Ben's new cinema room....

Ah I found it. It's called 'rack strip' and I can even get it at Maplin:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=1784&TabID=1&C=SEO&U=SEOsearchPages&doy=search

Well I had imagined that the rack would only be about 2 or 3 feet tall, and start maybe 2 foot off the ground, so it would be suspended from only the rack rails.
I think that the rails I have should cope with the weight especially if I use all 4 of them. But then again, maybe I'll have to experiment and see! The only stuff I can think that I'll have in the rack is a HTPC, Amp, and maybe a BFD, unless I've forgotton some essential item!

Ben

 

Looking forward to seeing the pics of that when you've got it up and running.

Gary

 

I wont

 

Second half of the stud wall started to go up, plus the door frame:

 

Not a lots happened as I've been doing some thinking about the placement of the rack and aircon unit.
I'd originally planned to have some columns down the sides of the rooms (as on my first Visio plan), however after doing some measurements I don't think I'll be able to fit them in, so that idea is scrapped. So that also means that I'll probably go with a 5.1 or 6.1 system instead of 7.1, as there's nowhere for the extra speakers to go now.

Also saw someones build on AVSforum where they had recessed their aircon unit into the wall, so I'm gonna do the same with mine!

I've started framing out for the recess for the aircon unit (the top large horizontal space) and the equipment rack (the left vertical space). I'm still waiting for my rack strip to be delivered (got it from ebay in the end) before I fix the studwork in position so I get the widths correct.



I'm finding it a little tricky as all the measurements and positioning depends on many factors, such as how low the soffits will be, how tall the rack needs to be, necessary clearance around the aircon unit, clearance away from the screenwall/stage/front columns, spacing between rack and aircon unit etc.etc.
So it'll probably end up wrong somewhere along the line!!!

 

Got the rack strip today. Unfortunately the Dell rack rails won't fit as the angle in the strip is too close to the punched holes. Hmm........


Anyway, today I also built a recess tray for the air-con unit. It will only recess about 3 inches into the wall to avoid restricting the airflow, but every inch counts (so the ladies tell me )

I used 18mm MDF:



And with the unit in:



I might get around to mounting it in the stud wall tomorrow......

Ben

 

Did you drill into yourself at any time because that looks like an awful lot of blood around the drill there....

Gary

 

No pain, no gain, that's what I always say!

Fixed some more of the studwork into position to allow the MDF tray I made to fasten in:



Not sure what to do about the rack strip yet, I can either try and find some more that the rails will fit, or I can butcher the rails with my angle grinder to make them fit....

 

OK started building a frame to mount the rack strip to, which will be recessed into the wall. I did some angle grinder surgury on the Dell rack rails to make them fit.

Heres the frame with the rack rails fitted (they will also be supported at the rear by more rack strip):



And it'll look like this with the rack pulled out:



Finished framing out for this to fit into the wall:



And the plasterboard is now up!

 

Put 2 coats of matt black paint on my MDF creations and mounted them in the wall:



Here's a view from the back, which will be inside the cupboard when I build the rest of the walls - these walls were filled with more insulation:




From the side you can see that the unit sticks out 3 inches less than it would have done without the recess tray:

 

looking good

 

Thanks wandgrudd!

OK. Framed out for the cupboard that will house the av rack, and plasterboarded it inside (nearly):



The rack is sort of done! I realised I'd made a big miscalculation when working out the width of the rack rails - I'd spaced them so that normal 19" gear would fit in the rack, but didn't allow for the width of the inner rack that will slide in and out, with the result that none of my av gear would actually fit in there!

Luckily I noticed this in time and was able to take off the front pb sheet and adjust the stud spacing and remade the MDF rack frame 2 inches wider. Good fun.

So, here's the rack strip mounted now at the front and rear, with the Dell server rack rails in place (they are the rapid-rails, so just clip in place):



And they then extend like this:



The rack (yet to receive it's shelves) drops in place here (it looks a bit wonky in this photo but it's just the angle the picture was taken, honest!):



And then with the rack pushed back into place:



Heres a pic from the front with the rack fully out:




It seems to work pretty much as I had imagined, and will allow me to pull out all the rack to give easy access to the back of the gear without having to disconnect anything.

 

Got to say that’s going to be a good looking system when it’s done. Love the rack idea and from the sounds of it a good bit cheaper than a of the shelf one. Can’t wait to see it done. (Hurry up)

bet its been nice with the air con on the last few days a least you should still be able to work if it gets warm again

 

It's all looking very good although I'm a little confused regarding the rack mounting!!

