Thread: Making a 'table' for a plasma TV - fastener advice please

Might have answered my own question. Just found this in a search (should have done it first...I know...)
http://www.diynot.com/shop/Fixings/Furniture_Fixings

The M6 nut insert may do the trick. Just need to find em locally.

Hey mate, your solution for legs may depend on what "look" you want. A few years back I made a large modern chest of drawers which had legs made out of stainless steel pipe. I called around to various metal suppliers until I found someone who would supply me with 2mm thick-walled 60mm diameter stainless steel pipe, cut to length (as I had/have nothing with which to cut stainless steel). They had a finished length of 120mm.

I then turned some timber "caps" on the lathe, top and bottom and glued these in with epoxy. This made the pipe sections extremely strong -- there is no way they would collapse. At the same time I chucked each between centers and sanded the sections so they came up "brushed". They look brilliant and didn't cost much.

I installed them as you are suggesting, by routing/drilling out a hole big enough to take the full 60mm diameter, to a depth of 20mm. At first I thought I would screw into the end cap (from the inside of the cabinet), but the legs, at 100mm long and 60mm wide, fitting very tightly into their "rebate", ain't goin' nowhere.

Hope this helps. Regards, Luckyduck

hang the plasma thingy on the wall, that way you get the right eye height. and you don't have to engineer a stand to support the screen.

now all you have to do is make something to put the silver boxy things on AND think about where you're going to store the DVDs and Video tapes.
Will/should it have drawers?
I'd figure on a DVD player, hard disk video recorder, a video machine (unless you're going to convert all your old tapes to DVD), suround sound amplifier, centre speaker
(tounge-in-cheek) long low shelf sitting on bricks?
more seriously a low book shelf arrangement?

ian

On them round legs, only cut a mortice about 40mm in dia on the sheets/shelfs and then form a 40mm tennon on the end of the legs.
This will be a much stronger joint as the top and bottom sheets/shelfs will have a nice 20mm shoulder to seat on too, a decent glue prob be enough to hold it.

G'day folks

thanks for all the suggestions.

Lucky Duck, stainless legs is a good option, I am going to look at some stuff in town for ideas but I remember seeing some with metal legs. I guess I was a bit worried about relying on epoxy alone but sounds like you havent had any trouble.

Ian, thanks for the suggestion. I thought about hanging it on the wall but there may not be sufficient reinforcement in the walls - OK if you are building, but I dont want to fiddle with the walls at this stage. From what I have heard, it can be a major exercise to re-engineer the walls to take the weight. Anyway, it needs to be 'portable' as we may be moving.

I have most of the silver boxes, just got a Marantz SR8500 receiver 1/2 price so I feeling particularly pleased with myself. Waiting for some large Castle speakers to arrive.

Harry 72, I haven't got a lathe but could get the ends turned, agree it would look neater.

Sounds like I'm vaguely on the right track and perhaps bolts aren't essential.

Thanks again for the replies.

Richard
before you go too far check out the eye height you will require for your screen.
this should be the determinate for the height of your shelf or table

then "engineer" a solution. You might want to go down the route of conventional table construction (aprons attached to the legs by M&Ts) or a more box-like chest (to incorporate drawers or sheves)


ian

Build a little sub frame for the top to sit on. You just need four legs and and an apron (stringers) to join it all up. Attach the top to the bottom from underneath using buttons or any other attachment method. MUCH stronger and no fixing into end grain.

Even use Kreg type screwed joints if you feel like it. :eek:

Richard, you dont need a lathe a router will do the job!
Two ways I can think of,
1. Top bearing style flush trim bit, cut out a template from scrap nail it to the end of the leg then make a small platform with a say 100~120mm hole for the router to sit on, put the whole lot in a vice with the leg flush with this platform, you will need to account for the thickness of the temp plate depending on the cutters lenght, ie if the cutter has a 20mm cutting edge and you want a 20mm high shoulder a 3mm thick template will do, but if its a 30mm cutter you'll need a 10mm thick template.

