I’m planning to add a flat panel TV to the master bedroom. The holidays were taken up by the production and partial installation of MDF raised panel wainscotting made from scratch, which turned out remarkably well.
Anyhow, I know a lot about TVs, but my heart almost stopped when I saw what they want for the wall mount brackets – adjustable angle models go for over $200. Now, we are talking about maybe $4 worth of stamped steel supporting maybe 100 pounds of TV. That isn’t worth that kind of money.
Plus, they are ugly as sin. I figure I could make one out of maybe a couple board feet of maple or cherry. Anybody tried this? Anything to look out for, suggestions, etc?
Replies
Tell me about it. I got a 32" TV for Christmas and I want to wall mount it. I need to be able to pivot it sideways as it will be in the corner. But I d@# died when i saw the price. The one i need is the better part of 300. So I am thinking of buiding a wall mounted cabinet to hold the TV and the Sat Dish reciever and the DVD player.
If you find a cheeper option please let me know.
Doug Meyer.
Hmmm. Well, I'm only worried about the angle of the set relative to vertical. Basically, I want to tilt the TV away from the wall at the top so the viewing angle is correct whilst lying in bed.
I plan on mounting the DVD, etc, away from the TV (actually in another room) to avoid clutter. Have you considered separtating your components? I suspect a cabinet would overwhelm the TV, but that could be a matter of taste. My other bigscreen is cabinet mounted, but its a DLP (about 1/2 cost of flat panel per inch) and I mounted that on a cabinet of my own design (they wanted $1700 at the time I bought the DLP).
Before I came up with the idea of putting the components in another room, I was going to run the wires inside the wall to floor level.
What angle do you need your set to pivot? I've aready come up with a sort of design to deal with a single angle and kind of hides the cables where they pass through to the other room. One problem with a 'left/right' pivot would be that you'd need quite a projection from the wall. I figure if you wanted a 30 degree pivot, you'd need about 12" from the back of the set to the wall.
Of course, if you are mounting the set in a corner, you can just mount a cross member across the two intersecting walls, provided studs are handy.
Thanksgiving '05 I bought a Dell 42" plasma to hang above fireplace, I went with their tilting wall mount $200. Do what you have to do. I figured for that kind of money $200 is small in comparison and besides who else knows what is best for their TV's ?
I wouldn't experiement with a wall mount, spend the money - "cry only once"
Happy New Year
Scott
Yeah, I know but my brain doesn't work that way.
When I buy a car, they try sell me floor mats for $200 that I can buy for $12 at the hardware store. When I buy a TV they try scam me with monster cables which cost $150, but are worth $15, and don't work any better than the free ones which come in the box (why would Monster know more about my TV than Sony, Samsung, etc?)
So, I'd rather do it myself. Just the way I'm wired.
And it'll look nicer.
Actually, premium interconnects have a tremendous impact on picture quality. Try a set......you will be amazed.
Have fun, Paul
And some "premium" interconnects are pure marketing.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
You're right. Some interconnects are marketing without any substance. Some have real performance. With good source material and calibrated display, these can give stunning results.
Have Fun, Paul
If the board is still to short after cutting, try trimming the other end... :)
Na I don't need that much of a pivot. I am pretty much doing the same thing you are. I have a bed room I want to put this in. The bed is centered on one wall and the opposite wall has a window centered in it that the TV needs to go next to. So I need to pivot it one a little bit to see it better from the bed. I Figure if I mount the wall cabinet at the right height I can handle not being able to tilt it up and down.
I really was thinking about something that is only say 18" wide and about 16" deep at the top. Say 4' tall. Mounted to the wall studs and with two shelves for the components. IF you taper the bottom of the unit down to about 4" deep and mount it a bit off the floor I think it will work. that way it is more like a pedestal, then a cabinet. I Have an entertainment center that I built about 10 years ago that is in the living room. One of the reasons to taper this is that their is a heat vent on the floor only about 6" from the wall so I don't want to set anything on top of it.
Doug Meyer
Yeah, I see what you are doing. My room was designed with a fireplace directly at the foot of the bed, and the TV is going above the mantle, so I sort of have to have a direct wall mount.
I think if you measure your satellite box, etc., you may find you only need about 12" depth, if not less. So, a solution might be to make a shelf for the boxes, and mount the TV on a more or less separate mount.
I plan on making two 'yokes' which will mount vertically on the back mounting holes of the TV, with an axle through the 'yokes' and the wall mount. A minimum distance of 2" is required from the TV to the wall, so I'd probably gor for 3 or 4".
If you make yours such that the 'yokes' span the mounting holes horizontally, and the axle runs vertically, you could easily pivot right/left.
"That isn't worth that kind of money."
First, the metal isn't the biggest part of the price, it's design, packaging, powdercoat or paint, shipping, markup to the distributor or dealer, retail markup and the worst part- product liability coverage. If this fails and falls on your kid, crushing them, you're gonna want millions. I would, too but the materials aren't the biggest cost.
When was the last time you didn't buy a car because the price was too high and complained that the materials don't cost that much?
Ohhh pleeez
This is a website where people will buy a $600 plane to hand mill $50 worth of hardwood to make a box they could buy for $20 at Ikea.
