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LOCAL TALENT HOME THEATER PROJECT

Update: Risers - 7/06/05

Have been working a lot on the home theater lately. The first step was to dig out a trench in the cement to put conduit so we could run video and speaker wiring under the floor. It took a Mini Jack Hammer to get the work done. My friend Bill Church came by to help out. Together we were able to get it done realitively quickly. However, I prepped the room by taping each of the doors closed, the air conditioning vent and the air conditioning return to keep the cement dust from getting into the other rooms in the house.

Bill making the channel

After the conduit was put into place, I bought some 2x10 pressure treated wood for the base of the riser. I cut a hole near the top of all of them so that the electrician can run wires through. Once the electrician wires everything together, we'll stuff it with insulation and cap it off with some plywood before laying down the carpet.

Update: Risers Are DONE!!! - 09/05/05

This Labor Day weekend I spent a lot of time with Bill working on the Home Theater. Saturday, while Bill worked on electrical, I worked on a shelf that will house the front three speakers and hide the bottom of the movie screen.

Monday, I finished the electrical work for the riser, made a conduit channel for the wiring, stuffed it with insulation to help with sound absorption and cut and glued the 3/4" plywood on top. See pics below:

Before putting the wood together for the base of the riser, I cut holes
in the front of each section to run the electrical wires through. Now, we
have two outlets at the base of the riser, one of which will power the projector.

Next, I realized that, before filling the channels with insulation for
sound absorption, I needed to create a channel to run the video wires
to the projector and the speaker wires to the back of the room. I had
already cut holes and put grommets into the frame and we had dug a channel
and put conduit to run wires from the front of the room to the back.
However, I needed to create an easy way to get the wires out of the floor
conduit and to the grommets. So, I cut 2x4s to width and cut holes in them
to put conduit through.

Now, as looking from directly overhead, when I open the hatch under the floor
I'll easlily be able to get the wires from the buried conduit and feed it into
the correct channel.

The next phase it to get L Brackets and secure the riser to the floor, then
fill the channels with insulation.

I stuffed the channels with insulation, making sure to wear gloves to keep
from getting the fiberglass under my skin, which itches like a mother.

As mentioned before, when I cut, glued and screwed the 3/4" plywood to the
riser frame, I cut a hatch that would allow me to access the conduit for
speaker and video cables. Here it is open, revealing the conduit.

Here it is closed, with a hole to pull it open. I'll have to work with the
carpet company to make sure this remains available.

The finished, unfinished (pre-carpet) product. I can't believe it took me
almost 12 hours to get this done, but it was non-stop work. Not a lot to
show for it, with the exception of checking another item off the TO DO List.

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