Before you flame me, I've read every "metal stud" topic that returned in that search!

I wanted to see what the group experience is for taking on this problem. I need to hang a 40" LCD on a Peerless Articulating mount. The wall is metal studded and I don't have the adaptor plate that Peerless calls for.

My plan right now is to use a piece of spanning wood behind the mount, to catch to metal studs. The wood would be secured to the studs with toggle bolts. I would then secure the mount to the wood with lag bolts, and/or additional toggles. This way, if something were to fail, the whole wall would fall. I don't really want to start cutting out drywall, and I'm not comfortable going into only 1 metal stud.

I think the external wall plate is a great idea, but it's expensive for the purpose. Wood serves the same purpose.


Does anyone have any other suggestions or want to chime in?

In a reply to my own thread with a solution for those who are interested:

I ended up using a piece of white MDF type lumber from home depot 36" wide. I don't know if it's MDF but it sure isn't plywood. It seemed to be plenty strong. I spanned two metal studs that were 24" apart and used toggle bolts through the wood securing to the studs.

I then proceeded to bolt the mount to the wood with 6 3" or 4" lag bolts. The lags went through the wood and the drywall. I considered using more toggle bolts, but that would have been a lot more drilling and the lags were driven in with a socket wrench and a lot of torque so I was confident it wasn't moving.

I placed the 40" Bravia on the mount and swung it to it's fully extended position while I put some downward force and bounced it a little. The mount seemed to flex more than the wall. I did hear a little creaking in the wall was weight was added, but nothing more than I've heard when applying nearly my full weight to a flat or tilt mount. I'm not a fan of these articulating/cantilever mounts. They seem to have too much torque and weight too far away from the wall to make me comfortable.

The proper way to do this is to use Peerless' metal stud span plate, which, essentially does the same thing as this wood idea I had, but is made of plate steel, and costs $100.

I'm not a fan of these articulating/cantilever mounts. They seem to have too much torque and weight too far away from the wall to make me comfortable.



I have had my 42" plasma on an articulating arm that is fully extended for over a year with zero issues. Of course, I'm mounted into wood studs, but the mounts work as they were designed to.

Glad you figured out a mounting solution.

I have my 40" XBR mounted in my tray ceiling which is at a 12/12 pitch (45 degree angle) 9ft in the air. It has been up there for almost 2 years, and I am now a bit nervous due to the appearance of the left side looking like it is now a bit further away form the wall than the right side. These TVs are meant to be hung vertically and not out on a 45 degree angle, or at least I don't think they are. Anyone else do this with poor results?