CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

9kids · Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 138 Location: Manassas, VA

I am planning on putting my PJ in my den. The den has 20 foot ceilings and believe it or not, some small attic space above that. My plan was to put uni strut across the roof joists in the attic, with pulleys attached to the uni strut. Then run aircraft steel cable, from the projector through small holes in the ceiling to the pulleys in the attic, then over to a small boat winch. I thought this would look clean and make it easy to raise and lower. My concern is shake or swing, especially during setup. I would think this would make mechanical setup very difficult. There is a picture on Curt’s WEB site that shows a Barco 800 hanging from cable, from “Bill from Waldwick, NJ” http://www.curtpalme.com/Gallery4.shtm is he a member of the forums? I like to ask him about any problems he had or anyone else that has tried it.

**kal** · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:37 pm Post subject:

Things are heavy enough that they basically won't move once it stops swinging... (don't try doing a setup until it stops moving). Smile

What I'd worry about is getting it in the exact right position in the first place. Unistrut allows for a lot of freedom, but maybe you're saying you're going to put the pulleys on unistrut so that there's adjustment here? That would be good.

The other hard thing to do will be to do anything lens related like focus, toe-in, and scheimpflug since you have to adjust the lenses directly. As soon as you touch, it'll move.

Kal

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

How high will the PJ be off the floor? I have the tools and skills to build a custom steel ceiling bracket if you need one.

9kids · Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 138 Location: Manassas, VA

I am planing on putting unistrut (both front back and side to side) at the bottom of the cable, with the PJ mounted to the unistrut. That way I will have some ajustment. But the focus and toe in, seem like, they will be a bear. Lots of time waiting for it to stop moving.

9kids · Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 138 Location: Manassas, VA

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

I think you will get quite a bit of swing from ten feet of cable unless you were willing to tie it off horizontaly in three directions.

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

Once you've got it hung, you could get some heavy fishing line and run guy wires from the corners of the PJ to other parts of the room, at large angles, to prevent rotation. Once the PJ is hanging, the main shifts will be lateral and longitudinal - with the hanging wires skewing - and rotational, with the PJ.. well, rotating. If you push on the PJ to make it do those movements, you'll see how you need to hang on to it to prevent them. Then rig up fishing line to provide opposite forces.

If you want to be fancy, you could have screw tensioning so you can do small adjustments one way or another with the stability lines in place. Just don't crank 'em up so tight that the PJ goes zinging around the room like a swordsman from a chandelier in a swashbuckling movie... Very Happy

9kids · Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 138 Location: Manassas, VA

Here is a quick drawing of what I was thinking

CRT_Ben · Joined: 28 Aug 2006 Posts: 1684 Location: Northern Virginia

I like my idea better....

Mr. Green

drice1234 · Joined: 07 Oct 2006 Posts: 1309 Location: Allen, Texas

You could probably build some sort of floor stand that would go under the projector to hold it still while you do the setup. Unless you had an air vent blowing directly on the PJ or had a large thunder storm I don't think that it would move much during normal conditions.

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

Do you have ceiling fans in that room? I'm guessing you have more than one in the room? I wonder how much of a factor that would be during a movie.

9kids · Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 138 Location: Manassas, VA

9kids · Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 138 Location: Manassas, VA

9kids · Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 138 Location: Manassas, VA

9kids · Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 138 Location: Manassas, VA

stefuel · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:23 pm Post subject:

I'd do it the way it's supposed to be done. That is with a factory mount with two pipe extensions and flanges. that gives you a sturdy mount and one pipe to run your power down and one pipe for the rgbhv cable.

Tom.W · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 6635

Just did a quick search for ceiling mounts from Chief and Premier and looks like neither one carry CRT mounts any longer Thumbs Down

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

I agree with Steufel. It sounds like you are going to end up with a spiderweb of wire, cable, and fishing line.

I am not a structural engineer, but if you decide to pursue this make sure the four wires attach to the roof joist panel points (I'm assuming your roof is pre-fab engineered roof trusses), not in the span between the panel points (the panel point is where the diagonal bridging between the ceiling rafter and the roof rafter meet).

dbaisey · Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:21 pm Post subject:

I agree also with Chip. If done right a welding shop can make up a mount that cosmetically would look good. Done a few like this. Also its more comfortable sitting under when you can see something that will actually support it. You need to take into account that it will be like a clock pendulum in a earthquake so the tie in at the structure needs to be a good one. Not seeing wires shows some thought. You can paint to fit in with the back ground. Just my opinion. Doug

One that had shock coils at the ceiling that you cant see.