Heavy Duty Camera Arm

[Nigel Taylor]

The flexible camera arm I use to record my youtube videos finally broke, in multiple places.

I ordered a heavy duty arm from Amazon, but it was damaged in delivery and never even reached me. So, I thought this was a sign I should make it myself.... I got inspiration from a desk lamp and scaled it up. The video gives most of the details of the design of this heavy duty camera arm:



This is a very simple thing to make.

 

[Kittyhawk]

Very nice. And I'm going to steal your design for a fairly large spotlight on my workbench. Thanks for posting.

 

[Nigel Taylor]

Very nice. And I'm going to steal your design for a fairly large spotlight on my workbench. Thanks for posting.

Brilliant, it's very simple actually. The shapes are described on my page along with basic dimensions. It could just as easily be made from plywood.

 

[hog&bodge]

Well thought out build..
Would look good with brass wing nuts for easy locking.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Nigel Taylor]

Well thought out build..
Would look good with brass wing nuts for easy locking.
Thanks for sharing.

I have some M4 thumb nuts and locking nuts on order from bolt base - should help the look a bit as well

 

[hog&bodge]

Are you going to do a vid/pic of the finished arm.?

 

[Nigel Taylor]

Are you going to do a vid/pic of the finished arm.?

Yes, just waiting for some new fixings. Locknuts plus thumbnuts that will just finish it off. Then will post some images.

 

[Nigel Taylor]

Are you going to do a vid/pic of the finished arm.?

Some images with the finished arm using double wing nuts as a locking system.

I think the dome heads on these bolts look better. Plus I now have nyloc nuts on the bolts that don't need to be adjusted.

The only thing is I think I need to make a better looking knob for the end of the split pin...

 

[Gordon Tarling]

Great stuff! Looks like it'll be very useful for you. If it were mine, I think I'd be tempted to come up with some sort of friction lock rather than using those two wingnuts - perhaps a piece of studding all the way through, with a fibre washer, plain washer, spring and nut either side might work?

G.

 

[Nigel Taylor]

Someone asked for a video of the finished arm. Subscribe if you want to now see the model engineering projects that will be filmed with this arm.

 

[Nigel Taylor]

Great stuff! Looks like it'll be very useful for you. If it were mine, I think I'd be tempted to come up with some sort of friction lock rather than using those two wingnuts - perhaps a piece of studding all the way through, with a fibre washer, plain washer, spring and nut either side might work?

G.

Hi Gordon, I bought some thumb wheels, but they weren't very easy to get a good purchase on. I should have just made them myself. A fibre washer is a very good idea, I will be stealing that....thanks, Nigel

 

[Nigel Taylor]

I had to improve to split pin and machine a knurled knob that I soldered onto the pin. I then turned the head of the split pin off.