I built this AV cabinet a few years ago, after we converted a two-car garage into a game room. To give you a sense of scale, the TV is a 65 Panasonic plasma and the LR speakers are Definitive Technology Mythos 5's. The primary wood is cherry (veneered plywood and solid hardwood), with spalted maple for the small panels on the upper part of the doors. Overall dimensions are 92-1/2L x 31-3/4H x 25-1/4D.
The left-hand cabinet section houses the electronics, consisting of (from the bottom up) a DVR/cable box, a BluRay player and an AVR.
I am pleased with how the cabinet turned out with one exception: The casters. The casters look like tacked-on afterthoughts, which is essentially what they were. I was nearly finished building the cabinet when it occurred to me how heavy the cabinet was, even sitting empty, and how much heavier it would be when it was loaded up. Knowing that the cabinet was going into a carpeted room, I realized it would be almost impossible to pull the cabinet out to get access to the rear of the equipment. So I added casters. The ones on the corners, tucked in behind the legs, are fairly unobtrusive, but the casters to either side of the middle leg are obnoxious.
So I would like to get rid of the casters. But how could I do that and still have access to the back of the electronics?
I remembered someone on this forum posted about a Middle Atlantic rack that could be extended out from the wall or from a cabinet and then rotate. A little research led me to the Middle Atlantic ASR series:
MSRP for the smallest version is about $650, with internet vendors selling it for about $350-$450. It looks like a very nice product. I had two problems with it: (1) Price. $350 was just too much for me to justify with college tuition (for my oldest son) less than a year away. (2) It wouldn't fit in my cabinet. According to the website, the overall height of the rack is 30. The opening on the front of my cabinet is only 23-3/8 high.
Besides which, I have a shop full of tools and scrap wood. I figured I could cobble something together that would work fine and save some money.
Design
The basic design is straight-forward. I started with a pair of these heavy duty bottom-mounted ball bearing slides:
Link: http://www.drawerslides.com/p/kv-8000-p-20
I used the 20 length slides which currently sell for about $54 plus shipping. They are full extension and also provide about ¾ of over-travel - that is, the 20 slides actually extend about 20-3/4. As you're selecting a slide length, remember that there will need to be some space behind the rack for the extra-long cables that will allow the rack to extend and rotate.
The slides have a 130lb weight capacity. The total weight of my electronics is about 68-1/2 lbs (the AVR accounts for over 53 lbs by itself), so I needed to keep the weight of the wood parts to no more than about 60lbs. If you need more weight capacity, you could use two pair of slides or the site offers a couple of other models rated up to 450lbs (search floor mounted slides).
A pair of these slides would be bolted to the bottom of the cabinet. A platform would be mounted on top of the slides. A wood sub-cabinet, or rack, would be mounted to the platform with a pivot mechanism. Legs would be pulled down from under the platform to support the weight of the rack when in its extended position, then folded up when the rack is retracted.
Before I started cutting any wood I wanted to be sure I could fit all of this into the cabinet. The slides with mounting brackets are about 1-9/16 high. The lazy susan I used as a pivot between the platform and the rack is about 3/8 high. The platform itself is ¾ thick. So the bits and pieces needed to make this work would consume about 2-11/16 of the available height.
The DVR, BluRay and AVR, plus two ¾ shelves, total about 15-3/8 high. Add the height of the slides+lazy susan+platform and you get a total of 18-1/16. That should fit just fine into my 23-3/8 opening.
The left-hand cabinet section houses the electronics, consisting of (from the bottom up) a DVR/cable box, a BluRay player and an AVR.
I am pleased with how the cabinet turned out with one exception: The casters. The casters look like tacked-on afterthoughts, which is essentially what they were. I was nearly finished building the cabinet when it occurred to me how heavy the cabinet was, even sitting empty, and how much heavier it would be when it was loaded up. Knowing that the cabinet was going into a carpeted room, I realized it would be almost impossible to pull the cabinet out to get access to the rear of the equipment. So I added casters. The ones on the corners, tucked in behind the legs, are fairly unobtrusive, but the casters to either side of the middle leg are obnoxious.
So I would like to get rid of the casters. But how could I do that and still have access to the back of the electronics?
I remembered someone on this forum posted about a Middle Atlantic rack that could be extended out from the wall or from a cabinet and then rotate. A little research led me to the Middle Atlantic ASR series:
MSRP for the smallest version is about $650, with internet vendors selling it for about $350-$450. It looks like a very nice product. I had two problems with it: (1) Price. $350 was just too much for me to justify with college tuition (for my oldest son) less than a year away. (2) It wouldn't fit in my cabinet. According to the website, the overall height of the rack is 30. The opening on the front of my cabinet is only 23-3/8 high.
Besides which, I have a shop full of tools and scrap wood. I figured I could cobble something together that would work fine and save some money.
Design
The basic design is straight-forward. I started with a pair of these heavy duty bottom-mounted ball bearing slides:
Link: http://www.drawerslides.com/p/kv-8000-p-20
I used the 20 length slides which currently sell for about $54 plus shipping. They are full extension and also provide about ¾ of over-travel - that is, the 20 slides actually extend about 20-3/4. As you're selecting a slide length, remember that there will need to be some space behind the rack for the extra-long cables that will allow the rack to extend and rotate.
The slides have a 130lb weight capacity. The total weight of my electronics is about 68-1/2 lbs (the AVR accounts for over 53 lbs by itself), so I needed to keep the weight of the wood parts to no more than about 60lbs. If you need more weight capacity, you could use two pair of slides or the site offers a couple of other models rated up to 450lbs (search floor mounted slides).
A pair of these slides would be bolted to the bottom of the cabinet. A platform would be mounted on top of the slides. A wood sub-cabinet, or rack, would be mounted to the platform with a pivot mechanism. Legs would be pulled down from under the platform to support the weight of the rack when in its extended position, then folded up when the rack is retracted.
Before I started cutting any wood I wanted to be sure I could fit all of this into the cabinet. The slides with mounting brackets are about 1-9/16 high. The lazy susan I used as a pivot between the platform and the rack is about 3/8 high. The platform itself is ¾ thick. So the bits and pieces needed to make this work would consume about 2-11/16 of the available height.
The DVR, BluRay and AVR, plus two ¾ shelves, total about 15-3/8 high. Add the height of the slides+lazy susan+platform and you get a total of 18-1/16. That should fit just fine into my 23-3/8 opening.