Integrating an LCD TV with the Videosphere

As I previously posted, I purchased a 8.4″ LCD TV for around $150.

Here is the last update for the year, going on holidays and won’t be back till mid January.

I have started to try to mount the LCD TV into the Videosphere. Firstly removed the LCD from the plastic housing

This is a photo of the back of the LCD

First fit test. You would not believe how close this panel is to not fitting. When choosing the TV I only was concerned about the LCD size fitting the hole, I did not think about the housing. Being a cheap quality LCD the housing protrudes a fair bit. You can observe that the housing isn’t quite flush and this is for two reasons, the LCD is slightly too big, and the hole is actually curved due to the curved screen of the original CRT.

The way I solved the LCD size problem was grinding the corners down. This was fairly dangerous as it was easy to damage the LCD, I still haven’t tested the LCD to see if it still works. Before grinding I disassembled the metal housing, this was so that I could see where the glass was as you do not want to be grinding that.

Here is a photo of the ground corners of the metal housing; I will explain what the cardboard is for next.

This now solved the LCD not fitting problem. The next problem was the gaps caused by the curved hole. This was solved by using car body filler. First I made a cardboard template with the exact same size hole as the Videosphere.
You can observe the LCD metal housing on top of the cardboard below.

It was secured to the Videosphere with some tape.

Car body filler was applied liberally over the cardboard.

And the sanding process began.

I decided to buy myself an early Christmas present to speed things up. $125 from Bunnings, includes the Flex Shaft and 55 accessories.

This was the finished results after another layer of car body filler. It took me a while to get used to the Dremel as I was taking too much out of some areas and leaving indents.

I am quite happy with the results so far. This will be painted black making any imperfections harder to see. Below is a photo of the LCD metal housing over the hole. The hole is slightly uneven and small and that will be fixed up next year.