About 1-1/2 Inch Pipe Used with TV Mounts

1 1/2 Inch Schedule 40 Pipe is chosen to ceiling mount TV's for the following reasons:

• Commonly available in local hardware stores. Used for rigid electrical conduit and plumbing piping in homes.
• Wall thickness(.145 in) is very large and provides excellent strength and rigidity.
• Available in steel and aluminum. We have switched to making most of our pipes from aluminum to save shipping weight at minimal decrease in strength.
• 1-1/2 Inch Schedule 40 pipe is commonly used for many things. Scaffolding, Lighting/Stage Truss, handrails, just to name a few. Being commonly used means there are many readily available parts and and can be adapted to many uses.

A common question is about the pipes not threading all the way in. This is because the threads are tapered and get tighter the further they are screwed together.

These are NPT standard or National Pipe Thread standards. They will never screw all the way in. For their traditional use in plumbing this is for sealing purposes to prevent leaks. For mounting TV's the benefit is thread-locking. The tighter they are screwed together, the harder they are to get apart. Pipes will usually screw together 3-4 turns.

Wikipedia article about pipe dimensions
Wikipedia article about NPT Threads
NPT American Standard taper pipe threads for general use B1.20.1