Easel Inspired TV Stand

Tyson
by Tyson
1 Material
A friend at work had an older, very large (and very heavy) plama TV and needed a stand for it. She had the idea to base it on a painters easel, so I designed this stand with that in mind. I used alder for this project, not for any particular reason, it was on sale and we had a limited budget, and she was very happy with it.. This is a softer wood, so doesn't stand up well to abuse, but worked well enough.
Along with the budget constraints, I had time constraints as well, this was a fairly rapid build, and many of the joints were created with a Festool Domino tool to create loose tenons.
All said and done, this has been in use for over a year now and aside from some scuff marks, it has held up really well, certainly strong enough to hold the 100+ lb TV for years to come.
Overall, as a design and build challenge, this was very satisfying. I loved the idea to create it as an easel, something a bit different.
There is only 1 shelf at the base, and none of the boards were wide enough so early on it was necessary to glue up a wide board.
All the boards were the same depth, so these larger members were glued together to make for thick stock. Still, it was planned so they were glued up with mortises and tenons planned.


I love when this works out, no need to cut any mortise and tenons, they come free with some pre-planning.
The TV shelf was designed to slide up and down, captured inside facing rails. This is testing that size and getting ready to add in shelf supports to hold the heavy weight.
The Festool domino really is a remarkable tool. Really expensive, but makes rapid work of joinery. This is using one board as a straight edge to guide the domino while cutting mortises.
Here are all the joints cut and ready for glue-up.
Working through the glue-up, the TV shelf has a wide central board that is held between the rails and a front and rear shelf.
More dominos!
This is a good view of the holes drilled through the rails. The shelf is held up by large pins that I turned on a lathe out of some scrap maple.


The lower shelf and upper cross member are glued to one side rail, the assembled shelf is added and the other side rail is connected, effectively trapping the TV shelf inside.
Everything is assembled, testing the movement of the shelf up and down by moving the pins.


You can see in this view that the design is tilted toward the back to keep the heavy TV from falling forward. The side rails have large tenons holding them, but I still wanted to add support members as well.
A closer view of the rail supports.


Casters were added for some mobility, and I finished it with Hard Oil a pre-mixed finishing solution.
The finished stand.
Close up.
This is the back of the stand, large holes were included to accommodate cords.
The stand seems so small now!
For added safety we ran some wire and attached the TV to the stand so it couldn't fall forward. The wide base is plenty stable, and it rolls around easily, making it much friendlier to get at the back when needed.
Suggested materials:
  • Alder wood
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