Yet another TV mounting question!

Deanicus

Hi,

I am planning on mounting my TV to the wall soon and I am looking for some clarification on some things

The TV is a 48" Samsung that weighs 12kg. I want to mount it to a plasterboard wall with metal studs but I want to use a full motion bracket.

From reading threads on here and other places the advice for full motion brackets is to use a plywood board that is screwed to the studs. The neatest job is to cut out the plasterboard and put the wood into the recess but I am not confident enough to do this so I have opted to mount the wood over the plasterboard.

I just have a couple of questions on this though, if someone can help

1. The placement I want means there are only 2 studs available. Is this enough?

2. If it is I was thinking of 3 screws in each stud and possibly some toggle bolts through the centre for extra support.

2. Most seem to suggest plywood but would I be better with solid wood?

3. What size and thickness wood piece would you suggest? TV dimensions are 1086.1 x 630.1 x 49.7mm WxHxD

4. For mounting the bracket to the wood itself, I am little confused on the screw sizes some threads suggest. Should the screws just be long enough to fit in the wood or should they go through the wood and into the plasterboard?

Any help/suggestions are welcome. Also, if anyone has any pics of a similar setup, they would be appreciated

Thanks

Calibos

Wait for more input from others but what I would say is that wall mounting info could be well out of date even if its only 4 or 5 years old.

Reason??

Only a few years ago LED/OLED LCD panels couldn't compete with Plasma with regard to Picture quality. Plasmas were the flat panels of choice. By design they were much thicker and heavier than LCD's of the time. For instance my 42in Panasonic Plasmas from 2007 are about 4-5 inches thick and weigh a tonne. Only the flagship uber expensive model plasmas from that time and a few years after were thinner and lighter.

At this point in time though, LED/OLED LCD's have caught up in PQ and have taken over the flat panel market. They are much thinner and weigh a heck of a lot less than plasmas ever did.

Thus any flat panel mounting advice that pertains to plasmas and/or was posted more than 3 or 4 years ago is likely hopelessly out of date and no longer applies. Even if its more recent it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt as the person giving the advice might themselves be just parroting the best practise mounting advice the received years before and not taking into account that someone in 2015 is likely mounting a significantly lighter LED/OLED.

A 12kg 48in TV is without a shadow of a doubt in my mind a thin LED/OLED LCD panel without me even needing to ask you what type of TV you have. My 42" Panasonic plasmas are 40+kg IIRC.

Funnily enough, you'd actually get more applicable accurate advice asking how to mount a 12kg mirror in a DIY/Interior design forum where the advice wouldn't be coloured by old plasma mounting best practice (Do it this way because this is they way we've always done it)

Think about it. 12kg is only 12 bags of Sugar.

If the mounting plate holes line up with 2 studs then I'd imagine you are good to go without any other messing around other than a few big screws tbh.

This Flat Panel shift is something I've kept in mind for a few projects I have on the back burner. I want to build some beds for our house with 40in flat panels built into the footboards of the bed on TV lifts. ie. Press a button and a flap on the top of the footboard opens and flatpanel TV rises up out of the footboard. This type of thing has existed for a while but they costed thousands upon thousands. Even DIY'ing the furniture yourself, the Linear Motor TV Lift systems cost 500 into the thousands. Why? They needed to safely and reliably lift 40kg+ in the past. Not so anymore. I can easily DIY a system for lifting a 10kg 40" flat panel with some drawer sliders, a cheap little motor, an arduino controller and a scissors lift mechanism for less than €100 in parts now.

Deanicus

Calibos wrote: »

Wait for more input from others but what I would say is that wall mounting info could be well out of date even if its only 4 or 5 years old.

Reason??

Only a few years ago LED/OLED LCD panels couldn't compete with Plasma with regard to Picture quality. Plasmas were the flat panels of choice. By design they were much thicker and heavier than LCD's of the time. For instance my 42in Panasonic Plasmas from 2007 are about 4-5 inches thick and weigh a tonne. Only the flagship uber expensive model plasmas from that time and a few years after were thinner and lighter.

At this point in time though, LED/OLED LCD's have caught up in PQ and have taken over the flat panel market. They are much thinner and weigh a heck of a lot less than plasmas ever did.

Thus any flat panel mounting advice that pertains to plasmas and/or was posted more than 3 or 4 years ago is likely hopelessly out of date and no longer applies. Even if its more recent it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt as the person giving the advice might themselves be just parroting the best practise mounting advice the received years before and not taking into account that someone in 2015 is likely mounting a significantly lighter LED/OLED.

A 12kg 48in TV is without a shadow of a doubt in my mind a thin LED/OLED LCD panel without me even needing to ask you what type of TV you have. My 42" Panasonic plasmas are 40+kg IIRC.

Funnily enough, you'd actually get more applicable accurate advice asking how to mount a 12kg mirror in a DIY/Interior design forum where the advice wouldn't be coloured by old plasma mounting best practice (Do it this way because this is they way we've always done it)

Think about it. 12kg is only 12 bags of Sugar.

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah I did see that a lot of the advice is a few years out of date alright so I guess I am kind of hoping to hear that it might be ok to mount directly to the studs which would make it easier!!

I hear what you are saying about the older TVs. I have a 50" plasma that weighs about 30kg which is pretty decent considering the size. I don't think even the last of the Panasonic ones have gotten much lighter than that.

