This setup, all built around those old steam pipes, worked OK with my old smaller TV, but my new "idiot box" is pretty big. Needs to be lower. So the pipes' gotta go. I think while I'm at it, I'll bust thru the luan paneling wall, build a shelf, and move the whole thing back.
The pipe runs all the way across; here it has been a nuisance every time I go up and down the ladder to the loft, and the part that comes off that T-fitting under the TV...
All righty then, I've got my Milwaukee Sawz-All with a fresh metal-cutting blade, and my trusty vintage goggles... time to go nuts!!
This first cut took about 20 seconds... this brittle old cast iron is no match for a Sawz-All with a proper blade.
Eventually I get all the cast iron out of the way; now it's time to destroy that wall. I'd like to save it and just move it back, but it's not worth the trouble, because of the way it's framed. It's all dried-out old crap anyway... that yellow cable, BTW, is my LAN cable... must be careful... that bamboo screen on the right will go soon, when I build a wall to divide my room in half later this summer.
Stripped the paneling off; here you can see my quick and dirty resupport of the pipe, which heads another 10 feet off towards the bathroom before the next bracket (I'll get around to cutting more of it off later).
Pretty much done for the day; no materials handy to make the new wall, so a bit of cloth closes it off temporarily. The brackets that supported the TV shelf earlier turn out to be perfect for supporting the new platform... a lucky break.
That pipe hanger will stay; it's a convenient handhold when climbing up or down. This all needs to be repainted... jeez, it never ends, does it?
A mock-up of the new configuration. Those Peavy powered speakers are inactive; don't need them with this TV, and when I hook up the old PC to it, I'll probably get a set of surround speakers anyway. But they hold the TV up OK until I build some proper shelves in there. That header will probably stay where it is- it's nailed to the ceiling, and I don't like messing with that... the roof is just a layer of old tongue and groove planks with tarpaper on it; if I pull those nails out, it'll probably start leaking when it rains.
We'll see if I still feel like working on this tomorrow...
