Diy Follow Focus

oh yeah, I have a makita drill as well, so nothing major... yet... although I may have to invest in a powersaw soon...
 
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puckthemad said:
Hmm.. parts list... well here goes:
Walmart Fishing Reel $4.99
Gear belt from Epson $2 (from thrift store), but you can get similar gear belts from the hobby store for around $9
The rest of my gears were all scavenged from the Epson printer, dunno actual cost

Rod System: 15mm rods from Ikea $0.50 each (AS-IS section as end of the store, good luck)
Rod support (got lucky and took the white parts in the picture off of a keyboard tray possibly from Target)

I gotta take more pictures of the separate components, but putting it all together was a challenge,. It's just patience and a lot of cutting and drilling.

The most this cost was about $20 in parts and then fitting the right pieces together. Time to whip out the old digicam again and take some more pictures of each component...
Click to expand...

Sweet. I see myself wasting much time on this instead of writing the script I should've had done last week. :) At least I already have rods.
 
>Rod System: 15mm rods from Ikea $0.50 each (AS-IS section as end of the store, good luck)

What was the product? a lamp or what?
 
One of the challenges with those gearboxes is the amount of backlash in the gears. There must be almost zero (certainly less than a degree) of backlash for the gearbox to be considered for a follow-focus.

I don't see the specification on those models.

e
 
overlandfilms said:
One of the challenges with those gearboxes is the amount of backlash in the gears. There must be almost zero (certainly less than a degree) of backlash for the gearbox to be considered for a follow-focus.

I don't see the specification on those models.

e
Click to expand...

True enough. That's why most equipment using precision gears, (cameras etc.) have the gears lapped into each other.
Perhaps the use of an anti-backlash gear as the first gear outside the gearbox would help to aleviate some of this problem.
 
overlandfilms said:
One of the challenges with those gearboxes is the amount of backlash in the gears. There must be almost zero (certainly less than a degree) of backlash for the gearbox to be considered for a follow-focus.

I don't see the specification on those models.

e
Click to expand...

Looked thru the SPI and Berg catalogs and the worst case I found was two degrees. The helical and bevel gear models were 10 to 30 min. max. If you can keep the rest of the gear train under two degrees your a better man than me Gunga Din! lol
 
My digital camera suck. No doubt about it at all. It just sucks for those closeups of the small parts. Gonna see if I can borrow my friend's camera. At least thats tgot a manual focus instead of astupid autofocus (my worse enemy)
 
Those making DIY FF, save yourself the agro and just get the fishing reel - it works wonders with very little effort. You do have to take it apart and discard a few pieces, but for $5.00 it is worth getting two in case you screw up.
The white pieces are a nice touch and I am interested in your Gears from the printer - how did you manage to get them to fit different lenses? Aren't they just rubber gear belts?
 
actually, the printer gear belts aren't rubber. They're some form of Nylon that holds up remarkably well, just gotta make sure that the end-gear on the fishing reel assembly, fits snuglu y with te printer rgear belt and you're set.

I attached a spring between the ends of my gear belt to hld it together while I slip it onto the lens. This has been done for all 3 of my lenses, so I have less downtime between switching lenses...
 
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