This is for a 65". Flat mount with tilt. There is no framing behind this section of the buildout. Just a big sheet of 3/4" or 1" ply.

What's your recommendation? I feel like lags would be plenty strong but I have snap toggles to so I could use either.

Same question but what if I go articulated?

Thanks.

Craig.

If it is 3/4" ply, then that should be way more than enough to handle bolting to. Lags would be fine.
That includes articulating.

But! How is the 3/4" ply mounted? Is it attached to studs or something else? What fasteners were used for that and was it done right?

I can see behind believe it or not! The surround for the fire place has not been installed. The structure is 2x4 framed and attached to studs on the wall, then faced with plywood and trim etc. I'm confident in the strength of the whole thing. It's just that there are no vertical studs behind this section. The gas fire place is beneath so the framing was built on either side and the plywood bridges between. There are 2x4 cross members at the top and bottom of the plywood.


Thanks for your input.

Craig

I just mounted a 60" to a wall that was made up of 3/4" horizontal boards. I used 1" lag bolts in piloted holes. The boards are nailed to the studs.

This TV was retrofitted into a room that they "didnt want a TV in" originally :D.




^^^This is the important question.

If you can see behind the ply... Can you put a couple of 2x4"s behind it? I personally would be too afraid screwing 1" lags into the plywood having to support the mount and tv. Especially with a tilt, who knows how many times that tilt will be used and how much force it will take after a drunk pulls on it.

Even if the 2x4 isn't secured to the framing, at least you'll have more beef for the lag to bit into rather than just the plywood.

KOT

No I can't unfortunately. I looked through a crack of a space with my camera. Toggles would provide that reinforcement. They can certainly take the weight.

Craig

I would use Togglers just to be safe

A 3/4" piece of plywood spanning an area big enough for a 65" TV isn't going anywhere as long as its properly attached to studs on either side.

Lag bolts will work fine. I don't like toggle bolts just because you have to drill a larger hole than you need to install them so use togglers if you aren't comfortable with the lag bolts.

I don't think i have ever seen anyone move a tilt mounted TV from whatever position it was installed in but im sure there is someone out there that likes to use all his included features.

Lags with proper pilot holes should be more than enough. As long as it's not OSB plywood.

Well since it's a piece of plywood. Why not use both, lags and toggle? It's the same thickness through out the mounting holes on the mount.

KOT

I would pay money to anyone that can break a mount out of 3/4" plywood (not OSB). Using 6 quality 1/4" x 1.5" (or longer) lag screws (installed drilling proper sized pilot holes).
The mount would probably break first.
I'm serious!

I don't agree. First, just how much height and width of this plywood is not supported? You know, if you pull out on plywood, it will bend, and the upper bolts of an articulating mount pull outward more than they pull downward, when the TV is out.
How is the plywood finished? Will pulling out bust the finish?

Again, I don't agree. Many lags have no threads for the last 1/4". If your mount is 1/16" thick, then the first 3/16" of your 3/4" plywood (which is typically 23/32" or even 11/16") doesn't have thread on it. That's more than a quarter of the wood thickness.

Here's a picture I found. I searched for 1" long bolts and mostly found bolts obviously two or three inches long. This one looks like it really could be the 1" long x 3/8" diameter that it's called.



Would you want to give up all that thread at the end? The Toggler makes sure you have STEEL THREAD to bite into, and several turns at that. The Toggler (model BB, 1/4-20 bolt) has 356 pounds of pull-out resistance in 5/8" drywall and 1283 pounds of pull-out resistance in 1/2" steel plate. That is, the limit of pullout with the Toggler is the mounting surface, not the 1/4" bolt and nut.

A list of lag bolt strengths that I found has a 3/8" lag bolt as resisting pullout to the tune of 238 - 451 pounds per inch of screw length, depending on the wood. That's 178 to 338 pounds if all 3/4" inch of plywood is grabbed by thread, or as little as 170 pounds... getting tired of calculating. Get the point? The Toggler is BY FAR the better mounting method and I can't really see any reason to use lag bolts in plywood. Should we use 3" lag bolts across the grain in two-bys? ABSOLUTELY. But never in plywood.


Now here I agree: I would never use lag bolts, INCLUDING on articulating mounts.


Snap toggles are definitely the way to go. I would NEVER use anything except 1/4-20 snap toggles. I also hate the term snap toggle because it sounds like a toggle bolt from Snap, while it's instead a Toggler -- almost completely different from a toggle bolt -- from Toggler.

But I could be wrong.

Articulated, go togglers. Flat, lags are fine with current tvs, as long as you don't over tighten. Back with plasmas, we mounted several articulating arms on double layers of 3/4" plywood and the included lag bolts. They are all still hanging.

The TV would crumble into pieces before the mount or lags even start to become loose.

Even though I didn't like the lag bolt idea. There is a simple solution to using all of the threads, even on this bolt pictured.

A washer or two per bolt.

KOT