# DIY wall mounts



## clint357 (Mar 20, 2016)

I was looking online for some speaker mounts that would fit my needs, and I was disappointed at the options. I want something that can angle down to 45 degrees, be attached with screws to the back of a speaker with no existing mounting option, and is as invisible as possible. This is what I came up with. I implemented the idea of just bending a sheet of metal instead of relying on the tightening of a screw to cause sufficient friction to stop vertical movements. The piece on the wall is 2" x 2" x 1/8" angle iron fastened into a stud. The other piece is a 5" x 1.5" x .06" bent to the proper angle. I am just posting this as an easy/cheap idea for others. Now I just need to put up some crown molding to cover the cable and terrible drywall job. Let me know what you think.


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## nheintz (Jul 16, 2014)

Looks great!,


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

Looks great!


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## DqMcClain (Sep 16, 2015)

How much does the speaker weight? I would be worried about having all the torque being applied to the bend in the 16ga steel bracket. The 2x2 angle should be beefy enough for almost any box... maybe a piece of cable or chain anchored to the 2x2 angle, and attached to the top end of the cabinet? That would split the load between the bent piece and the wall, and significantly reduce the possibility that the bracket will drift over time. 

I suppose if the boxes are light enough it might be fine, but I tend to overengineer things... mostly because I have to get things approved by an engineer at work and he's crotchety and paranoid.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

DqMcClain said:


> How much does the speaker weight? I would be worried about having all the torque being applied to the bend in the 16ga steel bracket. The 2x2 angle should be beefy enough for almost any box... maybe a piece of cable or chain anchored to the 2x2 angle, and attached to the top end of the cabinet? That would split the load between the bent piece and the wall, and significantly reduce the possibility that the bracket will drift over time.
> 
> I suppose if the boxes are light enough it might be fine, but I tend to overengineer things... mostly because I have to get things approved by an engineer at work and he's crotchety and paranoid.


It appears to be close enough to the ceiling that a 2nd bracket could be made to mount to the ceiling...in my area Northern Cal (earthquakes) it would be better to have top, and bottom, but I really have no room to talk living where I do with 2 300lb doors between me and the outside.


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## clint357 (Mar 20, 2016)

The steel has no problem with these speakers. This setup would probably be good for up to a 10lb speaker. Depending on the angle you are looking for, you could mount the strip closer to the top of the speaker so it would be closer to its balance point and allow it to hold a lot more weight. If you had a larger speaker you could just use a wider strip. The good thing is that if it fails, the bracket will just bend over but the speaker would not fall. Metal also does not "creep" like plastic, meaning that if it is holding right now then it will hold forever. It will not slowly succumb to gravity.


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## DqMcClain (Sep 16, 2015)

clint357 said:


> The steel has no problem with these speakers. This setup would probably be good for up to a 10lb speaker. Depending on the angle you are looking for, you could mount the strip closer to the top of the speaker so it would be closer to its balance point and allow it to hold a lot more weight. If you had a larger speaker you could just use a wider strip. The good thing is that if it fails, the bracket will just bend over but the speaker would not fall. Metal also does not "creep" like plastic, meaning that if it is holding right now then it will hold forever. It will not slowly succumb to gravity.


True, metal doesn't tend to creep... under a completely static load. But If the load becomes spontaneously dynamic (cabinet vibration, slamming doors, earthquakes, really excited cats, etc) and the dynamic load applies force that exceeds the elastic deformation rating of the material and falls within the plastic deformation rating, then it can fail. The down-side to experiencing plastic deformation_ (plastic deformation causes permanent alteration to the shape for the structure, whereas elastic deformation allows the structure to return to it's original shape after the force is removed)_ in metals is that failure is both rapid and imminent due to material fatigue and alterations to force vectors involved. 

Considering you said ..."up to a 10lb speaker" I assume the speakers you actually hung are considerably lighter than that. If that's the case then I have a hard time imagining one of those boxes shock-loading your mount so severely that it will break, short of a tornado or massive earthquake. And then you'll have other things to worry about. 

So, I guess I have to say I like them. Nicely done.  I may steel (he he) the design myself some day.


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## clint357 (Mar 20, 2016)

DqMcClain said:


> True, metal doesn't tend to creep... under a completely static load. But If the load becomes spontaneously dynamic (cabinet vibration, slamming doors, earthquakes, really excited cats, etc) and the dynamic load applies force that exceeds the elastic deformation rating of the material and falls within the plastic deformation rating, then it can fail. The down-side to experiencing plastic deformation_ (plastic deformation causes permanent alteration to the shape for the structure, whereas elastic deformation allows the structure to return to it's original shape after the force is removed)_ in metals is that failure is both rapid and imminent due to material fatigue and alterations to force vectors involved.
> 
> Considering you said ..."up to a 10lb speaker" I assume the speakers you actually hung are considerably lighter than that. If that's the case then I have a hard time imagining one of those boxes shock-loading your mount so severely that it will break, short of a tornado or massive earthquake. And then you'll have other things to worry about.
> 
> So, I guess I have to say I like them. Nicely done.  I may steel (he he) the design myself some day.



I would be quite surprised (more impressed) if the vibrations were enough to work harden the metal and cause failure the next time I adjust the angle. I would be interested to see how many times you could bend that piece before failure, but I suspect that most people do not adjust their speaker angles that much.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

clint357 said:


> I would be quite surprised (more impressed) if the vibrations were enough to work harden the metal and cause failure the next time I adjust the angle. I would be interested to see how many times you could bend that piece before failure, but I suspect that most people do not adjust their speaker angles that much.


You might want to check once in a while to make sure the screws haven't backed out any...other than that you are most likely fine with under 10lb speakers. Mins are 19lbs each.


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## DqMcClain (Sep 16, 2015)

clint357 said:


> I would be quite surprised (more impressed) if the vibrations were enough to work harden the metal and cause failure the next time I adjust the angle. I would be interested to see how many times you could bend that piece before failure, but I suspect that most people do not adjust their speaker angles that much.


Yeah, with boxes that small and at reasonable levels, vibration-induced work hardening is a pretty tough sell. But when I'm at work, I have to plan for ridiculous situations... like the stripper throwing the piano player under a couch, and the piano player retaliating by hitting the stripper with the whips*






*That exact thing actually happened the other night.


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

I think we've all been frustrated when looking for mounts. I'm trying to remember the last pair I bought (possibly AIMs with a clamping like feature that the speakers sit in).

At any rate... Looks like you've cooked-up a nice DIY solution. Hope they hold and serve well!


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## Tim Neubauer (Mar 18, 2017)

...


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## da-lite (Jan 3, 2012)

That's a very nice solution.


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