"Project TV"- Part 2

For those who knew us all the years before we went on the road you know that we never had a TV in our stix and brix.  When we bought Opus in 2006 we suddenly owned two TVs.  They were both old, very heavy, analog tube units that required an extra device to receive over the air stations, something we often do as we are traveling.  Last summer while in WashPA I replaced our old tube TV in the bedroom with a flat screen mounted on a door that I built so the empty space behind could be used for storage.  Here is a link to the blog post on that project.  Our stay ended before I was able to replace the front TV that I wanted to do here because I had access to friends' tools and carpenter skills.  So that job was added to this year's to do list.

Here's the old TV.  It still had a good picture but weighed over 70 pounds, so it had to go.  Mike came down to give me a had getting it out of the overhead box where it was mounted.  The trim is held in with two screws on the bottom and two inside the doors at the top on the sides.  After the trim was removed we could see the metal bar securing the TV at the top.

There was a lot of space left after the old TV was removed.  I opted to mount the new one on a permanent bracket and not use the space for storage that would just add weight. 

We went with a 32" Vizio that, at 28.5 inches wide, fit perfectly into the space side to side.  This meant I could use the old trim with very little modification.  This is the new unit sitting temporarily in the space.  

The new TV weighs less than 11 pounds but I opted for the bigger Mor/ryde TV1-002H mount because you only need about 1/2 inch of top clearance to get it on to the mount.  The mount I used for the bedroom TV required almost five inches of clearance.  You do need to have access to the bracket to secure it after the TV is hung.

I called in an expert, Tom, to help with building the frame to mount the bracket on.  It would have been a much more trial and ERROR job if I had tried to do it without him.

He attached a board across the top to the metal frame then one on the bottom to which he attached a 2x4.

Then we secured the bracket to the 2x4 with several lag bolts.  We had to make a couple of modifications before the final fit both side to side and top to bottom was right on, but Tom knew what to do to get r done. 

After the TV was hung I was able to get to the bracket to put the bolts in to attach the bracket on the TV to the part mounted on the 2x4 from the space at the bottom.  I could have taken out the screen on the back of the box (picture above) to gain access if I wasn't able to

 get to the bolts from the bottom. 

The old trim fit perfectly around the new TV except for the space at the bottom.  I put small blocks of wood (bottom left corner) on the board that attaches the trim frame so the TV is sitting on them as well as hanging on the bracket.  I also removed the boards that held the trim at the top because they would not fit with the new TV.  It fits very tightly so I will see how it travels when we hit the road.

We needed the space at the bottom because that is where the TV speakers are located.  Tom cut an old trim board I had removed when I put the TV in the bedroom to top the bottom space.  I stapled black speaker cloth to match the old speakers on each side and added a trim board in the middle to support the stretched cloth.  I also needed to notch the new board so it was not covering the TV's magic eye.  I am really pleased with the way the whole project turned out and even more important, so is Nanc.  Another project completed.