Underfloor pop up tv lift

djgoldsmith

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Not technically a home cinema build but a diy setup none the less. This is my first thread/post on any forum so please be gentle with me. I lurked around on this forum when looking for suitable tv lift, but couldnt find much. SHMBO said no big tv as they are big and ugly, what if you only saw it when it was being watched says I. OK she says. As the new lounge was to be in an art deco style any unit had to be low level (no more than 16 inches high) I decided to fit a tv lift into a box that was partially set into the floor. Fortunatley i have suspended wooden floors with joists that run across the room. It was a simple job to constuct a 22mm waterproof ply box that was simply dropped into a slot cut in the floor. The Chosen TV was a 42" panasonic plasma. I sourced a 915 mm stroke lift from a very helpful company called Pop up tv (Bob barbour) The lift was attached to the box and then lowered into the hole, and secured to the joists. I enjoy carpentry and so went to work with some bendy mdf and some 18mm mdf. I had the resultant woodwork professionally sprayed a cream colour. I am very pleased with the out come. i am happy to give more details on build if anyone is interested.
 

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Fairdo's.....it looks sweet :cool:

I'd be interested in some more pic's/details if available.
 
Any pictures of it fully up?

Will be honest and say I'm not too keen on the look of that... the lift idea is awesome though just not sure I like the look.

I do intend to do 1 hidden TV in my house on an actuator system, probably one of them posh new 23" LED TV's Samsung have brought out and in the Kitchen.

Keen to see more pictures of your lift.
 
Stoke 192; Anything in particular you woukd like to see? i think i made the construction sound simple, it is if you have carpentry skills.

Sparks CW; one of the pics shows it fully up. The design of the cabinet is in keeping with the art deco theme, unfortunately there`s very little deco furniture about. These lifts can come down as well as up, i plan to use one to drop a tv from the bottom of a kitchen wall cupboard. Visit the popuptv.net website for full details of lift.
 
Spraying done by a guy called dave Rogers, who lives near Southend in Essex (he uses acid cat paint which is very hard wearing (like kitchen cupboard doors) which he also does)
 
More details and pics please.

My Mrs laughed when i had the same idea once so would be good to show her it is possible.
 
I too would be interested in more details of the lift and the build if you have them :)
 
Brilliant idea, i am thinking of doing the exact same thing in my lounge but for my AMP and possibly PS3. (Posted lastnight on this forum)

Have you got any photos of the construction etc?
Where you worried about removing / cutting the floorboards and how did you brace the ones left or the box that was built to hold the tv?

Rich
 
Hi all thanks for the comments and interest in my project, sorry i havent posted any pics yet, i have to resize them, and i will do some drawings and scan them to show the details of the build. I should be able to do them at the weekend.
 
Sparks CW; one of the pics shows it fully up. The design of the cabinet is in keeping with the art deco theme, unfortunately there`s very little deco furniture about. These lifts can come down as well as up, i plan to use one to drop a tv from the bottom of a kitchen wall cupboard. Visit the popuptv.net website for full details of lift.

Terribly Sorry! I didn't twig that the first picture was it fully up with the cabinet, that looks bloody brilliant! I thought it just came out the floor like the 2nd pic so thought it was a bit naff, but now realising it comes up through that cabinet :smashin::smashin::smashin:

Very impressed and definetly want to find an excuse to do this somewhere in my house albeit coming down from ceiling instead.
 
Ingenious mate! Love the art deco cabiet too! Custom made? And yeah give us some more pic please mate.
 
not sure if im allowed to ask this here but how do you get large pics into a post as opposed to the thumbnails i put in through the "manage attachments" box
 
That looks very nice ineed, what a great job you've made. Your speakers look very pretty too, and in keeping with the decor - what are they?

