December 09, 2003
New TV!
Our old TV is a 27" RCA. It retailed for $600, we got it or $400, quite a few years ago. Been to the shop once, for a power problem. Channel selector is broke, but we can change channels with the remote.
Sam's Club has a 32" Sylvania for $278. I measured the height and width and it will fit in the entertainment unit, replacing the 27". Wendy has a job so our disposable income is up... she bought one. The 27" gets handed down to the girls, mainly for hooking to the Game Cube and the Playstation. Got a TV stand for it, added casters to make it a roll-about cart. Unbox the 32", Wendy and I struggle it into the entertainment unit. It fits just fine horizonally and vertically.
The DEPTH of a TV set increases with the size of the picture tube. The new set is a few inches deeper than the old.
A 32" cathode ray vacuum tube has a 25" x 20" face. 500 square inches of surface holding back air pressure of 15 pounds per square inch. There is 7,500 pounds of pressure on the face of a 32" tube. To withstand that pressure the glass is rather thick. And heavy. The center of gravity of this TV set is about 3 inches back from the face of the tube. Due to the depth of the set, the face of the tube hung about two inches over t he front edge of the shelf, precariously balanced. Not as pictured, but further foreward.
I could have taken everything off the six foot high by eight foot wide entertainment unit, disconnect the earthquake bracing, move the unit three inches form the wall, extend and reattach the bracing, and put everything back. I would have been done sometime past New Year's.
Or I could simply return the TV set and get something smaller. But we wanted bigger.
So, instead, I made it so I could slide the tv set back three inches. I measured and marked the wall that was obstructing the back of the set that enclosed the back end of the picture tube. Hammer and screwdriver to pound a square hole in the wall. (Luckily I happened between the joists, so I did not need to chisel out two inches from the three and a half inch depth of a joist. Which I would have as that joist is non-bearing wall and what load it does bear is vertical.)
The back of the TV in the upper picture is sitting about three inches into the wall.