Mounting plasma to a flint wall?

Mint_Sauce · 1 Apr 2008 at 19:02

Our plasma arrives tomorrow but I haven't got much of a clue on how to get the mounting bracket on the wall. I'm competent enough to do it myself apart from the drilling part...

Our Exterior walls (which I'll be mounting too) are 80% flint and 20% cement, it's an old building. I'm guessing Im going to need to swap out some of the bolts for anchor bolts that will go in to the flint to hold it up? :confused:

What kind of drill and drill bit am I going to need to do a good job and any tips on installing a wall mount before I start then end up slappnig my head for doing something really obvious wrong?

Bradley8988 · 1 Apr 2008 at 19:15

no idea what kinda flint you would use to build a house. u wanna get a SDS rotery hammer drill and a sds masonary bit the correct size for the bolts you are planning to use. thunder bolts are some bad boys but kinda overkill for what your doing. if u have low ceilings then work out how far from the top of the mount to the top edge of the tv so its not too high. drillings is a peice of cake.

Mint_Sauce · 1 Apr 2008 at 20:59

Thanks Bradley, will the flint split or do anything unexpected or will the proper drill bit cut through making a good hole for the anchors to grip?

Bradley8988 · 1 Apr 2008 at 22:41

i guess go down to your local builders merchant and ask them for the right drill bit. your house must be really strong.

Hxc · 1 Apr 2008 at 22:48

Christ a flint house? that must be a bit solid! I'd be careful of cracking, ask a DIY shop or someone in the know, definitely.

Mint_Sauce · 2 Apr 2008 at 01:14

I got hold of a good friend who used to install AV setups for a living and he's given me a lot of tips so I think i'm good to go!

This building used to be a monastry and then a school, it's pretty old and very solid! Electricians came round when we were rennovating and what should have been a 5 minute job putting in some plug sockets turned in to a lot of swearing. I don't know what kind of percentages the flint is in but have been told ~80% flint and ~20% cement, how true or accurate that is I don't know fully.

I'm going to try an 18v drill and make some small pilot holes and see how it goes, if it can't hack the wall I'll take it back and get a SDS Hammer drill

I'll post up pics of the lovely final install or the collapsed wall, squashed telly and crying Mint.

Chris1712 · 2 Apr 2008 at 02:01

Make sure you put the tv at the right height, everyone wall mounting them seems to like putting them up way to high nowadays!

Eyes inline with the middle is how i like it, but i think the rule might be top of tv? So what if it looks silly that low, you wont get neck strain.

Mint_Sauce · 2 Apr 2008 at 11:16

I was reading up about mounting height, think I'm going to go somewhere inbetween. Eyes central when standing. The TV is some distance away from where we sit and the sofas are reclining so when reclined your eyes go a bit higher anyway. TV hasnt arrived yet, come on.

badbob · 2 Apr 2008 at 11:19

Eyes central when standing

Do you watch the TV when standing up? Don't you own chairs? the center of the screen should be at eye level, when sitting down. If it's at head high when standing, when sitting it'll be too high up.

Mint_Sauce · 2 Apr 2008 at 13:58

Did you read past the first sentence?

We are sitting some distance away and the sofas are reclining which means our line of sight will be raised up and over a distance this becomes more apparent.

Mint_Sauce · 3 Apr 2008 at 00:48

Got it up! Err... The plasma that is. Took a while to get going but as soon as I noticed the SDS drill wasn't on hammer action and switched it on - I was flying!

All in all it took me about 2 hours from start to finish, the girlfriend helped lift it up, just as well she's been working out as it weights a fair amount.

I ended up using 7 or 8, 16mm anchor bolts and it's solid, I hung off the mount before putting the plasma up and it was rock solid.

I'll post up some pics if anyone is interested in the mount etc.

Cheers for the help.

Trill · 3 Apr 2008 at 15:54

Mint_Sauce said:
I'll post up some pics if anyone is interested in the mount etc.

Indeed!

james.miller · 4 Apr 2008 at 08:26

Mint_Sauce said:
Got it up! Err... The plasma that is. Took a while to get going but as soon as I noticed the SDS drill wasn't on hammer action and switched it on - I was flying!

All in all it took me about 2 hours from start to finish, the girlfriend helped lift it up, just as well she's been working out as it weights a fair amount.

I ended up using 7 or 8, 16mm anchor bolts and it's solid, I hung off the mount before putting the plasma up and it was rock solid.

I'll post up some pics if anyone is interested in the mount etc.

Cheers for the help.

nice one! i was going to say - for anything like that, use a laser pointer. immensely helpful! where's the pictures then?? lol

Axis64 · 4 Apr 2008 at 17:43

Any chance of some pics mate

Cosmic182 · 4 Apr 2008 at 17:46

post some pics !!!!!!!

Mint_Sauce · 4 Apr 2008 at 19:33

ok ok! Here's the pics, still needs a lot of tidying and stuff but here you go:

Hxc · 4 Apr 2008 at 19:53

Looking brill

Mint_Sauce · 5 Apr 2008 at 00:27

Cheers, I was wondering about the HDMI cable that attaches the TV to the AMP/DVD unit we bought. Will it feed the TV audio down to the unit so the sound can come out of our surround sound speakers and also take the image from the DVD player up to the TV? I guess I'm asking if the cable is bi-directional.

I'm confused about all this HDMI business.

Bradley8988 · 5 Apr 2008 at 11:38

i didnt think TV's output over hdmi if thats what ** asking. havnt u got a optical out on ** tv that you *** run to your amp?

Mint_Sauce · 5 Apr 2008 at 13:57

There's not optical out, just two RCA connectors at the back (red and white) for sound. The HDMI terminals on the tv also has AV with an arrow pointing right printed in between them making me think it sends audio out down the cable.