"Steve" wrote in message
...
Unfortunately, I am very much a mechanically challenged person. I'm trying
to determine if my ceiling boxes are as solid as one should expect and use
with ceiling fans. Long description below to provide details.

My house was built in 1959 in WI, I am not the original owner, and really
don't know the origin of the ceiling fixtures. There were ceiling fans in
each of 3 bedrooms already. They are newer fans. They all have some
wobble -
one terrible wobble. They all appear to be cheaper fans with a couple
geared
towards kids - ie, the crayon multicolor fans. The crayon fans are ones I
want to replace as they aren't my style.

I wanted to investigate wobble so I deconstructed one fan but left it
mounted. I can just see the rim of the ceiling box. If I rock the fan back
and forth it moves considerably, but it appears its own mounting bracket
is
loose and the ceiling fixture moves only very slightly. I would say that
roughly 99% of the movement is the fan itself and 1% is the ceiling box.
Before taking this one down further, I wanted to compare it to the other
crayon fixture. I removed the 2nd fan to the same point and it too, rocked
about the same with mostly the fixture moving and the box seemed solid. I
took this one down all the way. The ceiling box is round and metal. There
appears to be a round ring mounted to the face of the box and this is what
the fan was secured to. This round ring is screwed to the face of the
ceiling box from down up - meaning that its screw heads are under the
drywall ceiling and not accessible from
below. I suppose this means either the box was in before the drywall, the
drywall was redone, or the round ring was on the box then mounted - the
point is that one could not attach this ring once the box is mount because
you can't get to the screw heads. I see one screw in the center of the box
which appears to be securing a metal clip. I can see either a metal brace
or
metal conduit through the holes in the box above it. The ceiling box is
made
of metal and has three conduit runs coming into it with electrical.
Pulling
on the box from below really doesn't give much movement. Pushing up on the
ring doesn't give much movement. Pushing up on the inside of the box gives
a
little movement - maybe a couple 32nds of an inch.

It seems from looking at fan mounts and braces in stores that they would
not
be completely solid either and one would expect to have a couple 32nds of
an
inch of play in them. If its mounted to a metal brace and you push or pull
on the inside edge, there will be some movement in general it seems to me.
In general my existing ceiling boxes seem solid, no movement pulling down
or
pushing up the center. Slight movement if I push up on the inside edge.
The
boxes are metal and hefty so I'm just trying to ID if this slight movement
would have a large impact on wobble.
And since I am mechanically challenged, I was hoping someone might have
input on how solid a ceiling fixture or fan mount should or would be. Does
what I describe sound like a solid mounting that one would generally
expect?


1959. Not likely they are fan rated boxes. You may be able to get away
with it.

The box should have ZERO movement if you are serious about safety.

Another option is to buy one of the fans that has a mounting plate that
secures to the ceiling. I have installed these with 2-3 toggle bolts through
the drywall and had no problems over the years.

Colbyt