Accessing components mounted in hutch

[PaulD]

Building a new house with large hutch to hold 52" TV & components. The hutch will look like a free standing hutch but will be attached to the wall with no access to back side so all access must be from front or sides. Also, wife insists on doors that close when not in use. I have looked at a variety of rack mounted solution offered by Middle Atlantic but each solution seems to give me a different problem to overcome. Any comments would be appreciated. Here is what I have considered so far...

1) Custom build something using my carpenters - would look nice but I would be locked into size and shelving he builds for me whereas a 19" rack approach provides me more flex to reconfigure in the future as components change out.

2) Slide out and turn racks - several products do this but all are very pricy. The 19" rack approach can use some really nice shelves custom fit to the components but very costly. Another version (not 19" rack) does same thing with shelves but leaves a lot of empty space to see thru into the space with cables behind the cabinet (bad WAF).

3) I looked at a swinging gate style 19" rack but weight and configuration issues in the hutch don't make this very viable.

4) Table size 19" rack - least expensive but poor access to back side or components other than via a side door. If I went this route, I would try to mount the rack on a slide out to give me better access to the rear of components from the side door.

Right now, option 4 is my most likely solution unless someone has some better ideas to offer me.

 

[mdesmarais]

Have you seen the kitchen cabinets with slide out drawers? This is a picture I took of the guts in order to clone it at home.

Basically the slide that would normally mount on the case mounts to a board with a tenon on each end, and then the tenon slides into one of a bunch of different slots. The pictures show drawers, but it can be a very shallow tray instead (to allow airflow). You just need to allow enough cable for a service loop. You could even make filler panels and mount them right on the drawers. If you go this way, I would drill a bunch of 1" holes in the drawers to let the air circulate better, and would probably do something about evacuating hot air from the whole space.

Markd

 

[ASIHome]

As an alternate suggestion you could look at Rack Rails only and use blanks/vented blanks to fill in the empty spaces and hide wires.

Rack Rails
Blank Panels
Vent Panels

 

[Photon]

Way back in time I had a similar cabinet. I connected cables to each component and slid them down behind the shelves as I slid the components onto the shelves. Then I extracted the cables through a drawer at the bottom and connected cables to cables using a lot of gender changers I bought for the purpose. I'd rather not do it that way again, but it worked.

 

[PaulD]

As an alternate suggestion you could look at Rack Rails only and use blanks/vented blanks to fill in the empty spaces and hide wires.

Rack Rails
Blank Panels
Vent Panels

I have looked at all those components. I am currently looking at a 19" table top rack like here and mounting it on a pull out shelf. It will not pull out enough to access components from the front but I can access their back side via a side door.