[catch20two]

Hi,

I have a mount from perfectmounts.com on its way in the mail for my new 4805. My problem is I don't really know how I'm going to mount this to the ceiling of my apt. I have drywall ceilings (possibly metal joists? I don't know it's a highrise). I'm surprised I haven't been able to find a howto or anything that gets into what exactly to do to make sure I don't rip a hole in my ceiling and drop my projector.


I know there are six holes in the top plate of the mount. Am I putting four of those (don't know the real name) drywall fasteners that fold out through predrilled holes? Or am I putting two screws into the joists?


Can anyone point me in the direction of a howto or tell me exactly how to mount one of these to a drywall ceiling? Let me know anything I should be checking for to avoid any "rookie mistakes."


You guys have been a huge help to me through this process of setting up my HT, thanks alot!

 

[mrehrer]

Did this myself for the first time recently.


Placement of the mount/projector will likely be dictated by where you want your screen. If you could put some of the mount screws into a stud that would be lucky. More than likely you will use the 4 included butterfly anchors and no stud.


To use these I drilled progressively larger holes in the ceiling until I could just cram the anchors in. To make sure you are not stuck doing an impossible fishing exercise you may want to do what I did.


1. Pass the bolt through the mount plate.

2. Thread the bolt onto the anchor with a few turns.

3. You should now be able to cram the anchors into the holes in the ceiling without losing the anchor on the other side.

4. You might need to pull down lightly (to engage the anchors) as you carefully tighten each bolt a bit in turn until the mount is flush.


In case it is not obvious the "mouth" of the anchor should open downward and the triangle it forms will point upward. If this is confusing hopefully someone will post a picture.


Take care,

 

[catch20two]

Thanks alot for the description, it all seems to pretty much make sense. My main concern was that only using the butterfly anchors would not be sufficient, but it seems that they will be fine.

 

[mvv]

I didn't want to hang my PJ by only a few drywall anchors and I wanted the ability to move the PJ around a bit without destroying my textured ceiling. I used a 1x4, painted white, screwed between two joists with 3" wood screws. I used one screw at the end farthest from the wall and two screws at the other end angled into the wall. The result is only one screw hole in the textured ceiling, the two holes in the wall would be much easier to patch and hide with some touch-up paint.

Since mounting the PJ I did have to move it back by about an inch. I was able to do it easily and without doing more damage to the ceiling by simply moving the mount on the board. The old holes are hidden by the projector itself.


Good Luck,

Mark

 

[catch20two]

It seems I'm not the only one concerned about the ability of the drywall anchors to hold the projector up. Is there anyone with alot of experience with this kind of thing that can answer with authority as to whether the anchors are sufficient?

 

[catch20two]

Mark,


Are you just using 1'' screws then to attach the projector to the 1x4 that you've attached to the ceiling?

 

[miltimj]

Actually, they'd be 3/4" screws (1x4s are only .75"x3.5")...


There's no way you'd catch me using screws that short to hang a $1K+ projector. (Nor would I only use drywall anchors, for the record)

 

[mvv]

I'm not sure exactly how long the three screws are, but they're short fat suckers. Probably a size 12 or 14. I made sure that after going through the mount itself and the 1x4, they wouldn't poke out the other side. The footprint of my mount has the screws far enough in from the edges of the 1x4 so I'm not worried about it splitting or failing there either.

Since my PJ is only about 6 pounds, I really don't expect them to go anywhere.


-Mark

 

[miltimj]

Ahh, 6 lbs is a bit of a different matter.. mine is 20 lbs, thus my comments.

 

[Bobby_M]

If you can figure out how thick the drywall is, you can feel more comfortable with the anchors. I would easily trust 4 good anchors in 5/8" drywall for your smaller >8lbs PJs.


Keep in mind, there are a lot of different anchors and I'm NOT talking about the plastic ones that you push into the hole. I like either the butterfly type (requires a really large hole) or my fav is the tubular steel ones that fan out in 4 directions when you tighten the screw (much smaller hole with similar holding strength).


If you can get at least one or two screws into a joist, I'd be 100% confident in the remain holes using anchors.


Bobby

 

[BuffBakerGA]

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