TV Wall Mount

Since I got my LG 4k TV, my old Samsung has been sitting off to the side doing nothing. I decided it was just what I needed to mount in front of my treadmill to provide a bigger screen and better sound than my tablet. I figured it would be fun to figure out how to build my own mount. I bought a cheap firestick on prime day to transform it into a smart TV, and now there is just the minor detail of getting it mounted on the wall.

After poking around on the internet, I figured a french cleat was the very thing I needed. Most everything I needed to bodge one up was already laying around in the garage.

I had a nice flat 2x6 laying around, so I ripped it at an angle on my table saw (by ripping a single piece of wood, I'm assured the angles match) and mounted half on the wall:

A stud finder and a couple of 4 inch #14 wood screws into the studs seems to have made it pretty darn solid on the wall.

I trimmed the other half to fit the back of the TV better and used some M8 bolts (did have to buy them) to mount it to the existing vesa mount holes that are 600mm apart. Bored out the holes so the wood would sit flat against the wall).

Used a couple of trimmed chunks to mount on the bottom vesa holes to make sure the TV is supported the same distance from the wall at the top and bottom.

For all these operations I measured as many different ways as possible to make sure the holes would line up with the studs and the vesa mounts, etc. Seem to have been careful enough, didn't have any problems with misaligned holes.

Spent two hours getting the @#$! TV stand mounting screws out of the deep blind holes where you can't see how to engage the screwdriver, but finally got the stand off. (New product idea: Screwdrivers with video cameras in the tip :-).

Now it is just a ‘trivial’ matter of getting the TV lifted up high enough to drop it onto the wall mount. When I figure out how to do that, I'll update this :-). It isn't actually too heavy to lift, but there is no place to get a good grip. (Sure I could get someone to help me, but that's just what they'd expect you to do!)

I've moved the TV a couple of times by grabbing the cleat I screwed to the top, and it seems quite easy to move that way, so I think all I need to do is cobble up some handles I can grip in a convenient way and it should be easy to stick on the wall.

One long 2x2 sawed up into useful pieces, some screws and some plywood, and this is the result:

I screwed some eye bolts into the top of the cleat on the back of the TV, now I just need to tie the handles to the eye bolts tightly so the TV won't go flopping around (or the handles depending on how you look at it), and I think I'll be able to pick it up pretty easily. I'll see how it goes when I get the energy to try it.

Nope. Dangling at the end of my arms is one thing, bending the arms to lift it is quite another. A new kludge is required.

Let's build a hoist! Use the same eye bolts to connect some short bits of rope to the end of the line.

Got it most of the way up on the hoist, then shoved it up and back to engage the cleat, and it is finally on the wall!

Disconnect the hoist, spend an eternity getting the firestick plugged into the hdmi port I can't see, spend a slightly shorter eternity getting the power cord plugged into the socket I can't see, adjust the TV to turn off the stupid overscan, and Voila! A smart TV on the wall I can watch while on the treadmill.