My Dream theater (1 Viewer)

[Grady Hollums]

Well, here is my vision of my Home Theater:
I am in Seminary to be a pastor right now, so baised on the Money that I will be making (hardly any, because that is not why I am doing the profession) I will not be able to build this, but I love dreaming. (heh heh)
Well, also (being United Methodist) I will be part of an itenerate system which means I will live in one parsonage after so many years and then move to another town in another parsonage.
Well, I will have no idea what each of these houses will be in size or shape (therefore I will not ever, until I retire, be able to build my own home theater)
So... after all that background (as if you cared) here is what I want to build:
I want to build a hydrolic couch lift.
I think it would be possible to build some type of wooden base that would long be about 5"-7" off the gorund that I would be able to lift the couch to a good height for staduim seating. I would of course put rope lighting around the edge of the wooden box lift. I think that the wooden base under the couch should be larger that the couch and should probably stick out the lengeth of a step.
My wife wants the couch to be level enough to be able to have people over and they sit in their chairs and not have to look up at the people sitting in the couch. When it was moving time I would love to be able to press on my Pronto for my home theater and everything gets turned on, and then my guests actually rise into the air while the THX demo is going on.
Just a thought and a dream, that I think would be really neat to do.
If any one is a master at building things like this I would love to see some form of blueprints that would be cool to look at.
Of course the best idea is fro the couch to be level with the floor of the house and then rise up out of the floor, but I will not be able to do that in houses that churches own and not me.
So what do you think? is it possible to build with out it being known that your guest will raise towards the roof?
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In Him,
GH

 

[Chad Isaacs]

Are you going to southern by chance? know some folks that go there,
THe lift would be cool but I bet it will cost a small fortune
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"And the horse i rode in on?"...Marge Simpson

 

[Grady Hollums]

No I am not, but I have a lot of friends that go there too.
I am attending Asbury Theological Seminary.
Yes, I agree that it might cost a lot, but I am even willing to start some where, like building just the basepart and then figuring out how to lift it later.
Thanks!

 

[Greg Risley]

Cool idea. You could by one of those motion simulator rides they always have at malls. Get one of those and you got the private theater to boot, but you would have to keep it in the garage.
Greg

 

[Grady Hollums]

True....True.
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In Him,
GH

 

[Chad Isaacs]

oops,I had an idea....
What about those scisssor deals they use to lift tv's out of cabinets or projectors from the celing?The weight of the couch and people would be alot more than a tv so just use several sets.Build either a frame around the couch or a small platform.
only probelem i can see,when the couch goes up a platform will need to go up also.other wise folks feet will be hanging.or if somone needs to get down
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"And the horse i rode in on?"...Marge Simpson

 

[GregH]

In the bar area of a house I'm working on right now there is a lift for a Plasma television. It's max weight is 200 pounds, however using multiples ones mean you'd have to get all the relays to flip at the exact time to keep one from busting real quickly. I'd have to ask, but I've sure they for them for heavier loads.

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

Cool idea!
You could get two old car jacks, the kind that crank, and attach an electric motor to them somehow. I don't know what kind of motor would be powerful enough, but you could have it be spring-assisted or something.

 

[Brett Robert]

First thanks for taking the plunge and going into the work your going into. Second the platform your thinking about would probably cost more then a new Hyundai. Well maybe 2 new Hyundai's. I would think one could build it for under 3 grand. I would go with a mechanized drive system like a scissor jack or better yet you could get 4 air over hydraulic I can't think of the name but the have a piston that comes out of the middle and goes strait up. The only trick would be adjusting the air pressure so they all go up at the same speed. I saw a platform that was wired to a computer and it would move with the action. It was an astronomical price. I didn't save the bookmark I guess I should have. It was in one of the forums.
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~~~~~~~Brett~~~~~~~~~
Champagne tastes with a beer budget
My HT

 

[Chad Isaacs]

use the car jacks,but during the intro,just run back there and crank em up
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"And the horse i rode in on?"...Marge Simpson

 

[Grady Hollums]

Thanks I might think about doing that, but I also might just drink a protein shake and just lift up the couch myself, heh.
But thanks for the inspiration!
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In Him,
GH

 

[Kevin Potts]

Grady, just a thought, but you might want to check out www.grainger.com They have all kinds of tools and industrial items for sale. Might be able to find what your looking for or at least a little inspiration.
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I don't know, I just don't know.

 

[Jon SC]

This is an idea I have also had but based on a kind or terracing idea for 3 rows of seats. (means that the room can be used as a normal room as well as cinema).
For your situation Grady, I would suggest the scissors idea (one each end of the platform along the shorter sides). The way to take care of the weight issue it to use counterweights (you could have a system where you have one counterweight for just the weight of the platform and couch and then a second equal to the weight of two people, the second set would be attached by removable pin) which would mean your lift motor would need to do less work.
As the height of the lift is going to be less than a foot I don't see any real problem. For the lift mechanism I would go for chains an pulleys, this will make it easier to ensure poth ends lift at the same rate.
Jon