Regardless I might just go with the board anyway, just to be safe. A lot of what I have read mentioned that metal studs are particularly poor at handling twisting force which is exactly what a full motion armed bracket would exert. Whilst the TV is 12kg, the bracket is at least 6kg so I am looking at a total of 18kg pulling on the stud. Also the arm functions as a lever so the force is even greater than that again (although to what extent, I don't know)

I am not particularly handy so I'd rather deal with putting a board up than trying to fix a wall!!

antiskeptic

Deanicus wrote: »

Hi,

I am planning on mounting my TV to the wall soon and I am looking for some clarification on some things

The TV is a 48" Samsung that weighs 12kg. I want to mount it to a plasterboard wall with metal studs but I want to use a full motion bracket.

From reading threads on here and other places the advice for full motion brackets is to use a plywood board that is screwed to the studs. The neatest job is to cut out the plasterboard and put the wood into the recess but I am not confident enough to do this so I have opted to mount the wood over the plasterboard.

I just have a couple of questions on this though, if someone can help

1. The placement I want means there are only 2 studs available. Is this enough?

Yes. I'd make the ply board the width of the studs + 3" either side and the height of it the height of your TV minus 3" top and bottom so you don't see it so much. That's plenty to spread the load

2. If it is I was thinking of 3 screws in each stud and possibly some toggle bolts through the centre for extra support.

Screw length = ply thickness + plasterboard thickness (18mm) + 30mm.

Screw type = ordinary philips head chipboard type screw common to DIY stores/Chadwicks. Something like 5mm would be heavy enough. You'll need a decent battery drill / leaning on it whilst you screw in.

(it's worth noting that one square inch of carbon steel ( the stuff your screws are made of) can support approx 30 tonne when loaded in tension. There's a tendency for the novice to over engineer.)

Screw the board in place using a couple of light screws - just enough to hold it fast. Drill to full depth of a 2.0 -2.5mm drill bit through ply/plasterboard/stud. Drill through ply using 5mm bit.

Screw in 6 x 5mm screws, 3 each side



2. Most seem to suggest plywood but would I be better with solid wood?

Ply is fine. 3/4" thick plenty.

3. What size and thickness wood piece would you suggest? TV dimensions are 1086.1 x 630.1 x 49.7mm WxHxD

See above

4. For mounting the bracket to the wood itself, I am little confused on the screw sizes some threads suggest. Should the screws just be long enough to fit in the wood or should they go through the wood and into the plasterboard?

Into the wood (and beyond but don't go through the plasterboard - you don't know what's behind) is fine with 5mm screws as described above is fine - usually there's a slot for the mounting so 4 screws on top slot and 2 in bottom slot.

Deanicus

antiskeptic wrote: »

Deanicus wrote: »

Hi,

I am planning on mounting my TV to the wall soon and I am looking for some clarification on some things

The TV is a 48" Samsung that weighs 12kg. I want to mount it to a plasterboard wall with metal studs but I want to use a full motion bracket.

From reading threads on here and other places the advice for full motion brackets is to use a plywood board that is screwed to the studs. The neatest job is to cut out the plasterboard and put the wood into the recess but I am not confident enough to do this so I have opted to mount the wood over the plasterboard.

I just have a couple of questions on this though, if someone can help

1. The placement I want means there are only 2 studs available. Is this enough?

Yes. I'd make the ply board the width of the studs + 3" either side and the height of it the height of your TV minus 3" top and bottom so you don't see it so much. That's plenty to spread the load

2. If it is I was thinking of 3 screws in each stud and possibly some toggle bolts through the centre for extra support.

Screw length = ply thickness + plasterboard thickness (18mm) + 30mm.

Screw type = ordinary philips head chipboard type screw common to DIY stores/Chadwicks. Something like 5mm would be heavy enough. You'll need a decent battery drill / leaning on it whilst you screw in.

(it's worth noting that one square inch of carbon steel ( the stuff your screws are made of) can support approx 30 tonne when loaded in tension. There's a tendency for the novice to over engineer.)

Screw the board in place using a couple of light screws - just enough to hold it fast. Drill to full depth of a 2.0 -2.5mm drill bit through ply/plasterboard/stud. Drill through ply using 5mm bit.

Screw in 6 x 5mm screws, 3 each side



2. Most seem to suggest plywood but would I be better with solid wood?

Ply is fine. 3/4" thick plenty.

3. What size and thickness wood piece would you suggest? TV dimensions are 1086.1 x 630.1 x 49.7mm WxHxD

See above

4. For mounting the bracket to the wood itself, I am little confused on the screw sizes some threads suggest. Should the screws just be long enough to fit in the wood or should they go through the wood and into the plasterboard?

Into the wood (and beyond but don't go through the plasterboard - you don't know what's behind) is fine with 5mm screws as described above is fine - usually there's a slot for the mounting so 4 screws on top slot and 2 in bottom slot.

Thanks very much for your advice. Its a good deal clearer to me now.

Which of the below screws would you use? Or should I be a little safe and go for a 60mm length?

http://www.diy.com/departments/brass-wood-furniture-screw-dia5mm-l50mm-pack-of-25/250690_BQ.prd

or

http://www.diy.com/departments/zinc-effect-metal-window-screw-dia5mm-l50mm-pack-of-25/195893_BQ.prd

Would I be better going for self drilling screws?

Thanks!