TV wall mounting.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I've got one of those two arm articulated monitor mounts in the kichen.

It is bolted to the side of the chimney breast - on to two steel straps to spread the load, and tiled over up to the mounting bracket.

With the arm fully extended, you can have the TV pointing at the table end of the room, or pivot it round to view from the kitchen end, so nearly 180 degrees.

TV is old, and giving problems. It's a 28" which is a rare size these days.

32" gives a much better choice and would fit OK - with the correct bracket.

Ebay seems to have lots on sale which all appear to be exactly the same - but with arms no longer than the current ones, which when straight are about 350mm from mounting pivot to VESA plate pivot. But even if I could find one of the right length, the tiled in mounting means a lot of work to change.

I've wondered about making an ally plate to move the TV VESA mounting along about 30mm or so. Any reasons not to?

It looks to be very nicely made with the arms in cast ally, and decent bearings you can adjust the friction on. Not cheap and came from TLC yonks ago, and no longer have the details of the weight it can support.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Dave Plowman (News) brought next idea :

Or a 4x 30mm thick spacers between TV and the bracket, plus some longer screws. Modern TV's, even flat screens, are much lighter than they used to be, so much less leverage than before.

[Jeff Layman]

I think you'll find that a modern 32" TV weighs somewhat less than an old 28" TV. For a start the bezels have almost disappeared on a modern TV. If you can find the manual for the TV you've got (perhaps online), you should be able to find its weight. Or just remove it and weigh it to see how it compares with a new 32" TV.

[Dave Plowman (News]

It needs to be moved along the arm, as it were.

[Paul]

This is an ideal DIY project, in terms of challenge level.

One of my monitors here, I did my own VESA mount with repurposed materials from the hardware store. It doesn't have the flexibility of your counter-sprung arms, but it did get the monitor out of the way so it did not take up 3-space in the room.

It's really a "drilling holes" project, and "what material is easiest to drill holes in". Wood is pretty easy, and comes in various densities and strengths. For example, you could make the thing out of Balsa Wood, but that would be silly.

The only thing I'd have against aluminium, is inability to bend the material if I needed to fasten a spacer without making it too heavy.

There are steel strips, flat plates with holes every one inch, which are a bit heavy, but they're moderately easy to bend for shaping purposes. That way, your spacing plate doesn't have to be made from solid materials, but could be rendered as a space frame.

I find for some projects, ruining the drill bits in my drill case, is my major accomplishment. And having to find replacements in hardware stores that are no longer fully stocked, is a problem.

I have a store here, that sells screws from wall bins, so you can buy just the number you need, without a lot of plastic packaging. That's where I get my stainless for PTL projects. As long as I have a rough idea what panheads or whatever I can get, kitting out the screws doesn't have to be a trauma.

For my last little DIY project, I made a cardboard mock-up first, and upon fitting it to the place to be installed, realized that all the surfaces at the install site were irregular (angled) and the project "was hopeless". And all it cost me was the card and some tape to make my 3D model.

1) Planning 2) (Optional) Execution

It's a lot like making things with a Meccano set. Not everything you use has to be a "solid". If you need to make a spacer, there might be other ways to assemble one.

Paul

[alan_m]

+1 My 40 inch flat screen TV is a good few years old now but (guestimate) weighs 3x that of the 43 inch TV recently purchased by my mother. Not only has the bezel on the newer TV almost disappeared but the front to back depth has reduced significantly.

[The Natural Philosopher]

LED rather then fluorescent backlighting has made a huge difference.

[newshound]

+1. I don't believe for 30mm the issue will be extra moments on the bracket links and pivots, it will be the moment on your existing wall fixings.

So, if TV2_weight * (x+30) is less than TV1_weight * x

where x is the distance from the wall pivot to the original TV centre of gravity

then you should be fine (on both counts)

[Dave Plowman (News]

The one which disputes that is OLED. ;-)

[Andrew]

Eh ?. Meccano is Green and Red surely ?.

[Andrew]

Refer to the anti-gravity thread, re wall-mounting a TV

[gareth evans]

And blue and yellow

Or maybe just (Cadmium?) plated steel.

There have been different colour schemes over the years, but your picture looks like what happened after the French took over the rights to Meccano.

[Dave Plowman (News]

That's not going to happen. The mounting bracket is bolted to steel strips about 1/8 x 1 x 12", which are firmly fixed to the bricks with Rawlbolts, plastered over and tiles over that. Reason for this is I didn't think I could get a decent fixing for the bracket alone into bricks so close to the external corner of the chimney breast.

[Paul]

I think my set had green things in it.

We never lacked for things to bung together.

A favorite, was our discovery, that with the three rails on an HO train set, you could put two cabs on the rails, and using two transformers, you could drive the cabs directly at one another, and do "smash-ups". Those cabs were as tough as nails, and there was hardly a mark on them from our "efforts". None of this "sedate going in circles" nonsense.

Who says having a train set can't be fun.

Paul

[Roland Perry]

In message [e-mail]>, at 14:42:26 on Tue, 23 Nov

2021, "Dave Plowman (News)" [e-mail]> remarked:

I've moved my TV sideways, while keeping the mount in the same place.

In my shed I had some perforated steel strips (a bit like large bits of meccano). They are called "jointing plates" and come in a variety of sizes.

Simply screw two of them horizontally to the back of the TV using the normal VESA mounting points (possibly with some spacers/washers if there's an indent) and then bolt the assembly to the VESA plate on the mount. I didn't even have to drill any new holes, as they already lined up.

If the plates are sturdy enough, there's no unwanted wobble, and I don't think the extra load on the mount is likely to be an issue, especially as the new TV is almost certain the be lighter than the old one, and the articulated mounts are designed to support a TV at whatever crazy extension the user chooses.

[Dave Plowman (News]

It's what I'll likely do, then. But perforated strips would look a bit crude (as you can see the back of the TV) so I think I'll make up an ally plate to do the job, and paint it matt black.