As far as I can tell you are rack mounting your rack!?!?!?

 

Heh, I'm hurrying!
It's actually been very cool inside without the aircon on at all, even when it was very warm outside last week., I guess becuase the back part of the room is kind of underground. I've been using the system mostly in heating mode so far, but I'm sure when I get a few sweaty bodies in there for a couple of hours I'll need some cooling.

 

Hmm, it does sound a bit strange when you put it like that! Yes, pretty much, although the slidey out bit that I'm making out of MDF will not really be a rack as such, but have some shelves inside, as none of my gear is actually rack-mountable!
Does that make sense?

Cheers,
Ben

 

That explains everything although you can buy rackmount adapters for non-rackmount kit!

I want to rackmount a load of kit in our new house and I almost fainted when I looked at the price of 'off the shelf' racks! I will certainly be buying some of the rack strip from Maplins and making one....

 

Time for a little update.

Door is in complete with door closer and handle:



Back wall of the games room is boarded, you can see the pipe run for the cinema aircon unit across the top of the wall:



and the aircon unit plumbed in and working:

 

Very impressive - watching this with great interest.

Hats off to you, great ideas coming together very,very nicely!

 

looking forward to seeing this progress - good work!

 

Thanks for the kind words fellas!

Last wall in the cinema room is plasterboarded, woo hoo!



We dot 'n dabbed this rear wall as the plasterboard would have stood proud of the window sill otherwise.
There will be a big rectangular 'plug' that fits in the recess so you don't actually see the window.

So next step is to get it skimmed, then the fun stuff starts!

 

great work mate. We will be buying a place later this year or at the latest early next year and I am hoping to get somewhere I can put in my own cinema.

Anyway this may seem a stupid question but why not just put a door from your games room into the back of the equipment store?

 

Cheers Stu, bet you can't wait!

The Building Inspector came round this afternoon, and as usual I was bricking it in case he said something like 'its all wrong, rip it down and start again'! But no, again it was quite straightforward, he mentioned the requirement for a Means Of Escape window if I was going to replace the window (which the first guy didn't mention ) but I've decided to keep the original windows at least for now so that doesn't matter.

So, I've got my plasterer coming round on Saturday to skim it. The games room needs to wait a bit longer as I need to sort the external doors out and stuff, but that doesn't matter right now.

I was thinking about putting a door into the back of the cupboard at one point but I decided not to as I wanted the wall to be as soundproof and lightproof as possible, which means cutting as few holes in it as I can!

Cheers,
Ben

 

Plasterer came a day early

So, here's the result:

 

this is going to be an awesome build mate

 

Hi Ben.

I have the single indoor unit version of that which i got from www.airconforless.co.uk
It works prety good but i would highly advise getting it professionaly installed as if doing it DIY there is no way of completely extracting all the air from the system, which will cause problems later, as i found out to my cost. I had to get it re gassed after 20 million calls to the distributer and it cost me £80.

I hope i am not too late with this advice as i am only on page one of your thread. Should be spectacular when it is completed, i wish we had a basement.

Good luck with the build,

Andy.

 

Yep, too late.

I assume you didn't have any problems with it. Aircon didn't supply me with a pump.

You have a fantastic room there, cant wait to see the fun parts go in.

Andy.

 

Hey Andy,

I had looked at aircon4less also, but they stopped responding to my email queries when I asked about the 5% VAT law and also whether the unit they were advertising was an inverter model - so I avoided them. The vaccum pump hire with Global Cooling was optional, but I'm glad I got it as when I installed the first unit it showed up a leak that I wouldn't have known about otherwise! (I just hadn't tightened one of the nuts up enough).

Thanks for the comments!

Cheers,
Ben

 

Hi Ben,
great build diary..

Re the Air con I bought and 18000 BTU unit on ebay for £260 a few weeks back. It was installed professionally this weekend and is fine. Its variable speed, not just on and off.

I had to have a special pump installed to take the water away which was a pain.

The one think to watch out for is the power supply as this one as most to have a big ampage spike when they start up. Upto 10 times its rated current. And these special supplies need to have isolators withing 2m of the unit I believe.

Rich

 

That dosn't supprise me at all, their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. I literally left them about 100 messages before they replied and then it took another 5 phone calls before they came round to re-gas the thing. I have since had a problem where the fan stops working untill i either turn it off at the mains or go through all the modes several times, so it looks like another 100 phone calls. They are not answering at all at the moment.

DO NOT USE AIRCONFORLESS. You will end up loosing all your hair if you do

When do you start the fun stuff. I cant wait.

Cheers,

Andy.