On Mon, 20 Nov 2017 14:23:20 -0800 (PST), wrote:

For those who seem to be sure the canopy cannot be the thing that supports the ball, downtube, and the entire fan, I can assure you that there are some Hunter fans that do in fact work this way. You first mount a stout plate to the ceiling. There is then a way to temporarily hang the fan while you make electrical connections. But eventually you end up attaching the canopy to the ceiling plate with three screws that do carry the entire weight of the fan. The final piece is snapping on a "canopy trim ring" that can sometimes be a real bitch to remove at a later date. Sometimes those trim rings work exactly the way they are supposed to, and sometimes they do not.

Hog wash. The plate mounts in wood. That support the fan weight. A
canopy is simply a trim feature.

I'll be here all week.