DIY: how to hide cables? - this is how I built home multimedia cable box

in #diy6 years ago (edited)

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Today I will present to you how I made my own multimedia cable box (pol. skrzynka teletechniczna - tele-technical chest). It's a nice and estetic way to hide television and ethernet cables with a few things you may find lying around in your tool shed or basement.

Last year we did general renovation of our apartament, and ever since then I found myself adding something or correcting any errors. This way, I came up with an idea to hide my television and internet cables in an pleasant to the eye way.

I know that calling this box teletechnical may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but pseudo teletechncial I find pretty acceptable.

Almost the entire box was done with the materials left over after the last year's renovation, which I didn't throw out. I thought they my come in handy one day, and they did. This way, I've managed to save some money.

I know that the box's location is a bit unfortunate and in fact should be the last place where it's located. However, it's the only place where cables for the roof's antennas, balcony satellite dish and internet cable providers meet. I live in an older building where developer provided tv-socket for the analogue signal which is now long gone. The administrator of the building proposed ridiculous offer to the apartment owners for a new television installation far exceeding ture costs, so I made such an installation myself. Therefore, having no other way to lead the cables to my apartment, this particular place near the radiator became central hub for media distribution. As you can observe, the radiator pipes were tightly isolated with the double layer of pipe-heat-isolator, which should provide satisfactory thermal insolation. The wall of the box directly opposite to the radiator was also isolated with styrofoam (2 cm) from the inside. Moreover, I cut two circles for ventilation - one in the bottom front, and one on the top. The walls of the box weren't screwed to the profiles in order not to accidentally scratch any of the cables. Instead, I used acrylic latex caulk (pol. akryl).

Of course, as I already mentioned this solution is adjusted to my particular conditions and tailor-made to the space I had to make it work. If you have more space, make your box bigger (especially If you live in a house as you will probably use powered multiswitch device). You may also want to consider a real media cable box made of steel, which will be more useful as it was designed for this purpose and possesses a few additional practical features. Also, you may want to install separate ground wire (starting from section of at least 5 mm).

Besides the obvious materials and tools used here, you may want to get a pop rivet gun if you don't have one already. It's insanely useful tool, although not as popular. Also for drilling nice and even circles it the board you may want to get a hole drilling set.

Now the photos presenting every set of construction:

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As you can see everything looks quite nice. No cables sticking for the wall. The box is solid and esthetic.

P.S. If you wondering about the hole above the box and the wall - it's styrofoam. I've isolated the window wall with it, and it works quite well. However, it was done in the winter season so replacing the radiator at a time was out of the question. As then I've already had this box in mind (and it's cooling form the inside by the uninsulated wall), but not quite visualized yet, therefore the hole. Now it has to wait to be finished when I will find some free time (or rather will) do it and some spare money.

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