In the world of ITP hackery, you often want to get a projector off the table and projecting on a less convenient surface than the nearest wall. Odds are, you’re going to have to build a mounting mechanism from scratch.
VJ KungFu has a nice little video about building a VJ projector mount . I used slightly different hardware, but the principles are the same. Here’s what I did:
- look at the bottom of your projector. most projectors can accept machine screws, and specify their size.
- attach paper securely to the bottom of the projector with tape, and use a pencil to make a small punch hole wherever you’ll be inserting a screw
- similarly, trace the holes in your mounting bracket — you’ll see I used a pigeon plate (also called a “wall plate”). You can get them at B&H.
- using a drill press, drill your holes slightly larger than the diameter of your machine screws.
- use washers or bolts to get clearance between the projector and the board. You’ll need 1/4″ so that the tops of the bolts that attach the mounting plate don’t press into the bottom of the projector. Fasten, tighten, repeat.
Viola. Now you’re ready to mount your projector. If you’re mounting to a pipe, a cardellini clamp will be way more secure than the more common maffer clamps (also called “super clamps”). But if you’re clamping to lightweight aluminum poles, like the autopoles pictured, you can’t get too tight anyway without damaging pole, so you’ll have to get more creative.
I used two 40″ long arms, a few maffer clamps and a couple of 2.5″ grip heads. Setting up the autopole adjacent to the wall lets that surface take a lot of the load from the projector, which could otherwise cause the pole to bow out. Don’t try this at home.
Finally, whenever you’re mounting anything heavy above people’s heads, no matter how secure your build, it’s really important to add some kind of backup safety mechanism. I used a braided steel safety cable looped underneath the projector mounting board, and around a ventilation shaft directly above.
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