My DIY mount for L300u $20 :) - Page 6

Hey folks. I have a Monkeyman mount (pretty much) and I am probably going to take down the plexi in favor of plywood. I have 2 pieces of the .10 plexi and my Z3 is making them bend right now.

I'm also considering buying a laptop and placing it on top of the mounted plywood and getting wireless keyboard and mouse. Has anyone tried using the top of the mount for an intermittent shelf? I figure it would save me about $200 in cables if it could work.

Any thoughts on the feasability of this plan? It's about an 8 lb laptop.

They didn't have the 1/4" at any of the hardware stores in my area in the size I need and they wouldn't cut it either so I was stuck.

I think all I need to do for the shelf is cut the plywood a little bigger (say 17X17"). My concern is if the weight will cause the whole thing to tilt slightly, causing the image to skew.

Also - props for the design. The mount is great and the wife likes it also.

Bringing this one back up to thank Monkey and all others who have shared their MM mounts and deviations.

All of the materials ran me $25.23 at Home Depot (they didn't have anything longer than M4 30's so I'm constructing the two-board design others have done).

Again...thanks!

I had built something similar for my X1 it it works great. Must admit I used regular nuts for minor height and level adjustment, I make go back and use wing nuts instead. Tho the regular nuts are not that hard to deal with.

The key with the plexiglass is to get a good sharp utility knife and "score" it as deeply as possible. The stuff comes in a big sheet (more then you will need) so if you screw up, no big deal. But I clamped a heavy metel ruler to the plexiglass then cut with the knife along the ruler and repeated about a dozen or so times. Then put the cut just barely overhanging a sturdy table and did a quick push down "snap" on the over hung part of the plexiglass. Worked great!

You also want to be carefull when you drill thru the stuff. I started with the smallest drill bit I had and then one size at a time stepped up to the final size. Once when I tried to go to the size I needed directly it "cracked" the stuff.

Just go slow and purposeful and you will be fine. And like I say the sheet from Home Depot could probably make four of them, so if you screw up, not a big deal.

This thing looks great and seems like I can handle the construction of this mount.

Howerever I have a problem. I live in an apartment complex. The guy who lives above me probably has safety boots on when he walks around the house as it causes anything mounted on my roof to kind of shake. Is there a way to remedy that. I have an infocus X1 PJ

You need rubber/foam isolation. There are commercial vibration isolators out there like
http://store.yahoo.com/archery-experts/412inis.html

(search google/froogle for more).

but all you need to do is sandwich rubber/foam between the fasteners and/ or plate. The stiffness/softness of the foam/rubber will depend on the frequency of the vibration. You'll need to experiment, or google for vibration isolation guidelines.

I would mash a piece of thick foam between the ceiling and a top mount plate, which would act as an isolated ceiling surface for the pipe to mount to. The fasteners passing through the plate and isolation material to the ceiling would need rubber/foam under their bolt heads, like thick soft rubber grommets, similar to engine mounts on car engines, connecting the shaking engine to the car frame. The idea is to avoid any hard contact path back to the ceiling, similar to an electrical conduction path , except that vibration can be conducted through any hard material, electrically conductive or not.

Or mount to a wall or floor with suitable adapting hardware or support structure.

Based on several recent private emails to me, I updated my above posts with pictures to include the fastener stack parts list, which shows changes to monkey_man's original fastener stack. The remaining parts list is the same as monkey's.

Here is a simple isolation design off the top of my head. The best I could draw in MS Paint in the last 5 minutes .

The top plate could just rest on the isolation material. Experiment with foam, rubber or insulation material. The M4 threaded rod or fasteners don't *have* to go through the isolation material- they could be outside the perimeter.

You could also replace the isolation material with springs piloted over the M4 rod or fasteners between the top and bottom plate. These springs would be in compression. You would need to experiment to find the right size/stiffness of spring, though I'd think you'd need something with viscous dampening similar to a car shock absorber to dampen induced vibration.

Another spring variation could be substituting springs for the rods/fasteners connecting the bottom plate to the ceiling in the attached diagram, i.e. springs or rod-like vibration isolators only, no rigid connection from the bottom plate to the ceiling. The springs would be in tension.

Another option would be to use the basic pipe flange design, and put isolation material between the ceiling and ceiling end pipe flange, and between the single projector plate of the original design and the projector end pipe flange. You'd need to use longer flange bolts with rubber grommets, of course.

M4 threaded rod in several foot lengths can be found at:

Metro Bolt and Fastener Corporation
19339 Glenmore
Redford, MI 48240
313-538-4800

Updated last few posts with M4 threaded rod source and other suggestions for isolation.

Very. .

BTW, I got the smoked color plexi from a co-worker. I also got some clear plexi from another co-worker! Both for free.

Ask co-workers and friends if they have scrap plexi in their basements or garages- you'd be amazed how common free leftovers are.

