Monday, December 22, 2008

Cabinet - New Storage Area Wiring

I'm finally working on this project. Before I finish the Tambour door, I have to first run some wiring. The bow part of my 310DA Sea Ray does not have any 12 Volt source power available. This is necessary to run the "TV antenna", 400 Watt "inverter" for the TV, 12 Volt "fan" or charge anything like a "cell phone", etc. So, I have to first run some red and black, 10 gage wiring up to the new storage area. I was able to do this on Sat., 12-20-2008. I will post pictures soon.
I also ran the 12 volt wire up for two additional 12 Volt convienence sockets at the dinette area and the starboard side of the "V" Berth area, while I was at it...

Thursday, October 30, 2008

HDTV Mounted

This is the flush mounted position of the new HDTV. The TV folds back and is flush with the original front of the old space that housed the old TV. Notice the small "book shelf" addition above it where I mounted a set of Bose speakers. The speakers give the TV a bolder sound with deeper base and treble. It almost sounds like surround sound back up in the "V" berth when we are watching a DVD movie.
Click on the pictures to enlarge.

A view from the "V" berth. The TV is rotated forward. The Bose speakers face directly at you. The one you are looking at is on the port side. There is another one mounted on the other side which is the starboard side of the "V" berth. I used "velcro" under the speakers and on the shelf so they won't fall off during boating and can be picked up, moved and rotated in either direction.
The area to the right of the TV is the old space that housed the old TV. I'm gonna make a cabinet / storage area out of it and I managed to get a Tambour Door that closely matches the other ones you sea. I have to make-shift, cut and fit it to the front in order to cover the cabinet storage space. I'm workin on it!

Rotated back to be viewed from the dinette or galley areas. Noticed the speaker is rotated as well. The smaller Tambour Door that you sea under the TV is what I'm trying to match.

And a view from the back of the TV showing the mounting system bracket. This bracket has a quick way of disconnecting the whole TV up and off the mount so that the TV can be removed during winter lay up and taken inside.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

HDTV Preparation and New Storage Area.

I'm gonna try and show how I replaced the 15" box type TV and VCR combo with a HDTV Flat Screen. This first picture is the original way the boat came and looked as stock. The black TV is basically squarish, 15"w x 17"h by 16" deep. And Sea Ray mounted it on a pull-out slider shelve. Then they put all that inside a black box, a little bigger than the TV, which was used as an enclosure or something. The problem is, it left some very usuable space behind the black box - that was totaly unusable. So the first thing I had to do was remove the old TV and black box enclosure.
If you click on the individual pictures, they will open larger in a new window!

Here is another closer look of the original TV.

After I removed the black box, this is what I ended up with.
Right side.

Left side.

Left side and center.
Right side and center.
I constructed a wooden frame that I screwed into the bottom and sides to be used and the backing for the new backboard. I couldn't screw into the top, because that is the underside of the bow of the boat.
Left side and center.
I also added some wooden braces in the center because I intend on mounting a shelf or two on the new backboard.
Right side and center.
This is a poster board cut-out that I used to make a template for the new backboard. Believe it or not, nothing is ever square in a boat. But this actually turned out pretty close to being square.
Before I make the new shelves, I am working on a new door for the front of the new cabinet / storage space. I'm looking at a roll top type which they call a Tambour Door. It is like 1/2" wide wood slats that will roll up (actually, roll to the right side) and hopfully come close to matching the existing tambour doors on the other storage shelf areas.