To insert bigger photos into the thread directly, you need to open an online Photobucket account, upload your pictures to there, then insert a link into your thread. In Photobucket, under each photo you will see a weblink to it, surrounded by image tags, , or something like that. You just copy that and paste it into your narrative. (Sounds complicated but it isn't)

And I too would be interested to see how you did it all - we're all keen DIYers here!

Cheers,
MarkP
 
Mark p80
Ta for the comments. The speakers are actually the ones that came with the panasonic surround sound blueray player! When i got them i hated the black plastic things that were going to spoil the look of my new lounge. I did think of putting them on the lift with the tv but as the blueray player has an ipod dock, i wanted to be able to play it with the tv down. With much care i stripped the insides out of the brand new speakers, measured the interior volume and reflex opening. designed and made new cabinets in 18mm MDF. Painted the enclosures the same as the rest of the woodwork in the room (blond oak graining) and put 5mm sq polished aluminum inserts in the front for some art deco style. I actually made one and tested against one of the originals, in fact to my ears (very untrained) it sounded better.
 
Just testing the photo bucket advice. This should be a picture of the hole in the floor . I first "trimmed" (building term for making a hole in a floor or cieling, as in a loft hatch hole etc, if any one needs further description of how let me know) the floor joists to the external size of the "box" I then had to dig down about 4" to allow for the depth of the box plus the polystyrene insulation underneath. I concreted the freshly dug oversite (the hard floor under your wooden floor) using shuttering plywood. After this picture i put the insulation into the bottom of the hole and dropped the box down and bolted it to the sides of the joists. At the same time i took the ring main into the box and fitted a double socket in the base. Also took cable tv (virgin)feed into the box. I must point out at this time that i cut the top half of the front of the box off to allow access to the bottom of the box to fit the lift and associated electrics. This turned out well because i then used the piece i cut off, as the back of the cabinet. I will show some pics of the cabinet over the weekend.

lounge_015.jpg
 
For a DIY cabinet build that is just awesome!

Adding a lift as well... :clap:
 
thanks for kind words. a more general pic of the cabinet with tv down

lounge20096.jpg





The feet on the cabinet are purely for effect the whole cabinet hangs on the front of the box and only has two srews inside the cupboards at the side to fix it. i will take some more pics over the weekend to show cupboards and lift. I went for a sit on lid as many art deco pieces had a raised top like this on them sometimes in marble. One of the main reasons for such a low unit and hence having to put it partially under the floor was the viewing height. All storebought cabs are quite high and i wanted it to be eye height when sitting down.
 
With much care i stripped the insides out of the brand new speakers, measured the interior volume and reflex opening. designed and made new cabinets in 18mm MDF. Painted the enclosures the same as the rest of the woodwork in the room (blond oak graining) and put 5mm sq polished aluminum inserts in the front for some art deco style.
- :eek: Wow!

dj, I have to say every step of what you have done on this job looks extememly professional, you must be delighted with it.

Your lounge looks great too. We used to live in a house of a similar age, with lots of original deco fittings such as some lovely bakelite door handles. We too tried to retain that original style and it is difficult to fit your modern appliances in. Sounds as if MrsMarkP was thankfully a little more flexible with her design brief, as I suspect achieving what you've done there would have been beyond my mdf skills! Mind you, at the time I had (and still have in one room) a 36" Toshiba CRT - that would have been a challenge for a lift mechanism!

Looks as if you've got the photobucket working too :thumbsup:

Cheers,
MarkP
 
Thats a really nice cabinet and installation, what speakers are those? they look quite Deco as well.
 
thanks macnacfeeble see post no 16 for speaker details, ill also try to put on some close ups. I forgot to mention in that post that i had two marble bases made for the speakers to give them a little weight.
 
thanks macnacfeeble see post no 16 for speaker details, ill also try to put on some close ups. I forgot to mention in that post that i had two marble bases made for the speakers to give them a little weight.

This is pure F'ing Brillian! Come on thos give us more pictures or even a video! Please :thumbsup:
 

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