A:Answer It potentially supports a lot of weight and has a lot of leverage, so it's really a bad idea to not mount it to a stud. The screws are 3" long, so I had to use an extra-long drill bit to make holes deep enough in my studs to get the screws all the way in. The unit is articulated so that even if the mount isn't centered, you can center the TV between whatever surrounds it. If your shelves are so close together that there aren't any studs between them and they are securely mounted, it would be better to attach your mount to a shelf than try to attach it to plasterboard, which is pretty weak.
