DIY overhead extendable camera rig

[thewaydown]

Hello all,

I've built an extendable camera rig for filming my restoration projects out of wood and lightweight 3/4" aluminum tubing, and a ball head camera mount. Ive attached my cellphone holder to the mount, which has a small microphone attached.

I attached the arm to the ceiling via a couple pieces of wood and a chair swivel plate, so that I can rotate the arm where I need it.

I originally made the whole thing out of wood, but the camera rig was too heavy, and there was not enough friction between the wood joints to keep it from falling. Aluminum works way better, although the star knobs I used at each joint arent enough to hold it, and i have to wrench each joint to keep it from slipping.

The issue I am having is, every time I even slightly bump the camera, or when I tap my phone screen to focus, the whole rig sways, and takes forever to stop. The autofocus doesn't work great on the camera apps ive used, so I have to tap to focus. This is unavoidable.

I tried removing the swivel plate, because I thought that was the issue, but that didnt help at all. I then attached a stiff bungee cord to the ceiling directly above my bench where I will be using the rig mostly, and then hooked it to the rig where the ball mount is, and that helped with the up and down movement, but did nothing for the side to side movement. I could potentially attach 3 bungees to the ceiling in a "W" shape, but that seems like ridiculous.

I am no engineer, so this might just be poor design, although I've seen a few videos using this same general idea.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to stop the rig from swaying so much? I'm out of ideas.

I'll post a couple pictures for reference.

Thanks in advance,

Zayne

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[Metallitubby]

I like your setup. For something like this, it takes a bit of ingenuity to get something that works for your specific application.

Observations/Questions:

1. How well does each position tension/hold it's position (aside from the swaying you've mentioned)?
2. I like how you made a giant GoPro mount.
3. Do you have any clips while using this setup?
4. A hydraulic shock (like a tailgate strut) would work wonders keeping the rig from moving.

 

[nadogail]

Maybe you could add some friction producing washers (like silicone rubber) in the joints.

 

[ptt49er]

I'd tried some bungee cords to the wall. That's a really long, thin member. Fixing it to something else at another point will greatly help reduce the vibrations.

 

[matt_i]

In generalities, the structure has to get thicker or more substantial as it goes back towards the mounting point. Its a cantilever and the deflection goes as the cube of the length away from the solid support in basic equations.

Yours looks relatively uniformly sized. Stiffness can be gained both in more material "thicker sections" or in geometry (think of a bar joist or a classic 3-tube TV antenna tower's girder construction).

it does look like a nice clean design but to get rigidity out at the tip I think its going to require a trip back to the drawing board ala Wile E. Coyote

 

[thewaydown]

I like your setup. For something like this, it takes a bit of ingenuity to get something that works for your specific application.

Observations/Questions:

1. How well does each position tension/hold it's position (aside from the swaying you've mentioned)?
2. I like how you made a giant GoPro mount.
3. Do you have any clips while using this setup?
4. A hydraulic shock (like a tailgate strut) would work wonders keeping the rig from moving.

Thanks for the input!

It holds pretty well after i wrench on each joint. The star knobs were a good idea in theory, but they are very difficult to get enough leverage on to really crank things down.

I had not thought of using struts. Sounds interesting. How would you recommend attaching them?

I do have a couple clips and the wobble is only slightly noticeable on my phone, but when I connect it to my 55" TV the wobble is pretty noticeable.

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[thewaydown]

Maybe you could add some friction producing washers (like silicone rubber) in the joints.

When I built the first version out of wood and it was falling under the weight of the camera rig, I actually did put some thin rubber washers in between the joints, and it didn't really do much. Ironically, I think it made it a little worse. Then I tried small pieces of all purpose duct tape in place of the washers, and that didnt work well either.

Thats when I turned to aluminum. It works pretty well (doesn't slip at all) when I wrench on each joint. I have not tried the washer/tape idea on this version yet, but thats not a bad idea.

Thanks

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[thewaydown]

I'd tried some bungee cords to the wall. That's a really long, thin member. Fixing it to something else at another point will greatly help reduce the vibrations.

After looking at it again today, I think that's what I'll end up doing. The single bungee going directly vertical up to the ceiling works pretty well to stop any up and down movement, so i think making two more ceiling anchor points at the sides might do the trick, although it will be a bit obnoxious.

Thanks

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[thewaydown]

In generalities, the structure has to get thicker or more substantial as it goes back towards the mounting point. Its a cantilever and the deflection goes as the cube of the length away from the solid support in basic equations.

Yours looks relatively uniformly sized. Stiffness can be gained both in more material "thicker sections" or in geometry (think of a bar joist or a classic 3-tube TV antenna tower's girder construction).

it does look like a nice clean design but to get rigidity out at the tip I think its going to require a trip back to the drawing board ala Wile E. Coyote

This is the insight I needed. So, do you think switching the first section of aluminum tubing with some heavier mild steel tubing would help? What about the anchor point on the ceiling itself? I was thinking maybe fashioning it out of metal as well might help, although I can't rationalize why.

Thanks a lot

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