entertainment center (1 Viewer)

[Chris Homer]

Anyone know where I can find some plans for and entertainment center for my 51" RPTV? I have a general idea of what I'd like to build, but not very knowledgeable with woodworking, so I need some guidlines. I like the general design of the one here but can't seem to find if the article ever had plans to it.

Thanks.

 

[John E Janowitz]

I did one for an LCD tv for a customer a couple months ago. It was made out of all curly maple and curly maple veneered plywood except for the crown molding. In the future I would do the crown molding custom from curly maple as well. We had trouble matching the color. The doors are just flat panel but frames are also from curly maple. I thought about doing raised panels but it just didn't look right with the rest of it. The front is made from strips of the curly maple glued and put together on the back with pocket hole screws. The rest of the cabinet is assembled and then the front is attached. This is essentially the same method used in kitchen cabinets. Here's a pic.



This one actually had custom speakers built into it. They used the Silver flute shielded 5.25" driver and a Seas 1" dome tweeter, also shielded. They are in small sealed enclosures. They already had a small velodyne subwoofer that sits behind the unit.

John

 

[Joey Skinner]

That entertainment center is a pretty ambitious and expensive project if you aren't familiar with wood working. If you have the tools (table saw, router, drill, lots of clamps, etc) and get a good detailed plan I'm sure you can do it but it will be a long process. You might be able to buy a back issue of the magazine that will have step by step plans. Try looking at as many wood working magazine websites as possible for detailed plans and back issue availability.

 

[Chris Homer]

Great looking piece John. I think Joey is right with it being to ambitious for me. I really have limited tools, circular saw, straightedge, and router (no table). I may be able to hook up with someone that has more tools, but was trying to mainly do it at home. My thoughts were some basic boxes for now, and maybe advance to some doors at a later time.

I'll check into the back issue, thanks for the idea. I've found some sites that offer plans to buy, but they all appear to be Armoir styles for small TVs.

 

[Brian Bunge]

Chris,

I have that issue. I was just looking at it the other day. There's a full cut list for the entertainment center. They use some advanced jointery but you can skip some of that if you don't mind using nails and wood filler. I could copy the article and mail it to you if you'd like.

 

[Joey Skinner]

Have you seen the DIY Flexy racks? You could design one of those around your TV and build it with simple tools.

 

[Chris Homer]

Yeah, I've seen the flexy rack and I don't think it will fit in with the decor, but thanks.

Brian,

That would be great. I believe you can click above my post for my e-mail.

I sketched up in a CADD program what I'm thinking about, now just need to associate it with some basic plans and building practices.

 

[Patrick_L]

John, although i can't stand entertainment centers, that is one sweet piece of work. nice job.

 

[Tracy_L]

Hey Chris

Look in this thread and you can see the start on the build I did around my 57" Toshiba. It's finished now and looks great. It's a little late right now to try and post finished pics, but if I can get around to it in the next couple of days I'll post some for you. I had 5 cabinet doors custom made for my openings at a cost of around $150 (total, with hide-away hinges), and they fit perfectly. Well worth it to save me the aggravation of making the doors.

The pic is a little grainy, but I basically built 3 boxes, the first around the TV, with the bookcases on each side.

Tracy

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=128796

 

[Chris Homer]

Tracy,

Nice looking piece. I couldn't check out the plans, but from what I see from the photo, it looks like it took some time to put together.

Unfortuanetly, I don't have the space that you have. Here's a photo of what I have now:


Here's the plan I sketched up:

 

[Tracy_L]

Mine does take up an entire wall (between 2 doorways) 11 feet wide, 9 feet tall. And it took about 2 weekends to get constructed by a friend who is into woodwork, and the next 6 months or so for me to finish (some trim work, getting cabinet doors made, several coats of paint, etc etc)

 

[Joey Skinner]

Chris, you could make the entertainment center from your sketch using 3/4' MDF and veneering it with 10 mil paper backed veneer. Find a hardware store that will cut the panels for you and screw and glue them together with drywall or deck screws. You could make the shelves from 1/2" MDF and make some of them adjustable . Use 1/4" fiberboard for the back and trim however you like with matching wood molding. Veneering the flat panels should be easy and there are lots of how-to threads in this forum.

 

[Chris Homer]

Here's what I have so far


I want to drill holes down through the shelves starting where the speaker will go and then one out the back at the very bottom. Anyone have a suggestion as to what size holes I should drill? Should I cut a hole out the back for the speaker shelves and only through the shelves where the components should go?

 

[Aaron Gilbert]

Chris,

That's looking great! Is that veneered plywood, or did you use the MDF suggestion and veneer it yourself? Either way it looks pretty heavy.

As for the size of your holes, I would use at least 1.5" for any hole through which you'll be putting an AC cord or multiple RCA cords (audio cable, component video, etc.). For just speaker wire, 1/2" is plenty. I think it'd be easier and neater to run your speaker wire around the back to the receiver, rather than through the other shelves and/or middle, with the exception of the right speaker. The only thing I'd recommend is that you drill holes now in any shelf (whether on the shelf or back) on which you might one day have a component. This will be a lot easier than doing it in the future. And, it gives you a more finished look when you do it before applying stain.


Aaron Gilbert

 

[Chris Homer]

Thanks Aaron. I went with 3/4" oak veneer plywood with some edge banding. Will stain it with Puritan Pine to try and match with the existing rustic pine furniture. I made all three sections separate so I can move it into the house. Can't say I did the greatest job, but nobody will know the flaws except me. Can definitely say it was a learning process as I went along and things went better near the end.

Thanks everyone for the help and I'll get a photo up of the finished product (hopefully this weekend).

 

[Chris Homer]

Here's the final product:


Quickly found out that 6 foot cables just doesn't cut it when trying to run components on both sides of the TV.

 

[Joey Skinner]

Chris, great job! You gotta be proud of that. If you're like me you'll soon be looking for another DIY project.

 

[Tracy_L]

Chris

Absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!!

Now for the hard question. Have you added up your expenditures on this project? I estimated that I spent roughly $1000 in materials on mine using 3/4 Birch ply and having someone build the cabinet doors so I didn't have to. But the satisfaction of saying, "Why yes, I did build that myself" to dropped jaws is worth every penny!!!

Nice job..

Tracy

ps
Do I recognize the fingerprints of a little one on the lower right of your tv? lol I've seen those before.....

 

[Greg Monfort]

A relatively easy/inexpensive way to make one is to use modular kitchen cabinet kits and either 'dress out' the doors from the unused ones to suit the decor or add custom ones as skill and/or $$ permits.

GM

 

[Tracy_L]

Greg

I agree, I even looked at some prefab doors at Home Depot, but I had a hard time finding sizes I needed, and those were actually expensive. I had 5 doors custom made to fit my openings exactly (none were the same width, lol, but they were within an inch or so).

It cost me about $140 to have all 5 doors made to exact size and that included the hideaway hinges.

Tracy