accessing the back of equipmenet

phileth

Does anyone have a good suggestion for accessing the back of equipment? I currently have a AVR Receiver, DVD player, and VCR stacked inside a home entertainment center cabinet. It has a back to it, but with a hole for wires to run out. It is such a pain when I have to access the back to connect more wires, not often, but when I do, it is very difficult. Any suggestions? I would like to have some kind of rack that goes inside a cabinet with rollout shelves, or something like that. It would have to be anchored down to avoid it tipping out when you rollout a component.

Face

http://www.racksandstands.com/ has a nice selection.

bsoko2

Basically, you have to have enough room to get behind your stuff to work on it. I have 2 feet of space behind my setup with the TV, Speakers, subs, and AV rack. Wives raise cain about it being out from the wall, but when you need to make a change it sure is nice.

Bill

Willow

I have the saem issue and I have scratched many times our new stand cause my receiver is so darn heavy to hold with one hand and unplug/plug with the other. In our new house I'll be lucky as the wall the TV will be on, our laundry room is behind so I can cut little holes to run everything and you won't see cables and it will make wall moutning my lcd that much easier and also help to hide the cables. Anyway good luck !

WilliamM2

I use a seperate TV cabinet and Audio stand, for just that reason. The back of the audio cabinet is open (no back) and I put casters on it. So I just roll it out from the wall about two feet to access the back. I still consider it a pain, because the equipment wieghs 215lbs. and the rack probably wieghs 100lbs. Doesn't roll very well on the thick carpet.

scottdwagner

It may be too simple to have been thought about, or it might not work for your application, but why not go down to Lowe's and buy some casters for your cabinet? Then you can wheel it in and out at your leisure.

Gaara

I have an open rack but it is still tough to see what I am doing since I have a TV on top and a 2ch rack right next to it. I personally use a flashlight and a flip open mirror whenever I have to unhook something. If your really good you could just look at a diagram of the connectors and do it with your eyes closed.

McLoki

Those little moving men pads that you put under furniture really work well for this sort of thing. slide one under each corner of your entertainment center and you can just pull it out from the wall a ways. Drag slow though or you can melt your carpet.

(also rather than route the wires through that little hole, I just used a dremel and a side cutting bit to cut out a hole the same size as my AVR. Now I can see the back of it when I get back there (however, since I just have an equipment rack rather than an entire AV cabinet, I usually just use a mirror to see back there while I am plugging things in.)

okiepolkie

These are wonderful, if you have enough width and depth: http://www.middleatlantic.com/enclosure/roll/reb.htm

Serendipity

I use a stand on casters. I also use products from www.cableorganizer.com to keep the cables in one bunch, then tie it up and use split loom tubing. That way I have ONE cable going from the rack to everything in the HT. It also makes it easier to move the stand out and access the back of all the equipment.

phileth

Those rolling rack sliders from Mid Atlantic were exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Any idea on how much they cost? The website didn't give prices. I also like the idea of using the casters and cutting the back panel to match the AVR. That sounds like the easiest thing.

honda cber

for my den stereo set-up, i completely removed the pressboard back from compartment that holds audio components. a sheet of very thin black felt that is only attached at the top allows full access to the back of the equipment, and has an added benefit of allowing air circulation. this was formerly a totally enclosed wall cabinet sort of dealy--- from the front, it is hard to tell that there were any modifications, even when backlit from nearby windows. it is still heavy to pull out from the wall, though. the back can be reattached cleanly, should the need arise (be careful when you remove it!). also, one probably wouldnt want to do this with cheap ikea-type furniture, as the back lends more bracing than you would think, even if it is just basically ccardboard with printed grain. (i own some of this furniture as well, lol)
a

olilugo

This is an example of what you are looking for ... not cheap....

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=11184