I'm mounting a projector in a suspended ceiling. And I know I'm overthinking things, because the projector is about 6 lbs., and by the time we add all the mounting hardware, it's at most ten. But the problem is that there's only about three inches clearance between the bottom of the joists and the top of the rails for the ceiling. The mounting adapter is 2 feet long, designed to rest on top of the ceiling rails, and about 8 inches wide. The instructions call for support cables from all four corners of the adapter to eye hooks in the bottom of the joists, running at a 15 degree angle from the vertical. With that little clearance, there's no way we're getting a 15 degree angle. The cables would run nearly horizontally. So the question is whether we could just put the eye hooks into the sides of the joists, and if so, should we use the screw-in eye hooks that came with the adapter, or get eye bolts and drill all the way through, secured with lock washer and nuts.

I have a sliding glass door that I would like to replace with a French door. The problem that I have is that the opening is 59 inches wide (from stud to stud) and the standard French doors require more (62 inches I think). I would like to widen the opening to accommodate a standard door. There is a header that is supported with a 2x4 on either side. I would like to remove the two 2x4 and replace them with a metal support. Is that allowable?