"Dean Hoffman" " wrote in message
...
On 2/2/13 1:17 AM, Robert Green wrote:
I am about to build a new AV cabinet out of some leftover mahogany-faced
plywood. The old one has a lot of space that's useless now. Three feet
of
LP storage space and a bay large enough to accommodate a turntable with
a
hinged plastic cover. Definitely not sized for today's stuff. (-"

The big consideration for this unit is wire concealment and access to
the
back of each piece of equipment. I want to be able to easily reach and
reconfigure the wiring so I was thinking of mounting the cabinet on
casters.
However I think a hinged, swing-away design that swung along a fixed
path
would keep the wires from getting pulled out inadvertently the way they
might with a free-wheeling caster unit.

A picture here of a farm gate.
http://tinyurl.com/bj5ax4q
The pivot point on the left supports the weight of the gate.

http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.46342...152&c=7&r s=1

Uses an interesting triangular brace that extends higher up on the hinge
pole. It's been a long time since I've worked with such gates, but I recall
they always sag and many had wire tensioners with turnbuckles to raise them
back to square once the started sagging. That might be hard to accomplish
in a stereo cabinet so I think I am going to use three 4" hidden casters and
one fixed pivot point. I recall some gates had support rollers if ground
under them was level and that's when I thought the massive jack column hinge
idea had some limitations. (-: .

I didn't realize Bing was such a useful resource. I'll certainly check it
when I am looking for how things are designed. Many of the fences were four
or six-slat panels with simple X bracing. Some had interesting decorative
arch tops that ride high on the hingepole to provide extra rigid support.

Now I have to decide where to place the pivot point under the cabinet so
that it swings outward with the least amount of unwanted excursion into the
space surrounding the cabinet. I think that will be in the front left
corner but I'll probably print out a few templates of various design sizes
and test how they'll fit and swing using a push-pin.

With a pivot point at the left rear, there would be little or no pull on the
wires exiting the unit. Putting the pivot up front means I'll have to leave
a substantial slack loop on each incoming/outgoing cable.

Thanks for your input!

--
Bobby G.