mitre gauge grooves. I got this saw from a friend who was letting it waste and rust away in his garage. I spent 20~ hours cleaning, stripping, painting, lubing, and restoring the saw. The fence always binds, doesn't run true on it's guide rails (it should probably have bronze bushings or something for this type of design), and is seldom adjustable by hand; I end up using a rubber mallet, which is not exactly 'micro adjustment'.





My brother arrived as I was writing this post with the bracket. It's a 3 inch wide 10 inch long 5/8" thick cold rolled steel plate. The original Sharp TV bracket is bolted to this plate, which has 10 countersunk holes for attaching to the wall. This plate weighs about, half as much as the television. Quite overkill, but that is his style. (Mike Holmes eat your heart out, if my brother built a house it would be a cube of machined steel)

by the mid point of a project, the tablesaw ends up looking like this..



but I have also started working on my workbench top.



It's HEAVY.


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## rasp (Mar 20, 2012)

*installed*

finished up and installed the cabinet. hung the tv, trimmed out the opening.

on a trip of perfectionism, i am not really happy with this cabinet. I think if I were to do it again, I would have organized the work and more efficiently, to actually meet the deadline I had in my mind. One week over isn't that bad.

oh well. It turned out really nice. The installation went smooth, and the box basically friction fit into the hole (fluke  ). I put 4 1 1/2" screws thru the gables into the studs, and woodplugs the holes, did a little touch up over the plugs.

the next mission for the basement is to install a small crown moulding big enough to chase wires for the surround speakers, which will be mounted by the ceiling.



for now, I'm using a tea table and the metal bar to hold the two front speakers. the other ones aren't hooked up. I need to fish a wire for the center channel speaker too.


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