2. Using a router in a table normal straight bit, clamp a piece of wood against the outfeed fence just after the cutter to form a 90deg angle just after the cutter(30~40mm away from center point of the bit in your case) have the cutter protuding 3~4mm from the fence for the 1st cut at a 20mm height.
Start router, intoduce the leg to the cutter by sliding it in along the "90 deg aux fence", once the cutter is in the wood rotate the leg clockwise until a 20mm shoulder is formed all the way around... keep moving the fence back a few mm's at a time until you've reached the required tennon shoulder depth. Sounds complex but its simple really!

Hi All

Thanks for all the ideas. Harry72, I hadn't thought of that and I have got a flush trim bit too. Handy gadgets!!

Ian and Bob, regarding the subframe/stringers/apron - basically a standard table layout - I was considering that but, say the apron is 80 mm thick, M&T into the legs, it means, to get my shiny silver boxes all in there stacked on one another, I would have to make the whole thing taller by the thickness of the apron. I was interested in trying a different approach, but if it won't be strong enough, I'll go the conventional route. Could just add the apron back and sides under the top and under the entire shelf, so there is no obstruction in the front - watcha think?

Overall height of the table seems to vary between 50 and 60 cm. I'd rather keep it as low as I can as the middle of the TV is supposed to be about eye level although if it was wall mounted I guess it may well be higher - certainly seems to be in some pictures I have seen.

Sounds like I have plenty of options! It is just a matter of choosing:confused: !!

Richard,
an alternative is to make the apron thick enough that you can cut a series of "windows" in it. The "windows" would be open fronted boxes into which you place the shiny boxes. Another way of doing this is to make the table with a number of open front drawers across the front for the "shiny boxes" — in this instance you would have a top and bottom rail. the top rail is dovetailed into the legs and the bottom rail M&Td.
Both ways give you the strength of a deep apron while not compromising on the space requirements of the "shiny boxes"

ian

Hi folks

All good suggestions. I think I have been persuaded to go the more conventional route with rails/apron or whatever they are called this time. I might dovetail them as suggested made the back one quite deep and curve the front one so it isn't very deep in the middle, that way the joint on the leg is strong and it doesn't restrict access to the shiny boxes as much. I haven't managed to track down any thick dowel locally so I'll make the legs rectangular and round over the edges. I did get a contact for fasteners which looked just the job.

Thanks for all your help.

There are several threads on this BB on how to make your own big dowels using a router in a table

Originally Posted by RichardL

Hi folks

All good suggestions. I think I have been persuaded to go the more conventional route with rails/apron or whatever they are called this time. I might dovetail them as suggested made the back one quite deep and curve the front one so it isn't very deep in the middle, that way the joint on the leg is strong and it doesn't restrict access to the shiny boxes as much. I haven't managed to track down any thick dowel locally so I'll make the legs rectangular and round over the edges. I did get a contact for fasteners which looked just the job.

Thanks for all your help.

Richard,
I suggest you go for a deep front rail because the bending strength comes from how far the bottom of the rail is from the table surface midway between the legs, not how deep the rail is where it's mortised into the legs.
Have a look at the sketch.
the white rectangles are where your "shiney boxes" would go. Think of these spaces as open fronted drawers.
The front apron has top and bottom rails connected by webs — the top rail would be dovetailed into the leg, the bottom one mortised (using two stub tenons). The detail at the leg is standard for a table with a drawer.
The grain in the webs can be either horizontal or vertical. If horizontal grain is adopted, the front it can be made to look like a solid piece with cut outs.


hope this helps

ian

Lovely picture!! I have tried myself, but it ain't quite to the same standard!

Main problem is the amp is BIG and needs a bit of space around it. As far as bending, I doubt the ply I intend using will bend with an elephant on it. It is solid. I intend making the legs the same length if anyone wondered from my picture

I'll try making some dowel using a router sometime too.