# Forum Home Renovation Home Theatres  entertainment unit

## goku

Hi all. This might be an easy one but if i dont ask i wont know. 
Is there a formula or program for working out structural strength of a piece before it's before building it? 
Example if I wanted to know how well an entertainment unit would hold up to an 80kg tv over time, is there anything I can use aside from trial an error? 
Any suggestions for materials and designs for an entertainment unit to hold up an 80kg tv?

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## ozwinner

Try here. http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator.htm 
Al  :Smilie:

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## goku

Ta very much OZWINNER, that helps heaps. Any suggestions for a blood red and black hardwood that is cheap and strong?

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## seriph1

Blood red is uncommon, though Jarrah, Redgum, Aust. Cedar can all be made (as can anything else I s'pose) that colour fairly easily  -  none of them are cheap, like Pine or Vic Ash (which isnt so cheap really)  -  Black will have to be achieved with stain unless your numbers come up in lotto.   :Biggrin:  :Biggrin:  :Biggrin:  :Biggrin:  :Biggrin:  
Got a pic or drawing of your design?

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## Auld Bassoon

> Example if I wanted to know how well an entertainment unit would hold up to an 80kg tv over time, is there anything I can use aside from trial an error? 
> Any suggestions for materials and designs for an entertainment unit to hold up an 80kg tv?

  This might be a bit late, but I've built a similar thing (see: http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...rtainment+unit) but used a torsion box to hold a similarly heavy TV.  If you were to use Jarrah, say, it would need to be c40mm thick to avoid distortion, whereas the torsion box is more of an engineering approach to distributing loads using much less material. 
After more than 3 months, the thing hasn't moved at all.

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## goku

pic of design no problem. 
Torsion and engineering is more what I had in mind too. 
Tell me if you think this design (in all its simplistic approach) will work. 
I havent added the finishing touches like rear panels or side panels or anything, just the raw layout. 
I had planned to make it out of 35mm thick for all the structural parts with 19mm ontop of the 35 rail at the top. 
All out of hard wood, (god willing jarrah or something good) whatever I can get out the couple of maculata packs I've got comming.

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