The Trouble with Mounts
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This is not the post/video I intended to come out this week. I’ve been working on a video to show how I set up my Short Throw projector. But, as the title suggests, I’m having mount trouble.
See, the trouble with mounts, for us projector sewists, is that projector mounts are made to hold projectors pointed at a vertical surface but we are asking them to hold a projector pointed at a horizontal surface. So the mounts are engineered to be strong and hold steady with the weight of the projector pulling them in one direction don’t necessarily deal well with the weight of the projector pulling them in a direction 90 degrees different.
Basic Niche is a great mount because it’s custom built to hold a projector that’s pointed down. It wouldn’t work well at all for someone wanting to point their projector at a vertical surface because none of the adjustments would work. But for someone pointing their projector down on a horizontal surface, it’s perfect! Karisa, the owner/maker at Basic Niche, is a projector sewist herself so she was able to create something purpose-built for our needs. She’s got 4 designs fitting 5 of the most popular “Amazon” projectors (Vivimage Explore 2, Apeman LC350, Apeman LC550, Bomaker, and Turewell H3), plus an additional piece that makes your mount work with a vaulted ceiling, and I absolutely recommend her mounts if you have one of those projectors.
But if you’re working with another “Amazon” projector (Wevivi, Mooka, Vimgo…), a Short Throw or an Ultra Short Throw, that’s not your solution. So…what is?
You can use a regular projector mount.
I did for over a year with my Short Throw. The problem was, I periodically had to readjust it and we moved twice during that time and each time we changed it again, the mount held less and less securely. The wear on the mount that wasn’t made to work this way took it’s toll until we couldn’t get it to hold any longer. But it was a $20 mount and you could certainly start out that way and, if you don’t do crazy things like move twice in one year, it may serve you for a long time.
With an Ultra Short Throw mount, one self-tapping metal screw and a block of wood seems to have solved the problem of using a regular Epson UST mount. The downside here is that they can be quite expensive, have a big footprint, and still may not adjust just like you need it to. Plus we had to be pretty precise with the depth of that wooden block and not everyone has a way to safely cut precise slivers off wood.
Or, you can have a handy person in your life (which could be you!) make a mount for you or engineer something that was intended for another purpose.
For “Amazon” projectors, this can be very simple because they don’t weigh much at all. Check out the group Projectors for sewing for many permanent and temporary options. I’ve seen tension poles, light stands, camera tripods, L brackets, hinged plywood, zipties and more holding these lightweights up! Here’s a super simple solution posted by Corinne Elizabeth in the Projectors for sewing group.
For Short Throws, this is a little more complicated as they are very heavy. One idea I’m testing out as soon as it arrives is a TV mounting arm. They are made to hold the weight in the same orientation as we have our projectors, however, I’m not totally sure it will hold as secure as I want nor am I sure it will attach to the projector in the right places.
For Ultra Short Throws, you don’t have to use a mount at all. Propping it up on books and pieces of folded paper works perfectly well…but that’s not always a permanent solution. See the video here for how I did this. My husband has promised to make a mount and plans for others to make their own but life has been busy and he hasn’t gotten to it yet.
My hope is that, as I find/we make solutions that will work for both Short Throw and Ultra Short Throw projectors, I will add to this post and a collection of helpful solutions will exist. Right now, I feel like I’m leaving you on a bit of a downer and I don’t want to discourage anyone from trying a projector if that’s what they really want to do. But it makes sense because I’m a bit discouraged about my mount right now.
