Custom Desk / Media Centre

[sasktrini]

Since I decided my motorhome refurb was to be musician-friendly, and that my motorhome is only 26' long, I decided to strip out the dinette / living area and install a custom gaucho bed and a media desk… this is the story of the desk.  It started about a year ago, when I bought a used TV lift and had it shipped from North Carolina to Saskatchewan (pretty far)!  After foreign exchange and shipping, it still came to about half the price of a new one, and was in great shape for being lightly used.





Only fault I could find with it is that the worm gear had a bit of a wobble, but that was easy to fix.  Motor is good, is short enough for me to hide a 24" flat screen under the window inside an enclosure, and will extend high enough to enjoy whether I'm using it as a second computer monitor or sitting on the sofa watching movies!





Since I was salvaging glides from a filing cabinet (like I used on my closet / gliding pegboard project), I felt I would use the same glides to allow my desktop to collapse when not in use.  Roughly, the TV stand with TV mounted is about 9" deep, and my glides are 18" deep.  So I could make a 10" enclosure to hide the TV when stowed, which would leave 8" for my stowed desktop.  Extended, the roller glides are almost 3'… Perfect!  What I mocked up resembles a two tri-fold desktop sections that just seem to work.





The base is three pieces of 3/4" plywood anchored to the wall and floor.  The roller glides are attached to these to support the left and right desktop sections.  You can see the height of the extended TV lift.  With the desktop folded, the left side fits around the TV dimensions.  You can also see the section of the filing cabinet drawers that I cut off and screwed to a wooden frame that supports the rolling desktop sections.  Where the left side will contain the TV, the right side will be a shallow cabinet.


I still have to square up the frame, level the glides, screw down the folding desk surfaces and run electrical before I finally panel in the finished product.  I plan to put a matching hinged top ledge that will hide the top of the TV when stowed and flip open to raise the lift.


Here's a last detail of the hinge.  I'm sure you can get hardware like this for about $30 per side. Though it was more work, I was happy to repurpose a filing cabinet that outlived its usefulness in my life in that form.


[size=78%]http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll314/sasktrini/79%20Diplomat%20MH/89F0BA73-E410-4D89-A61C-D405F2C8E593.jpg[/size]

[Rickf1985]

I salvaged a pull up and fold out desk from the other coach I bought but I like your idea a lot better. I have to laugh when I look at your pictures since I see an engine part in just about every picture, your engine must be scattered ALL over the RV. W%

[sasktrini]

OMG, the clutter is terrible!  Yeah, I still haven't gotten the replacement timing set or water pump gasket to finish that part.  But admittedly, the first picture is a few months old… just necessary for the story.  By the way, thanks for the compliment on the idea.

[sasktrini]

Picture-heavy.  How I did it:


1) wall plate with blocks to support the sides, into steel framing.



2) Sides with glide detail



3) attached to floor supports for proper spacing



4) Attached to wall plate...



5) squared up and attached at the floor



6) face plate (actually had to remove it a few times for positioning the TV lift between the desk arms)



7) Desk detail of glides, hinges... front plank secured to front with hidden pocket joints, screws in the top to hold the sides square



8) mounting TV lift, test fit the TV... needed a little vertical and lateral adjustment, but it's done! (Oh, had to mount it on the right, as I hung the overhead bunk which gets in the way on the left)



Desk closed, TV lowered to verify free travel.



I have to finish running electrical and figure out how to put a stealthy cover to conceal the lift from above, as well as cement paneling over the structure and face.  But that's basically how I built this from scratch!