Sliding Track Ceiling Mount for 42" Plasma TV - Page 3

I have to give props to Sanus, the maker of the ceiling mout for the TV. One of the horizontal bars came with its safety/dust cap broken. I called the support number on their website and a man from Indiana answered. I explained the broken item to him and, even though I had no part number, etc, he understood exactly what I meant. He could ship me out just a replacement cap, but he says he personally hates pulling out the broken ones so he is sending me an entire replacement bar with the cap already installed!

VERY good customer service, I would recommend them in a heartbeat for that reason. The mount being VERY study and well built is the other reason.

The only part I am having custom built is the cover - I realized I needed to be able to access the track in the future, so I am having a local metal fabrication shop build me a cover with piano hinges built into it so it can be opened as needed. That should be done in the next few days. It will be painted black and installed and then the tracking is done! I will edit the first post to show the parts used and the final construction.
Edited by cybrsage - 1/15/13 at 4:25pm

I am going to cross post this in the DIY forum, for obvious reasons. The final cost was slightly over $500, which is not bad considering the cheapest I could find it premade by someone else was $3200! So here we go, pics of the final results, followed by what I did to get there.


Flush against the wall




Side view against the wall




45 degree angle near the wall - perfect for playing the Wii or anything which requires a LOT of room




In the center of the room - it is at a 90 degree angle compared to when it is against the wall, EDIT: WOW! Due to being so much closer, it almost looks at big as the screen - it definately is not.




Rear view of the mount. It is a Sanus LC1A Ceiling Mount $130




Here you can see the Cable Carrier Chain by IGUS - what I call the tank tread part IGU-E08-10-028-0 $100




Johnson Hardware 200SD Commercial Grade Sliding Bypass Door hardware. Two 6 foot rails, four rollers, two rail mounted door stops, wrench $200




Here you can see two pics of it all mounted. I used 3/4 inch one hole strap to hold it to the ceiling, I used electrical tape on every other or every third knuckle to help ensure the wires stay inside the chain. Home Depot in the electrical parts $2







The cover was fabricated by a local metal fabrication shop. It is aluminum and has piano hinges on it so I can open them to get inside. $70




The door rollers were mounted onto the ceiling plate of the Sanus mount, the extra bolt length sticking through the mount was cut off flush. The two door rails were mounted onto the ceiling. This was easy for me as I have a double layer ceiling - the first layer is 1/2 inch OSB and the second is 1/2 inch drywall (with Gree Glue between them). This meant I did not have to try to find studs to mount the rails. MOUNTING TO STUDS IS VITAL!!! There will be a lot of weight on these rails. The rails can each hold a 400 pound door, so the rails and rollers will not even break a sweat. Two rails are used to ensure there is no side to side wobble when the TV is moved, not for the weight.


After the tracks were on the ceiling, the ceiling plate/roller combo was slid onto the tracks and rolled back and forth to check for binding - adjust as needed. There are 14 holes on each 6 foot track, and I used 14 x 1 3/4 wood screws to attack it to the ceiling.


The wiring was run through the ceiling, between the two rails. Both the electrical and the HDMI cables were run through the carrier chain, which was affixed to the ceiling from the entrance point to the center point by the one hole straps (4 of them). This provided strength and stability to the chain. MAKE SURE THE CHAIN IS LYING SIDEWAYS, WITH THE OPENING PARALLEL TO THE CEILING! If you have the opening facing the ceiling, the chain will dropp and hang very low, causing binding and ugliness...as well as gnashing of teeth and much lamentation! I used tie wraps to ensure the cables could not come out in the part affixed to the ceiling. Tie wraps caught the rollers on the other parts, so I used electrical tape on every other knuckle to do the same thing.

I had to tie wrap a wood shim on the inside of the rollers to prevent the chain from between the roller and the mount and binding. I had a lot of wood shims left over from installing a door.


Basic parts list:

Sanus Ceiling Mount Kit LC1A
http://www.standsandmounts.com/sanusvisionmountuniversaltiltandswivelceilingmountforflatpaneltvsupto55blacklc1.aspx

6 feet of IGUS Energy Chain Cable Organizer IGU-E08-10-028-0
http://www.cableorganizer.com/igus/echain-series-e08-chain.html

Johnson Hardware Sliding Door 200SD Parts
QTY:2 200-0060 60" (5'- 0") [1524mm] TRACK LENGTH
QTY:1 1712 ADJUSTMENT WRENCH
QTY: 4 2020 200 SERIES DOOR HANGER
QTY: 2 2055 TRACK STOP

QTY:4 One Hold Strap by EMT - found at Home Depot in the electrical section

HDMI Cable, Tie Wraps, wood screws, electrical tape, outlet plug (female end), and other assorted minor items.

Some minor touch up still needs to be done, and the end cap needs to be painted and installed, but everything works as I wanted it to. I kept the entire thing a secret from the wife who LOVES it.
Edited by cybrsage - 6/11/12 at 6:33pm

Thanks for the input!

I asked my wife about extending it and she said not to. I agree with you, extend it for symmetry sake, but she wants it to stop there so stop there it will.

I am going to print a picture of Heinz Field onto a cloth that will be velcro'd to the top of the TV and more permanently affixed to the bottom. When the TV not in use, it is pulled up and becomes just another picture, when in use it is easily dropped down to expose the screen. The screen WILL reflect a lot of light, so this is a must. The mount only rotates 90 degrees, so more is not an option. I was going to have it rotate against the wall, but the back just did not present a clean enough surface, even if I tried to cover it up.

I am also going to add brushes to the two cover edges, so the slot is fully blocked but the pole can still slide through.

Yep, the 200SD series is what I used - I got the initial idea for using sliding door tracks from BIG, then went beefier due to paranoia.

After a few months of use, I can say it works just as well as when I first built it.

Thanks! You DO need it - how else are you going to move the TV all around the room?

It is aluminum, 1/16" thick. 3 1/2" wide, 3" tall (ceiling to where the horizontal part starts) and there is a 3" gap between the two halves for the post to slide between. The vertical part is attached to a thin piano hinge, which is attached to the ceiling horizontal piece. That is 31/2" wide also, with holes cut in it to match the ones in the ceiling track. The bolts run through the ceiling track, then through the cover plate, then through the ceiling. This was done because the rollers need all the room inside the ceiling track, so the cover has to be outside the track and not inside it.