First design - mission inspired tv stand


leitefrog

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Hi gang

I have been wanting to create a tv stand for my 40" flat screen for a year now, and I've taken the first step and started to put things down on paper. Well, sketchup actually. I'm starting to get that hang of sketchup, but I know I've got a long way to go yet. I want to have a space across the top for the center speaker, the doors under that for the equipment. The drawing doesn't have any of the holes in the back for wires and heat exchange, but that's because I'm not very good at getting sketchup to make holes consistently. :) The only thing about this design is, I have to leave the doors open because of the remote controls. One thought is to replace the panels in the door with smoked glass rather than wood.

To start with, how's my design, and second, what would you do about the doors?

-George Leite

tv cabinet.skp

post-2559-0-30609800-1290392275_thumb.jp

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The design looks nice. i only looked at the picture since I don't have SketchUp on this machine. For the remote, there are so many remote eyes that you can buy. Basically it's a tiny receiver you can easily hide (think smaller than a lapel mic) on the stand with a long wire that goes to a broadcast box that will repeat the remote signals seen inside the cabinet. If the doors are open, everything still works. I haven't used one of those repeaters so I can't vouch for how well they do their trickery, but my plan may require one as well.

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I built an A/V cabinet awhile ago and posted some pictures on flickr. Unfortunately I never showed the final product, which does have closed doors and a removable panel on the side (to hide the wires).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_ws_morton/sets/72157618207781887/

I used an IR repeater to bring in the signals into the cabinet, just as Paul refers to. It was Hot Link Pro found on amazon here: http://www.amazon.co...90450095&sr=8-5 Works fine, no problems.

Even though I considered heat exchange and built in 3 120mm fans into the case, I don't think it's quite enough. If I were to do over, I'd build in about 5 of them (2 in, 3 out). I do have them turned down slightly (running at 9V instead of 12V), so you can't hear them at all - so I could turn them up and they may work a little better. Something to be aware of - those things get HOT in there.

As far as design, take the following comments as simply my opinions. I hate when people just say "good job", so I'll skip that (great job using sketchup - love it! :) and get to some critical comments you can consider:

  • Make the lower door rails wider than the top ones. Gives weight to the bottom of the piece.
  • Check the overall height / width for a nice ratio (2:3?) and then also the interior compartments such as the lower door-section to upper-open section (1:4?)
  • I would beef up the legs about 2x from the front cross-section - make them look more like furniture legs.
  • I'm not a huge fan of 4 doors all the way across, I would make it more interesting by breaking that up somehow - but I tend to slightly more modern designs.

Really great case - I hope you get to build the whole thing so I can see how it turns out!

Morton++

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I like the stand, Morton++. Watching the pictures go by, I wondered where the Iron Maiden design was going; I like the metal shelves; a lot of air flow! Also thanks for the link to the repeater you used. Nice to know which you used and with success.

I've designed two entertainment centers for my place and both leave the components in the open; then the only problem are those cables... uhg, cables.

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For air flow, having openings at the top and bottom really helps. A fan helps too, but I'd rather have top and bottom openings and no fan, rather than a fan and only one opening.

Standard rack mount electronic gear is designed to take cold air in the front and put warm air out the back, so I'd put a slot in the cabinet bottom across the front, and another slot across the top across the back.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Rockler also sells the remote repeater. I've been watching it (no pun intended) for close to fifteen years now. It's in their catalogue (the paper version), but I haven't checked the online site yet for one. They usually come in brass, so I'd recommend carrying the brass look throughout the piece. (Haven't opened the photo, as I'm pressed for time.)

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Here's an example of a sideboard with a similar door arrangement that came to mind when I saw your drawing: Kevin Rodel Glasgow Sideboard.

I think the suggestions Morton made are spot on: widen the lower door rails, use square legs (somewhere in the range of 1 1/2" to 1 3/4") and add a divider in the middle to break up the row of doors.

Do you have a particular style of hinge in mind for the doors? One challenge I see with your design is that you can't use a standard butt hinge for the center two doors because there isn't anything to attach them to. A center divider would solve that problem, or you could use knife hinges.

The only thing I wonder about is whether you'll be happy with the look of a speaker in the middle of your cabinet. Sometimes form loses out to function, I guess? Maybe hide the speaker behind some speaker grill cloth (Speaker Grill Cloth Fabric Burgundy/Beige Stripe Yard 36") like you'd see in a vintage console record player?

Rory

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