How would you hang this?

[Russell Tribby]

I have to build a frame for a flat screen tv. The customer wants to use crown moulding as the framing material. The traditional top portion of the crown will be against the wall. I could just screw it into the wall but the customer does not want any visible fasteners. I thought about using a french cleat but he wants the frame to fit pretty snug around the tv so I'm not sure would be able to drop the frame onto the cleat with the tv there. Addtionally, it needs to be removeable in case maintenance/repair work is needed. Any thoughts?

[Caspar Hauser]

How about a cleat inside the frame at the top and a couple of cabinet catches, the clip on kind or perhaps rare earth magnets if they won't bother the TV (Lee Valley has them, or at least that's where I think I got mine from).

[Jamie Buxton]

Fitting a flat screen tightly into an enclosure is not a good idea. The back light generates a fair amount of heat. The manufacturer expects cooling air to be able to pass through the back of the TV. You can put a frame around the front edge of the TV, but you should allow air to flow up past the back.

[Bill Huber]

I am with Jamie on this, you have to have some way for the air to get in and out from the back of the TV so as to cool it.

Maybe make the frame with an opening in the front at the bottom and one at the top front so the air could come in the bottom and out the top.

[Dan Friedrichs]

+1 on cooling. You'll burn the panel up in no time if you tightly seal it to the wall. I'd check the manual for the set - maybe it has specs on minimum space required above/below, etc.

[Russell Tribby]

I'll have to think of a way to vent up through the top. However, this customer is entirely about aesthetics. The TV that he wants framed is in a guest house, and in all honesty, I doubt it'll be turned on more than twice a year. I'm not doubting what you guys have said, it sounds right on, but even if I find a way to vent this thing I still need a way to hang it.

[Russell Tribby]

How about a cleat inside the frame at the top and a couple of cabinet catches, the clip on kind or perhaps rare earth magnets if they won't bother the TV (Lee Valley has them, or at least that's where I think I got mine from).

I had someone else suggest magnets as well. I don't know if that'll bother the TV or not. Anyone else want to chime in on that?

[David DeCristoforo]

Velcro... this is why god gave us velcro. Magnets + electronics.... bad!

[Peter Stahl]

I second Velcro. My brother always took his trim off when he painted a room (yeah really!) and I suggested he use Velcro but he would just nail it back on.

[David Epperson]

Magnets were very bad for the Cathode ray tube TVs- electrons moving in a magnetic field was how they were controlled to generate the picture, deform that field and you deformed the picture. Possibly somewhat bad for the plasmas...If this is an LED driven machine I seriously doubt that they would affect the picture at all.

[Dan Friedrichs]

I think magnets seem like a good idea. If it's a plasma or LED TV, it shouldn't hurt anything.

I think I'd built a box around the back, about 1" deep, which the crown could mount on. You could hide some sort of cleat inside of the sides of the box, and you could leave open spaces on the top and bottom of the box for venting.

Even for rare use, I don't think you can forgo the venting. Would you agree to mount a clothes dryer without a vent if the aesthetics and location made it difficult to install one? (I'm not trying to be snarky, just trying to point out that good ventilation is not optional)

[David DeCristoforo]

"...good ventilation is not optional..."

Must agree. You only need to overheat it once.... As to the magnets, it's not just the LCD panel, it's all the other electronics that could be affected. With a few small magnets it probably would not be an issue. But Velcro would do the same job and would eliminate the possibility.

There is one other thing that you might want to think about and that is that the speakers on most of the new LCDs are in the ends or the back of the unit. So you might get some sound muffling if you "close fit" it.

[Caspar Hauser]

If magnets are not an option then perhaps a couple of cabinet catches or dowels. As regards venting, would it be possible to hold the whole thing off the wall by a quarter of an inch or so?

[Russell Tribby]

I think magnets seem like a good idea. If it's a plasma or LED TV, it shouldn't hurt anything.

I think I'd built a box around the back, about 1" deep, which the crown could mount on. You could hide some sort of cleat inside of the sides of the box, and you could leave open spaces on the top and bottom of the box for venting.

Even for rare use, I don't think you can forgo the venting. Would you agree to mount a clothes dryer without a vent if the aesthetics and location made it difficult to install one? (I'm not trying to be snarky, just trying to point out that good ventilation is not optional)

I found this part funny considering my friend's company did this customer's laundry room and essentially enclosed the dryer, something that the customer demanded, for aesthetic reasons.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I cannot comment on an LED or Plasma screen, though you can de-rez a traditional TV with electromagnets. It would seem to me that the reason that the various attachments for hanging flat screen TVs give plenty of ventilation around them to keep the unit cooled. They generally hang off of a French cleat style of hanger to allow you to remove the unit easily.

I would think that a way to do what you need is to mount the TV with a commercial style hanger, even if you make it yourself, then enclose it with box, perhaps U shaped, that you could hang around it for the aesthetics without needing a lot of structure to it, as the TV is already mounted on its own.

Doc

[Frank Drew]

Russell,

Does the customer want the framing to surround the tv plus fit close to the wall, or just frame the tv screen when viewed from the front, straight on?

[Russell Tribby]

Russell,

Does the customer want the framing to surround the tv plus fit close to the wall, or just frame the tv screen when viewed from the front, straight on?

He wants the framing to surround the tv plus fit close to the wall. I think I have some pretty good ideas about what I'm going to do after hearing some of the suggestions. Not sure what I'll have to do to handle ventilation yet. I'll bring that up with the customer and see what he says.

[David DeCristoforo]

...make sure your customer signs a waiver for anything he/she insists on against your "better judgement"! You can give them "what they want" but if they are going to go against your "professional opinion", you need to cover your rear....

[Frank Drew]

If the tv is mounted high enough, you could incorporate a huge ventilation slot at the top that no one would ever see. \

Maybe even mount a small computer fan or two inside the framing to blow the hot air out.

[Jamie Buxton]

As an example, here is a Sony page with their suggestions about clearances around one of their TVs. http://esupport.sony.com/referencebook/en/s5100/pages/gettingstarted/installingthetv04.html You're likely to find similar cautions from the manufacturer of your TV.

[Russell Tribby]

...make sure your customer signs a waiver for anything he/she insists on against your "better judgement"! You can give them "what they want" but if they are going to go against your "professional opinion", you need to cover your rear....

Good point David, that's something I hadn't thought of.

[Neal Clayton]

plasma TVs generate quite a bit of heat, and have active cooling fans that must run most of the time that they're on. and they're basically the same technology as a CRT, only the pixels are fired by a different mechanism, so magnets are out.

LCDs do not generate much heat at all (as you can see in your LCD computer monitor, it has no fans and generates little or no heat), so enough space to let the air flow should be fine.

this will all be affected by whether or not they use the TV's integrated speakers or not too. if they don't, and the TV's speakers are muted, there will be even less heat from an LCD, or even more from a plasma with them on, or enough from an LCD to warrant more airflow, etc. etc. etc.