 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
the Bed LCD mod
Total cost: ~$50 Here's how I mounted an LCD over my bed |
 Supplies, round 1 |
First I gathered the supplies for the LCD mount.
1in Aluminium Tub
|
| I first used the machine screws to attach the angle brackets to the LCD. This is how the aluminium tube will be attached. I lined up the holes on the brackets with the tube and drilled 2 holes. I fit the threaded rods with 2 nuts on each side of the tube, one against each bracket and one against each side of the tube. This will prevent slippage. Once the rods were in place, I used bolt cutters to cut the rods down to a reasonable length. The LCD is now attached to the aluminium tube. |
 LCD mounted to tubing |
 Notched tubing on the hinge |
Once the LCD is mounted I had to decide how long I wanted the arm to be. I marked the tube to 2 feet and cut it on the miter saw. (Note: you will need a blade to cut the aluminium) Once cut, I attached the hinge to mark the final cuts. The hardest part is notching the tubing to accommodate the hinge. The notch was done "freehand" with the miter saw. I don't recommend doing anything freehand with a miter saw so if you get hurt, don't blame me. Once the tube was notched, I attached the hinge and the LCD to make sure everything was in order. |
| The arm was complete and now I had to mount it. Due to crappy stud placement, I'd have to attach something to the wall that I could mount to. I figured a 1x4 would do the job. So back to Home Depot to get more supplies. I returned with a 6 foot length of 1x4, paint and more screws. Don't get this much paint. I used maybe 1/25 of the an OZ per coat. The people at the Home Depot paint center need to do better with their calculations. But hey, for $1 per can, I can paint a whole bunch of planks for very little... |
 Supplies, round 2 |
 The arm mounted on the wall |
Making the mount-point was very easy. I cut the 1x4 down to 4 feet and made the ends into points. Painting took a long time due to drying, but all in all it was just 2 coats of primer (at 1 hour each) and 2 coats of paint (at 2 hours each plus overnight drying). So I had a painted huck-o-wood to put on the wall. I centered the wood on my bedroom wall and punched some pilot holes. 6 screws later I had my mount-point in place. I had to remove the LCD from the mount in order to attach the mount to the wall as holding a 10 pound LCD sucks while trying to screw stuff into the wall. I centered the mount in the wall and I was just about finished. |
| The whole thing worked like a beauty, but I needed a way to hold the arm up so I wouldn't smack my face in the morning. I happened to have a gate latch that I got at Home Depot and I figured it would do the job. I punched 2 holes in the arm for the latch pin and then attached the latch to the wall. All was working but I noticed the hinge was bending under the weight of the LCD. I grabbed some cable and made an ad hoc support. I need to make the support system more elegant, but over all it looks really nice. |
 Gate latch in action |
 Full rig latched to the wall |
 User's angle |
 Full rig including wall mounted computer That concludes my Over-bed LCD construction tutorial. |