I made a flush mount (I only have an 8' ceiling), I also wanted something that is fairly easy to remove for presentations.

I used toggles (four of them) to hold up the brackets.

I can adjust the height and angles by using combinations of screw lenghts and nuts. It works out very well, my wife did not want anything hanging from the ceiling.

Added more isolation design suggestions in post above with diagram.

Wow! That looks VERY nice!! Can you provide more information? How does it handle airflow? It looks pretty tight to the ceiling.

- Vikas

^^^I have very good air circulation in the room. I have a large 5 blade fan that pulls air downward which helps circulate the cool air from two vents in the room. My only problem will be dust (I tiled my entire house), so regular maint. will be needed.

OK, I'm gonna scout around tomorrow for those darn M4 screws. Can I get away with 60mm length, not that I know I can find them but I have a better shot at that than 76mm? Also, the compression springs are 1inch in length? Everything else, Lowes seem to have in stock. Any tips to get it close mounted to the ceiling? I have 7 foot ceilings.

I used a combination of using a speaker mount from radio shack and the monkey man mount.
I followed the directions and list to a T, except for the M4's. I went with the 60mm and there was(is) no problems.
BTW, I have a low ceiling also. I have been using this mount since this thread started, and I have been Very satisfied with it.

I'm pretty sure I used 60's on mine and they worked fine. FYI, everything I found was at a Tru Value hardware store - Lowes and Home Depot just didn't have the metric sizes.

-Mike

Here is my dry run

Monkeyman mount with, I made a second mount to run the cables. Only 1 more coat of mud, texture and paint.

I've got a Panasonic AE700. One question, anyone worried about the heat and the plexiglass?

First pic is from the side, second is from the back.

What type of pipe are you using and what is the ceiling cover plate? Looks nice.

Tkhanks

If you are asking me I'm using a 3/4" floor flange and pipe for the mount and 1.5" floor flange and pipe for the wire run. It needed to be big enough for the HDMI and VGA cables. I think I'm going to use wood trim around the top. Just cut a circle out drill a hole so the pipe fits and router the edge. If I can find a small plastic or metal ring I might use that to hide the floor flange.

Also insted of getting an 8" pipe for the drop I used a 6". I wanted to cover the threaded parts so I picked up 2 connectors, threaded on the outside and about 2" long. I connected those to the floor flange, next I found some covers 2" long threaded on the inside only. This way you can't see the pipe thread on the outside, and it also added the step on the top and bottom.

So far the best I can come up with is 50mm bolts from Sears Hardware. Will these work? Autoparts store had nothing.

At Home Depot they sell plastic and plaster molded ceiling medallions for above light fixtures and/or ceiling fans. I looked into them once and they are cheap - like $8 and nice because some of them have scroll work on them. You just paint them like regular trim work. Also, you could use the snap ring insert for ceiling lights (cans). The halogen ones get pretty small. Not sure if you could find the small ones in HD though. I really like the way yours turned out. That's the way I'm going to do mine I think... Looks REAL professional!

finally got the room far enough along to mount the projector. Thanks Monkyman for the great design. I replaced the plexi-glass with a 1/8" stainless steal sheet. It works pretty good but it does bow a little when you tighten the wingnuts too far. I'm going to try a 1/4" sheet of Aluminum as it will be more rigid.

I used the design to mount my 4805.
There is a photo in my gallery.

Great design. Thanks for posting it.

Finally got my 4805 in and am using MonkeyMan's mount!

Lowes had 50mm M4 bolts, but I found a local hardware store that had 70mm.

In place of the plexi I am using a thick plastic cutting board ala Wally World! Hey it chops, dices, slices AND plays great movies!

Thank's for all the DIY help! Will post pix as soon as the mount is complete.

Hey am_pcguy,

Your installation looks great! Is that ABS pipe, or steel pipe or what? Is there any reason you went with different sizes for the two drops??

Finally, can you describe the pieces you used for the mount? I see it from top to bottom as:
1) Flange (inside thread; female?)
2) Short adaptor (outside thread; male)
3) Short adaptor (inside thread; female)
4) pipe drop (outside thread/male on ends)
5) Short adaptor (inside thread; female)
6) Short adaptor (outside thread; male)
7) Flange (inside thread; female?)


Is that right?

What did you use for the flange cover? It looks really nice. Thanks for posting it!

Steel pipe, primed and painted flat black. I used 2 sizes because I didn't need 1 1/4" for the Projector but that is the smallest I could get a VGA, component, and HDMI cable through.


That is exactly right. I could not find a pipe longer than 6" at my local Home depot. I saw the short male (outside thread) and the short female (inside thread) put them together, it looked nice, hid the pipe threads, and got me to the length I wanted. It cost about $5 for the extra parts, so I have maybe $30 into the mount.


They are blank light fixture covers. They would be used to cover an open light fixture box. I used a dremel cutting tool to cut the center out, and they covered the flange nicely. Thanks for the compliment.