By Bob Bueling, Port Hueneme, CA – ’93 U280 40′ 11/09
I finally got the TV mount on pantograph hinges built and installed.
1993 U280 ’40 foot.
Installed a 26″ LCD TV in place of the old 25″ CRT and cabinet.
The hinges came from Colaw RV Salvage – $150
New Cabinet is built with 3/4″ plywood and then covered with a walnut veneer which was bleached and stained. I had a problem with water-based stain and polyurethane. The stain was a good match to other cabinets and then got lighter after the polyurethane was added. ARRRGG!
The additional frame was welded up from 1/2″ square tubing built around the shape of the TV and an off-the-shelf flat panel mount.
The cabinet is about five inches wider than the original. Relief holes on top allow hingeing arms to stick through with doors closed.
Doors are solid walnut also bleached and stained. The glass is my first time doing claimed (sp?) glass like a stained glass window. The hardest part was doing nice straight cuts on the textured water glass. The original cabinets with glass in my rig have mirror glass behind them. I left the mirror out of this cabinet so I can use the IR remotes for the (yet to be added) Blue-Ray player and other toys that will be mounted to a slide-out shelf that will fit behind the TV in the down position.
I need to make some adjustments to the mount so I can tilt the TV down. With the current hinge arms, the TV is tilted back (up) a little in the up position and is not in the best viewing angle for sitting at the couches. The TV sits right at the vertical in the down position inside the cabinet. If I tilted the arms forward to compensate in the up position the TV would hit the doors when down.
The project was a lot bigger than originally planned but turned out good. I still have to finalize how I’m going to do the area above the new cabinet. I know I’m going to build in an iPod mount but I’m not sure if there is going to be a slide-out shelf or maybe install a couple of video monitors for side cameras.
