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ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM CABINET

 SITE CATEGORY - PROJECTS -  OUR ENTERTAINMENT CABINET PROJECT
Since we have a pretty large Collection of DVD & VHS movies ....we needed a good way to store & protect them....
So ,Here's how we built our new entertainment system cabinet that we'll use here in our apartment ...she's 24-1/2 inches deep by 4 feet wide by 80 inches high and made out of some really nice Oak kitchen cabinets we bought from
 
Kitchen Cabinets Depot
Here's the particulars on the cabinets....I used 2 -24 inch wide by 15 inch high 'Light Oak ' wall cabinets
( model # W2415LT ) bolted together ...then that unit was bolted to the 2-12 inch by 30 inch high wall cabinets ( model # W1230LT  )...then the upper unit was bolted to the Base cabinet ( model # B48LT  )

The cabinets came in pieces but were incredibly easy to put together ...all you do is put the pieces together and tighten down the screws on the cam locks and that's about it.
 

 

The Base cabinet put together....

 

Upper Cabinets...

 

Here's a pic of the upper section of the cabinet bolted together and ready to bring inside...

 

The 5 cabinets I used in this project are all bolted together firmly.... I left the bolts long because when we move I'll dismantle them .
When we install them in the trailer I'll use smaller bolts...

 

I found a nice piece of Laminate at the building supply store and paid an 'expert' to glue it down to 1/2 inch plywood ....after I secured the counter to the cabinet... I used a hole-saw to cut out the hole where the main AV cables and a power cable for my X-Box and PlayStation would come up from below and used a Plastic Grommet to pretty the hole up....

 

Here's a pic with the counter top secured and the upper cabinets bolted to the lower section.
I also have a shelf installed above the TV for our VCR/DVD player and Satellite TV box...

 

I used 2x2's to build the frame that would hold the drawers....its strong enough to safely hold the drawers and should handle the rigors of being bounced about on the road nicely...

 

I constructed the drawers out of 1 x 6 's and 1/4 plywood .
I didn't mess around with making fancy drawers...just simple ones with butt joints glued and screwed together....then the plywood glued and nailed down with 'No-Pull' nails. 

 

This pic shows the drawers pulled out ( both sides are the mostly the same )
The top drawer in this pic carry's our X-Box and Playstation and also has a small AV switching unit that allows me to choose which  video/audio source I want to send to the TV....
If the weather clears up (Yeah right) ...I'll sand and stain the drawers to match the cabinet .

 

Here's a pic of the 2 RV 12-volt lights installed .... because were using this in an apartment  I wired them up to a little Radio Shack 15-Amp converter....

 

The Mostly finished cabinet ...with the oak edging/molding glued to the front edge of the counter base...we'll add more oak molding when we install the cabinet in the trailer.
 

 

This was a Fun project and really made me feel things are moving forward with our Trailer....but it wasn't Cheap...
The Cabinets , Laminate , counter top and drawers all ended up costing approx. $950.00...
Even so..... I don't mind at all paying a good bit for something that is meant to last a very long time....I really lucked out finding a source for such nice cabinets online.

And these really are quality cabinets....the Face, drawer fronts and doors are solid Oak . The rest of the cabinet is made out of high-quality plywood . There's no cheap and heavy particle board used in constructing the cabinets.
I still need to add Latches on all doors to keep things from flying out on the road....which I'll buy from here...
Concealed Cabinet Latches
 
I also need to 'wire' the cabinet up with switching units that will allow us to turn the power on/off to each electrical device...the reason for this is , when were out in the boondocks somewhere ...and we use the inverter to run the TV and Satellite TV system ...I want to make sure nothing else is drawing power from the batteries.
( IE. Even though an electrical device like a VCR/DVD player or gaming system is in its 'OFF' mode , it's still drawing a little bit of power to keep its clock , memory or whatever up to date )
For my computer system I use this Switch/Surge Protector unit to handle this situation...we'll do the same in this cabinet

 

To keep a nice consistent look to our trailer I'll outfit her completely with these cabinets ...they're really pretty and surprisingly lightweight .
 Once I put one of these cabinets together I realized that well-made cabinets don't weigh that much ...so you can use them in mobile applications versus designing/building a bunch of built-in cabinets. This is going to make my life very easy when it comes time to start the interior part of the trailer project.
But if a person gets nervous about how much extra weight a cabinet like this will add ...you can just use the face of these cabinets for built-ins....
This way you get a pretty look to the trailer, bus or whatever ..without the extra weight.
Some folks will feel this isn't a very cost effective way of going about building cabinets...but I don't feel that at all. After doing a few Bus and van conversions where I designed and installed Built-in cabinets , I've found you don't really save that much money if you're using good wood to build them yourself versus buying them . It adds up fast . Plus you need a good place to work that's dry and well lit...special tools etc. etc. etc.


NOV. 2007 UPDATE
Our Cabinet is still working & looking Great , but because we're big time Collectors of Good Films and our DVD collection has outgrown our Cabinet ...we've switched over to Large Zippered DVD/CD Storage Cases to hold our massive collection of Films . Pulled out the Drawers in our Cabinet and installed Shelves to hold the cases.

 
 SITE CATEGORY - PROJECTS -  OUR ENTERTAINMENT CABINET PROJECT


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