People pay $200 to $300 for a $6 stamped piece of steel because people who run electronics stores realize the customers don't understand that wasting $194 to $294 on a wall mount is still wasting money, even if they just bought a $2,000 TV. If I wanted to hold 100 pounds of books off the floor I doubt the bookstore would sell me a $200 to $300 bracket.
Seriously, if people want to waste their money on the overpriced floormats, cables, etc., go ahead.
Anybody have constructive, useful thoughts on the proposed woodworking project?
"Anybody have constructive, useful thoughts on the proposed woodworking project?"What woodworking project? This thread is about a TV mount that is ugly and costs too much. Why are you coming at me? They charge what the market will bear, like anything else. I install home theater equipment- nobody has to tell me that a lot of the mounts are garbage. There's one brand that comes in a small box and is just a bunch of little crappy strips of slotted steel that needs to be assembled, but it's not much better than the stuff an erector set is made of. Some are actually pretty well made but I agree that some should be a fraction of the selling price. Then, there's always the chance that the seller is gouging.How heavy is the TV? Are you planning on tilt/swing or will it be fixed? If you look at some of the Sanus and Mustang mounts, they aren't a bad place to get ideas from. Chief makes some good, solid ones, too. I don't know if yours will have the inputs facing down or straight out the back but while most of the mounts work for all sets, some are a royal pain when it comes to plugging everything in. "I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Edited 1/3/2007 8:46 pm by highfigh
I give up.
Never mind
Well I cant say for sure one way or the other but I have issues with spending #300 for a mount for a TV when I bought the TV (well I didn't buy it but you get the point) for only $800. You will not convince me that the mounts for these take over a 1/3 the cost (be it materials, or manufacturer or insurance) of the TV. I also have trouble with spending hundreds on cable. I will buy good cables but come on. But to each their own.
Being as this is a wood workers group however I will talk about what we as wood workers can do about this. And in my case that is to make a wall mounted cabinet to house everything else and set the TV on this. And as was pointed out the Sat Dish receiver and the DVD may be shallower then I was thinking so I will build this (when I get to it in a month or so) a shallow as I can. I think I will keep it about 18" wide however no matter what so I can built it to be lag bolted into the studs in the wall that are 16" o.c.. I also am thinking that I should try and match my new bedroom set and pull off some of the details used on that. And no the bedroom set was not built buy me but was bought from a furniture store. I happen to have a store near me that sells pretty good quality wood furniture for a fair price. And frankly with needing a whole new house of furniture (as well as the house) I just did not have time. But I think I can match the set pretty well.
One think am worried about is if I make this a high as I want and as small as I want it will be a danger of the TV falling off. The reason for this is a 14 pound black cat that just has to get up on things like this (She is called MC, because she is a Mountain Climber, and climbs as high as she can onto anything she can) I can just see her jumping up on this to see what is up their and snagging a wire or some such and tipping the TV over. And while I know the TV is heavier then she is LCD TVs have a very high center of gravity and are tippy.
So what I am thinking of is using some mettle angle and using the back mount holes to secure the TV to the wall. I really don't care if the thing moves as long as it points at the bed. So this would allow me to hold the TV up with the cabinet/shelf and to keep it from falling over with the bracket.
Well that is my two cents worth. Oh one other thing I like your idea for the cabinet LCD TV that pivots. I have been thinking of retro fitting something like this to my entertainment center so I can get to the space behind the TV and use it for storage. The entertainment center was built before the days of LCD TVs and has a lot of space back their.
Doug Meyer
We seem to be (mostly) back on topic (I'll skip my comments about digital cables)
I would imagine that if you are going with a flat panel and using the the 'feet' that come with it you would have reason to worry about the cat tipping it over, even if it was only a couple feet off the ground. Unless the set is very bottom heavy, it would probably be very tippy, and my tiny siamese cats in particular will pearch on top of anything warm, so I can imagine a 14 pound cat doing the same could be problematic.
Tying the set to the wall as you suggest is probably a good idea. I did notice the 'real' metal brackets taks into account the challenge of mounting the TV after the bracket is installed on the wall, and that is something my design will take care of. You could even get a 1/16" wire rope, hook that to the top two screws on the back of the set, and connect it to the wall like a picture hanger. It probably wouldn't look that bad, considering all the cable's you'll have anyway, and it'll stop the set from tipping over.
Course, it might cost a couple bucks (literally) :)
I can make anything out of wood.
But when I bought a Flat Screen HDTV, I bought the silly mount too. Costs extra, pain to install, but it got the job done.
Instead of spending a day or two in the shop, I went windsurfing. Life is good.
Hal
Yeah but I am cheep.
If it was only a hundred or even maybe two but when i get close to three... I have issues. Besides I can buy some nice wood and start on my book cases for the library.
Doug Meyer
Yep. And its not just the stupid price.
Those things are butt ugly ...
Woods gotta be nicer
Yeah that too. Add in that I need to be able to park a couple of electronic boxes in the same area and I think I may be better off building something to mount on the wall that sort of matches the rest of the furniture in the room.
Doug Meyer
Attached is what I made for a customer who wanted to swing the TV away from the wall.
Nice work!
For purely flat mounting what about fixing a board to the back of the TV as in USAingel's pictures and make it to fit an angled cleat ("french cleat?") like you would to hang a tool cabinet? It doesn't answer the mobility question for multiple viewing angles but it solves the money issue for most folks.
Oh sure, anyone can swing it to the right. Let's see you make it swing the other way!
Hal
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