Grr...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Fixed up a wall mounting for a 55" 3D LCD a pal has just bought. He's in and out of hospital with something nasty so decided to have a treat, as he won't get out much anymore.

The mounting was spot on level wise on my 3ft spirit level (and I checked with it both ways round).

Couldn't fit the set there and then as it needed two to lift it, so did this later when I could get some help - but just sort of lifted it in place and left due to having to be somewhere later.

Got a phone call this morning (three days later) saying a visitor thought it 'pissed'. I'll check the actual set next week - but I'd be surprised if it's different from the bracket. It was a fairly cheap bracket from TLC so you can't rotate the set.

[Owain]

Possibly it's not quite hooked onto the bracket at one end?

Which may suggest that it's not totally secure.

Owain

[John Rumm]

Hard to know until you check...

Sometimes stuff that is level can look wrong because other stuff near it is wrong. Mounted a 32" LCD above a mantle for someone once, and had to decide weather to get it level and have it look out against the sloping mantle, or match the mantle and have it look out against the sides of the chimney breast. Went for the latter in the end as it was least objectionable.

[Ron Lowe]

I've done the same ( mounting large TVs on walls ) and I have the following observations:

1) Remember that things can look wonky even when they are actually level. It's the rest of the room that's wonky. You may need to simply forget about the spirit level, and go with what looks right to the eye. 2) Spirit level tollerances. A 3' spirit level viewed with an eyeball will show as 'OK' a fair variance off-level. This might not show up over a small horizontal run, but the same error may be jarring over the width of a 55" tv. 3) Mechanical make-up tollerances. Even if the bit you screwed to the wall is fine, the hanging-off of the piece that screws to the back of the TV may have a range of slop that can be jiggled.

[harryagain]

I have a big TV on a mount that lets it pull out from the wall. It can be adjusted in all directions with big thumb screws. However, you only have to swing it about a couple of times and the thing is all skewiff. There doesn't seem to be any help for it, I've messed around forages. Given up now..

[Ron Lowe]

I'm not surprised.

The forces generated be the weight of a big TV moved away from the wall on an arm are enormous.

My plasma TV wall-mounts are just simple mounts, but I cut hatches in the plasterboard and installed substantial dwangs to take the load. The final installation has 2 coach-bolts directly into the uprights, and a further 2 into the big dwangs.

[Lee]

Agree there ;) Don't think there is a straight wall in this place and nothing looks level! :) :)

I was always taught to put things up level, "Even if it looks wrong", as I get older though this just makes less sense....

Lee

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Quite a difficult thing to do with my case. Even if you assembled the bracket on the TV, you'd not be able to get behind it to mark up the wall fixings. It would also need three people. Plus most would tell the ones holding the TV to move away so they could decide if it was level. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Any suggestions about levelling it? I've not been back to look yet. The fixings to the wall are sound - all 6 of them - so I'd obviously not want to do anything with those.

It's this bracket:-

can probably see by the picture the fixings to the set are a hole and a slot. There are heavy duty load spreading square washers to the fixing screws. I suppose I could just file out the top hole on the appropriate side?

[Lee]

Filing the holes is probably the easiest answer - but some patience and trial and error is required...

Looks very similar to the bracket our bedroom tv is on. We found that the "security" clamp screws needed to be tight or it affected the leveling - if one side isn't "pulled down" as tight as the other side IYSWIM. The mass of the tv alone not being enough to do this. The other problem we had was the tolerances seemed to be wide enough that the holes weren't perfectly aligned between the left and right brackets - on ours it was about 1/2 mm which was just enough to put it off level by eye.

Lee

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That's interesting - because they were so awkward to get to I only tightened them enough to stop it being lifted off the bracket. I'll give it a go with a long screwdriver.

[Dave Liquorice]

Yep, fit so it looks right, unless that is stupidly off level. In which case a compromise.