When I first picked up my projector, I just slapped a shelf up on the wall at about the right height and left it at that. Pretty ugly, but worked great. After we moved into the new house, a shelf wasn’t an option. Quality mounts run $100 – $300… ouch. So I ordered a cheap $15 mount from Monoprice while I figured out plan B.
The Monoprice mount worked okay, but:
- it was a pain to adjust
- shook the projector when people walked around above
- sagged so I had to realign it all the time.
Time for that “Plan B”… so I spent some time with my white board, SketchUp, and looking at other mounts to see what they were doing.
Most mounts have only one point of support and articulation, which doesn’t even line up with the projector’s CG (center of gravity). This means you’ll always have some image shake if there ‘s any up-down movement. And the alignment system for almost all mounts I saw were of the “Line it up, tighten it down, and hope it doesn’t shift or you’ll have to repeat the guessing game” variety.
I knew I wanted something solid that I could line up nearly pixel-perfect and wouldn’t ever sag, so I went for a “tripod” support scheme. Two turnbuckles at the front for adjustment, and a solid “leg” at the back for the third point (you could make this a turnbuckle as well if you need more adjustment room). This would give very controlled pitch and roll adjustment for the projector, and since everything is perfectly balanced, there’s nothing to tighten down or sag over time. The other upside is that it’s a piece of cake to detach the projector; just unscrew the rear coupling nut, and then lift it off the turnbuckle hooks. No second person or tools needed, which means much less chance of dropping your ‘spensive projector in the process.
Anyway, enough talk – here’s what I came up with:
Plan B
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- The test subject
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- Here’s what I meant about the mount not lining up with the projector’s Center of Gravity, though that’s probably the projectors fault. Don’t know why the crap they put the mounting holes there…
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- About $8 worth of stuff from Home Depot: 3/4″ MDF scrap from the cutting area, two hook/eye turnbuckles, matching carriage bolts, a coupling nut, nut-serts for mounting directly into the MDF, and regular nuts & washers
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- Here’s the bottom of the cheap Monoprice mount I was using before. Using it as a template, I marked and drilled the holes for the projector mounting screws.
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- Drilling the holes for the turnbuckles & support bolts
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- Labeled the peices to avoid the wailing and gnashing of teeth that come with miss-drilling a hole in the wrong peice/side, etc
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- Counter-sinking the holes with a spade bit (sounds dirty, I know…)
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- The projector’s rubber feet aren’t removable, so I’m checking for clearance. I had to add some spacers to lift the plate up over the feet.
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- Since this side sits flush against the projector, I couldn’t use a regular nut to secure the turnbuckles. Enter the nut-serts…
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- Just line ’em up and use a wrench to crank them down into the wood, and they go in flush. Pretty slick, I think.
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- Test assemble, looks like everything lines up (whew!)
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- Test fit to projector (sanity check)
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- Routered the hard edges for a nice rounded finish
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- Painted black and re-assembled
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- Plan B
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- All done! Just find a ceiling joist and use a hefty lag bolt & washer to mount on the ceiling.
Confessions of a DIY-a-holic 