So you just got your brand new rear projection television and it looks great! But there's a problem, the top of the tv isn't wide enough to hold your center channel. It's a balancing act to even get it to sit still for a second. What do you do?

           I went through this same dilemma when I first got my Toshiba TW40X81 and was trying to use an Infinity RS3 bookshelf speaker as my center channel. Sure, I could set it up there, but I knew it was going to fall the very second I turned it on. I needed something wide enough to be able to set it on, and not worry about it falling.

           I went back to the drawing board and came up with a simple, and yet effective design for a rack that would be able to hold my center channel. You may need to make some adjustment depending on how wide your center channel is, but the basic concept is explained below.

Building the Rack

           First, I asked the sales rep at Sutherlands (or if you go to Home Depot, I'm sure they'll do it for you there too) to take the 1 X 8 X 72 piece of wood and cut it into two pieces, one was 23 1/2 inches long, the other was 43 1/4 long. My original plans had called for the piece to actually be 43 1/2 inches long, but I had anticipated the wood being 1/2 an inch thick, whereas the wood I got SAID it was 1 inch, but it was closer to 3/4 of an inch. So I had to make adjustments accordingly, otherwise it would have adjusted the height of this little shelf. And I measured perfectly for the carpet and everything. NOTE: you might want to measure the height of yours and make adjustments, depending on whether or not you're on a hard floor or carpet. After my pieces were cut I was ready to go.

           I put three screws into the piece that was 1 X 4 X 36, one directly into the center of the piece of wood, and the other two about an inch and a half to the left and right on it (lengthwise). I screwed them in, making sure they were straight, until they barely broke through the other side of the wood. At that point I stopped and got the 43 1/2 piece of wood and placed this piece on the end of it. The piece that I put the screws into was the the base of the rack, which helps the whole thing from spilling over to the right or left.

           Once I had that done, I flipped the piece over and put the screws into the 23 1/2 inch piece, to form sort of an 'L'. I spaced the screws out the same way on this piece, one in the center and the other two about an inch and a half away. Make sure you get all of your screws in straight and centered, or you can run the risk of splitting the wood.

           Now you have the general shape down, all that's left is attaching the corner brace and taping/painting it. I added the corner brace (it looks like a metallic 'L') to "grab" on the the front of the set. Basically, just measure from the top piece to the sides of the your TV to make sure you get this piece centered. It should come in a packet with screws, so you can use those for this piece (if not, try to find one that does come with screws that are less than 1 inch long). It will look like the picture below:

Painting the Rack

           This is what the rack looked like, shortly after I assembled it. I put electrical tape over the bottom screws, so they wouldn't catch on the carpet, and on both edges, for the same reason. It's not much to look at, but it's practical! I had just put on a coat of black pain on the top piece of wood, as it's the only part that is visible once the rack is in place.

           It's a little hard to see, but once the pain dried I put an 'L' hook on the top front, where it would latch on to the TV to prevent it from falling backwards.

           Here's what the front looks like close up. The 'L' hook is taped up with electrical tape, to prevent any scratching of the set. Underneath the shelf was also covered with tape, for the same reason. Unfortunately my measurements were about 3/4 of an inch off, so I had to place a small block of wood below it to prop it up as it should be, to keep the top portion level. I hadn't painted it yet when I took this picture, it was strictly to measure how the piece of wood fit.