This weekend I finished everything I could think of prior to drywall being installed. Mostly it was finishing and testing wiring. I started on Friday by working on the lights inside the riser. The wiring wasn't tough, it was cutting the holes in the 2x10 and 2x6 side walls of the riser. I tried a couple of different techniques that involved drills, keyhole saws, sanders and handheld jigsaws. None of the holes are what I would call pretty, but hopefully will look fine once the covers are on them.
Saturday I decided to test all the stereo wires. I hooked up my stereo in the rack and then tested each wire with one of my speakers. It was challenging at times since some of the wire are 6 ft in the air for speakers that will be on shelves. I had to hook up speaker and hold it up to test. All the wires tested fine which is good, don't have to worry about re-running. I also labeled them all so I could easily hook them up later.
On Sunday I worked on all the Ethernet and Satellite lines. There were 7 Ethernet and 7 Satellite that I needed to terminate and test on both ends. As I went I tested each cable to make sure that is terminated properly and didn't have any breaks in it. Everything worked fine except for one wire. One of the Ethernet wires kept failing the tests, in the end I got two of the four pairs to work, which is plent for phone. That jack will just be phones I guess. I have two other working ethernet at that plate so I should be good.
At this point I have finished everything I can think of prior to drywall. I even spent a while cleaning and straightening up in the basement. Today the drywall supplies were supposed to be delivered but weren't. Hopefully they will be tomorrow and then the drywall will begin getting installed shortly.
