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Direct TV: Motorized
rotating stand lets you
point the screen to
where it’s needed most.
TV SPINNER
Motorized lazy Susan aims the screen
where it’s needed. By Alan Mellovitz
Space can be a precious commodity when you
live in a shared dorm room. However, if you
allocate space efficiently, you can transform a
10'× 10' room from a confining cell to a desirable
and pleasurable living area. It can be a challenge
on move-in day to create a solution that satisfies
the needs of two strangers. More likely than not,
the room unintentionally becomes split into two
longitudinal sections, and each roommate must
try to respect the other’s sector, accommodating
TVs, computers, video games, tools, wires, large
boxes of Dunkaroos, live panda bears, and/or any
other strange possessions and hobbies that have
the power to annoy.
I know firsthand that the typical hardworking college student vitally needs entertainment. Yet under
cramped dormitory circumstances, amusement
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sacrifices must sometimes be made. To reduce the
need for such sacrifices, I recalled that my 10'× 10'
room had a third dimension: an 8' ceiling. I thought,
why not suspend a lightweight flat-screen TV/com-puter monitor in this unused airspace? And while I
was at it, why not make the screen rotate to any
viewing angle anywhere in the room, with more
than 180 degrees of rotation? That way the screen
could generously face the roommate who needed it,
wherever and whenever circumstances demanded.
Here’s how I built my motorized rotary LCD TV
mount, after dusting off an old box of Legos.
Selection and Placement
First, consider what piece of equipment you would
like to suspend and rotate (computer screen or
TV), and where you would want to view it. I bought
Photography by A.J. Kane
