Are you able to make a DSLR shoulder rig by yourself?

 Most expert filmmakers choose invest in good quality DSLR steadicams and they indeed function effectively. On the other hand, probably the most steadicams will cost you various hundred dollars. So it is possible to take into account creating one particular by your self with $25 in hardware retailer parts.



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 First of all, we will need to prepare enough materials:

 1. four pc aluminum (or other) tubing using a matching diameter Drill bit. On my rig, the short rails are 8 1/2" and the long rails are 22 1/2" but you can adjust this to finest fit your require.

2.1 Ikea Boholmen plastic cutting board or similar

three. 2 bicycle hand grips

four. Many tiny screws or nuts and bolts with drill bit (and tap if desired) to match

five. A tiny piece of foam for the shoulder pad, if desired



The initial rig was intended to become metric and use the regular 15mm x 60mm rod configuration, sadly 15mm supplies may perhaps not be easy to come across. For those who fail to locate the essential rods, you'll be able to transform them all to 5/8". Really, the move shows my work with 5/8" tubes as I failed to discover 15mm tubes.

 The Handles



To produce the handles cut out the two compact hockey stick shaped pieces in the diagram. These pieces have two 60mm apart 15mm holes so that they would fit more than the outer two rods on every single side on the mount. The handles are just wide sufficient to ensure that the bicycle grips would fit on them pretty snugly. If this is also snugly for the grips, sand the hockey sticks a bit.



The Frame

The initial portion to become cut is definitely the two lengthy pieces for the 4-hole frames. (Really my first go was a 3 hole frame, but this did not set the camera far sufficient over towards the left to line up the Z-finder with my eye. Inside the video you could see me operating on the 3 hole version in areas...)

Together with the lengthy pieces cut out, (make certain to produce them wide enough that there is a great level of plastic remaining about the holes) find the center line of every single from the two frame pieces and mark the center points of your 4 holes as accurately as possible. These two frames ought to line up precisely in order that the tubes fit and keep good and parallel.

If you tend not to have a calipers, you can drill the two frame pieces simultaneously stacked one particular on top with the other. You can even make them longer than needed and screw them together to ensure that you know the holes are dead-on accurate. Then when the holes are drilled you could unscrew the pieces and trim away the screw holes.See the image beneath for extra facts

Cut out all of the remaining frame pieces using a compact band-saw. Chances are you are going to be left with truly rough edges. Lightly sand every single piece so that everything would possess a clean and smooth experienced look.

After I you may have the 2 4-hole frame pieces completed you can assemble the brief rods and longer rods together in the frame to test the alignment.

The holes I drilled with my 5/8" paddle bit had been an exact match for the 5/8" tubing which created the frame fit very snugly without any screws. (The image beneath has the plate and shoulder pieces on, but if must offer you a superb idea on how the rods and frame interact.

The Shoulder Piece

Next you need to tackle the shoulder piece.

I wanted one thing that mounted towards the rods through two holes like the rest from the frame, so I came up with the s-shape notion which ended up operating genuinely properly.

Cut out the 14" lengthy piece of plastic and drill two holes with a 60mm spacing at one particular finish.

Then bent this piece into the final shape by heating it quite slowly more than a gas stove. You have to accomplish this Incredibly slowly or else you can melt or burn the plastic. It took several minutes of slow heating, but by heating a little bit, then bending just a little, then heating slightly more, and bending a little additional and so forth. you may ultimately got the desired S shape.

Once you have the appropriate bend, ran the plastic beneath the faucet to cool it down and set the curve. This mate take some time and fiddling to acquire correct. One of several perks of producing the curve suitable, is since the shoulder piece is mounted with no any screws, it truly is adjustable.

The Mounting Plate

Essentially, the plate is just a smaller rectangle piece from the cutting board that you ought to screw to the 2 shorter rods. You may do this with 4 compact screws. Every single in the four holes is countersunk so that the screw heads are flush with all the surface on the plastic mounting plate. You can tap the holes inside the tubing at the same time in order that the screws would thread into the rods. In the event you use a large sufficient screw you *may* be capable of skip the threading procedure, or you might drill all of the way by way of the tubes and place a washer and nut on the underside. (Nonetheless, taping provided the cleaner and additional experienced appear, so I did the additional operate of threading the holes)

With the mounting plate securely in spot, use a piece of paper and also a pencil to trace the hole pattern from the bottom of one's camera and transfer that to the mounting plate.

Next drill two 1/4" holes inside the plate. There is certainly some logic to the location of generating these holes on the plate.

You need to make sure that when your camera is screwed for the rig that you can still access the battery via the space in between two rods. Take the time to create cautious measurements so the holes on the plastic piece don't align the battery door inside a position where you can not take away the battery.

As for making two holes here is my observation: I also noticed that if I only mounted the camera with 1 screw within the center hole that it could rotate somewhat bit even when the screw was tightened as tight as you possibly can. Considering the fact that my Zacuto base-plate has 4 mounting screw holes, I added a second mounting screw to help keep the camera nice and straight. Should you only have the center hole, a tiny piece of black rubber or fun foam glued for the leading from the mounting plate could be enough to get a secure grip and stop any rotation.

 Immediately after you finish all of this, you are going to possess a diy DSLR shoulder rig, why not possess a attempt?