Mounting an AE 90

[Greg G.]

What is the proper way to mount these on a wall?  It looks like there's supposed to be a separate mounting plaque that goes on the wall first, then the phone is mounted on that?  Otherwise, it appears that one would have to take the cover off in order to mount it directly on the wall.  If the latter, what type of mounting devices or screws would work best?

[gpo706]

GPO supplied T bars for 700 series wallphones, but mine are just screwed thru the baseholes, (if they are there, sometime you have to drill them out the recessed mouldings).

The only advantage of using one of these elusive T bars seems easier detatchment of the phone and easier alignment to the horizontal when mounting, I would hazard a guess the same reasoning with your AE.

[Phonesrfun]

Briny:

This is not so hard.  Your phone is made to be directly mounted to the wall with no backboard.  It just screws to the wall.  On the top, there are two mounts; one with a completely round hole and another with an oblong vertical hole.  On the bottom is an oblong horizontal hole.

The type of screws you use will depend on whether you are attaching to a hollow "drywall" wall or a solid wood surface.  Let's assume you are going to attach it to a hollow wall, which is the most common thing.

Get some plastic drywall anchors that are #6 x 7/8", and some #6 x 1" screws.  See the picture.  I buy them in separate packages of 100, but you can get these as a package of four that include the anchor and the screw.  See the picture.

With the phone cover off, notice that the top round mounting hole is in the upper right hand corner as you are looking at the phone from the front.  This is the reference hole.  Choose where you want to mount the phone on the wall, and while holding it up to the wall, mark through the hole with a pencil where that screw will go.  Then, using a 3/16" drill bit or something of that diameter, make a hole for the first anchor.  Tap the anchor in with a hammer or whatever is handy, making its shoulder flush with the wall when it is tapped all the way in.

Temporarily mount the phone with the one screw through this first anchor.  Level the phone, and mark where the other two holes will be drilled for the remaining two anchors.  Aim for the center of the oblong holes.  Remove the phone and drill and tap in the remaining anchors.  Then mount the phone.

If you happen to choose a place where there is a stud behind one of the places for one of the anchors, then use a 1-1/2" or longer wood screw instead of the anchor/screw combination.

You can either use the modular wire or station wire to wire it to the place you want to hook it up.  They were originally designed to use regular old solid station wire.  Colors of the wires you use for station wire are not important, but the standard was to use red and green on the older wire, and white/blue and blue/white on the newer station wire.  I see your picture has a modular flat wire currently.  If that wire is not long enough, you may need to use station wire.  Just hook the red and green station wire or the white/blue and blue/white to the terminals on the network that the current red and green from the flat modular wire are hooked.

Finally, in the older days, it was not uncommon to have surface run wires stapled to the wall to dress them up and not have them be loose.  Sometimes they fished the wire inside the hollow wall to hide the wires.  All this was before they started prewiring houses and apartments.  Where you live it would not be adviseable or even possible to fish wires inside the wall, so you are stuck with surface mount wires.  You can leave them dangling and drape them over something or you can staple the wire to the wall in a straight, even fasion, or you can go all out and get those plastic surface mount channnels from Home Deopt or Lowes.

[Phonesrfun]

The next question you may be asking is "What happens when I move"?

No problem.  Remove the screws holding the phone to the wall.  Using your fingernail or a flat tipped screw driver, pop the plastic anchors out of their holes.  Use Spackle or drywall compound (Some have even used white toothpaste) and fill in the holes and let dry.  Paint over it, and let that dry. 

Since most apartment walls are textured you will usually not even be able to see the repair once everything is dry.  Use the texturing to your advantage and try to keep the repair texutred as you fill in the hole to match the texturing that already exists.  If you try to sand the dried Spackle to a smooth surface it will highlight the repair.

[Greg G.]

Briny:

This is not so hard.  Your phone is made to be directly mounted to the wall with no backboard.  It just screws to the wall.  On the top, there are two mounts; one with a completely round hole and another with an oblong vertical hole.  On the bottom is an oblong horizontal hole.

It was the different shaped holes that made me think it was supposed to go on a plaque.  Thanks for your help.

[bingster]

Western Electric phones have the oblong holes on the backplates, too.  They're there to give you wiggle room to move the phone around and get it perfectly level before screwing it down tight.

[Greg G.]

The next question you may be asking is "What happens when I move"?

No problem.  Remove the screws holding the phone to the wall.  Using your fingernail or a flat tipped screw driver, pop the plastic anchors out of their holes.  Use Spackle or drywall compound (Some have even used white toothpaste) and fill in the holes and let dry.  Paint over it, and let that dry. 

Since most apartment walls are textured you will usually not even be able to see the repair once everything is dry.  Use the texturing to your advantage and try to keep the repair texutred as you fill in the hole to match the texturing that already exists.  If you try to sand the dried Spackle to a smooth surface it will highlight the repair.

Not sure if I'll be moving anytime soon.  I keep spending my moving money on phones!

[keysys]

You could obtain a 228A modular back plate adaptor in matching color from Phoneco or other source.  Attach the back plate to the A. E. 90 with the two or three screws provided, then just hang the 90 onto the two studs of an existing wall-mount jack.  Your jack needs to be securely installed with dry-wall anchors or screwed into a stud; otherwise, the weight of the 90 will pull the jack away from the wall.  This also works for wall installation of a Northern Contempra.

[Greg G.]

You could obtain a 228A modular back plate adaptor in matching color from Phoneco or other source.  Attach the back plate to the A. E. 90 with the two or three screws provided, then just hang the 90 onto the two studs of an existing wall-mount jack.  Your jack needs to be securely installed with dry-wall anchors or screwed into a stud; otherwise, the weight of the 90 will pull the jack away from the wall.  This also works for wall installation of a Northern Contempra.

Thanks, I'll take a look at the back plates, but I only have two jacks in my apt.  One is in the bedroom near the floor behind the dresser, the other about chest level on the wall in the kitchen.  I had in mind mounting it on the other side of the wall from that one, which would be in the entry way, and just running the line cord to it.