Floating Shelf / Hidden Drawer in progress

I've been playing with different ideas on how to mount my blu-ray player / home theater amp. Since I mounted the TV on a nice floating arm, I thought doing something similar for the electronics would be nice. The problem is, where do you put all of the cables, power strips, etc? I don't have the option of putting everything inside of the wall cavity since the wall I'm mounting it to is brick.

After seeing some nice floating shelves for books, I thought a neat solution would be to construct a floating shelf, and conceal all the unsightly bits within the floating shelf. To provide access to the storage space, I used some ball bearing drawer slides to create a "inside-out" drawer. The "cabinet" moves, and the blu-ray player will sit on top. The power strips and cables will remain concealed inside of the stationary "drawer" which will be rigidly bolted to the wall. My work in progress is pictured below. Note I do not yet have the front of the shelf attached. I'll sand, prime and paint it once complete to match the fireplace mantle color. It should be rock solid when complete. Every joint is both glued and screwed or nailed together. The interior structural components (in particular the joint between the wall plate and the drawer sides) are all screwed and glued. The visible cosmetic joints are nailed and glued.

Materials used:

• 3/4" oak veneer plywood for exterior shelf components
• 3/4" sanded plywood for interior drawer components
• 14" ball bearing drawer slides
• misc. screws, finish nails, and wood glue

Floating shelf as closed (front is not yet attached)

Floating Shelf as open

The ball bearing slides are quite nice and reasonably priced. $11 or so at Home Depot. There is very little slop in them- I think they might be suitable for use in a home CNC machine as inexpensive ways.

Supercub Flight Report

SK 35-30 1400kV motor with the Custom RC Parts motor mount and a 9x6 APC prop is superb in the Supercub.  Much, much more power, very smooth running, and the flight dynamics do not seem to be noticeably upset.

The new water rudder worked great- for a while. Then water infiltrated the housing and started shorting it out. I had to disconnect it after the first flight. Hopefully the servo will dry out and work again. If so, I'll try waterproofing it with some bicycle bearing grease and try again.

Supercub Updates

Last Friday I had the oppotunity to fly the supercub off of Kai's pontoon boat. Kai and his brother also flew- three nearly identical floatplanes in the air at once made for some good fun. However, one of the gearbox components in my plane failed. While it would still fly, it vibrated horribly and would undoubtably eventually cause some fatigue failures.

Photo Courtsey of Kai

Luckily, I had ordered a motor and motor mount several months ago for this eventuality. Last night I installed a Turnigy SK 3530 1400kv. Since the Supercub came with all-in-one receiver and brushed motor ESC, I had to add an external brushless ESC. I chose an old E-flite 30A that was left over from my first T-28, RIP. The only prop I had on hand that would be even close to approriate was a 9x6. With a 20c 2200 mAh battery it pulled 36.5A. A little high, but since I rarely fly full throttle for any amount of time I felt it would work until I puchase a more appropriate prop. I think a 10x5 or 10x4 might be a good choice.

As long as I had the airplane torn apart, I used the opportunity to add a water rudder. I had a very nice plastic water rudder left over from the set of coroplast floats I had purchased on E-bay for my old 0.40 gas trainer. While those floats and the gas aircraft are long gone (sold on craigslist), I held on to the water rudder since it looked like a nice piece of hardware. I cut a pocket into the left float for an old servo, used a left-over pushrod and clevis, and we're in business. I'm excited to see how it handles both in the water and in the air now.

Home Made Front & Center Channel Speaker Mounts

This past week I mounted our family room TV to the brick fireplace surround. We used a Kanto TV mount from Costco- I'd highly recommend it. Very sturdy, high quality construction at a great price. The next problem was how to mount the right, left, and center channel speakers. They could be rigidly fixed to the wall, but that didn't seem like an elegant solution. My neighbor mounted his center channel speaker to the TV mount. After seeing his setup, I thought it would be nice to take it to the next level and mount all front channel speakers to the TV. They'll pivot with the TV and be out of the way.


Initially I was thinking of using 1/2" galvanized steel electrical conduit and crimping the ends to form mounting locations. This construction technique was introduced to me by John for use on his solid-fuel rocket test stands. While I was at Lowes preparing to buy the materials, I noticed some nifty plastic clamps meant to anchor plastic conduit to the wall. I realized these would make ideal mounts for the speakers. The PVC conduit was also much cheaper than the galvanized steel. Since my speakers are the cheap (i.e. light) Sony's included in a "home theater in a box", the 1/2" PVC pipe will be plenty strong enough.

Materials used:

• 2x 4' 1/2" PVC conduit
• 2x  PVC "T" joint
• 2x PVC elbow joint
• 2x PVC connector (not necessary if you cut the conduit to the right length the first time)
• 4x PVC conduit mounting clip

I sized the PVC conduit to suspend the speakers right next to the TV edge. I was originally going to paint the PVC black, but after a test assembly you couldn't see the tubing. I decided painting the tubing would be too much of a bother, plus over time it may flake off and look worse than the bare tubing.

If I were to do it again, I'd probably cap the ends of the tubing for a more finished look on the center channel mount. I'd also look at using black ABS irrigation pipe or other black pipe, again for a better look. However, you really can't see the tubing / fittings unless you look behind the TV. 

Completed view of TV front:

Assembly behind TV:

Center Channel Speaker Mount:

Right and Left Speaker Mounts:

37.3 miles 12.8 MPH Ave. Mountain bike to Theo and back home. 3 laps at theo