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Tom Griffin
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I made some built in bookshelves and base cabinets for my living room last summer and incorporated a rather unique mount for the large screen TV. I wanted the TV to normally live tucked away to one side in the cabinet but have the ability to swing out and center up on the viewing area. To make it work, I would need to devise some sort of arm that would not only support the 50 pound weight of the TV, but relocate the TV sideways a full 55 inches. It also needed all of the normal tilts and rotations that commercial mounts allowed. I ended up building an arm out of 1X2 steel tubing and hinged it in the middle to allow it to fold up on itself behind the TV for storage. I worked out most of the details on paper, but cheated a bit and modeled in up in CAD just to be sure it would function mechanically. It ended up working better than I had hoped. Here are a few pics showing the completer "super" extendable TV mount.
This is what it looks like from the front in the stored position. This was the number one design parameter set for by "the boss". She didn't want any part of it to show from the front.
Here, the TV is swung out part way and turned for easy viewing from the right side of the viewing area.
Here is the arm pulled all the way out, centering the TV on the fireplace between the built ins.
This view is of the left side showing the arm pivots attached to the reinforced 3/4" plywood back of the built in. It's attached with TEE nuts from the back and I calculated that it would take over 200 pounds of weight on the end of the arm to tear them out. As long as none of the kids decide to use it as a swing it should do the job.
These two photos show the gimble on the end of the arm that allows the TV to tilt and rotate. It is a couple of Delrin discs with a spherical cut in each, tightly clamped over a 2" trailer hitch ball. I didn't have a radius cutter for my lathe so I made a form tool with a 1" radius to cut the spherical radius in the disks. I would want to try that in metal but it worked fine in the plastic. The plates are spring loaded so the TV stays wherever you put it. All of the pivot points are bushed with Delrin as well for nice, smooth movement. These pics were taken pre-paint. It looks more presentable painted semi-gloss black.
This is what it looks like from the front in the stored position. This was the number one design parameter set for by "the boss". She didn't want any part of it to show from the front.
Here, the TV is swung out part way and turned for easy viewing from the right side of the viewing area.
Here is the arm pulled all the way out, centering the TV on the fireplace between the built ins.
This view is of the left side showing the arm pivots attached to the reinforced 3/4" plywood back of the built in. It's attached with TEE nuts from the back and I calculated that it would take over 200 pounds of weight on the end of the arm to tear them out. As long as none of the kids decide to use it as a swing it should do the job.
These two photos show the gimble on the end of the arm that allows the TV to tilt and rotate. It is a couple of Delrin discs with a spherical cut in each, tightly clamped over a 2" trailer hitch ball. I didn't have a radius cutter for my lathe so I made a form tool with a 1" radius to cut the spherical radius in the disks. I would want to try that in metal but it worked fine in the plastic. The plates are spring loaded so the TV stays wherever you put it. All of the pivot points are bushed with Delrin as well for nice, smooth movement. These pics were taken pre-paint. It looks more presentable painted semi-gloss black.
