15mm Rods at Ikea

Those are slightly larger than 15mm, closer to 16mm.



(wishing I were a UK based American...)
 
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depends on how tight the tolerance is. The thing is, if I am building something from scratch, I'm going to make sure and do it right so that it will work with any other industry standard equipment.
 
j said:
(wishing I were a UK based American...)
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Aluminum is pretty light...how much would it cost to ship a couple of 15mm rods across the pond? Or from Canada perhaps?

If you want true 15mm in the US you'll probably have to buy 11/16" and then pay to have it turned down, which is going to be more than the shipping, right?

Any users in a metric country care to chime in with costs?
 
jmc said:
Aluminum is pretty light...how much would it cost to ship a couple of 15mm rods across the pond? Or from Canada perhaps?

If you want true 15mm in the US you'll probably have to buy 11/16" and then pay to have it turned down, which is going to be more than the shipping, right?

Any users in a metric country care to chime in with costs?
Click to expand...

JMC,

Here's a site for metric sized metal. 15mm matte box rods are easy to find on ebay also.
If you are going to use profesional follow focus and matte boxes the rods need to be very accuret in size as the clamping action of the mounts in only a few thousands of and inch.

http://www.metricmetal.com/index.htm
 
Agreed.

What I'd like to know is what size rods to buy, the selection is overwhelming. I bought some 15mm Stainless Steel rods from McMaster-Carr, guessed at the wall size and guessed wrong. The rods are basicly too heavy to use. Does anybody have any suggestions for size? Experiences?

-j
 
j,

Motion picture matte box rods are always stainless steel or chromed to prevent rust formation. Even these heavy duty units have a wall thickness of about .100"
(appx. 2.5mm). So I would venture to say a wall thickness of 1 to 2mm would serve fine for this light duty use.
When buying metal, rods are solid and tubes are hollow.

Chuck
 
That helps. So...

From here: http://www.metricmetal.com/products/rn2391.htm

15mm OD 1.5mm thickness sounds right?

Any suggestions on what type to get? The website has this listed:

"Seamless precision steel tubes DIN 2391, Sheet 2, EN 10305-1 and seamless high pressure steel tubes, 37-4 NKB bonderized (phosphate treated): Qualities: st. 35, st. 52, s355, and other available upon request: Availabilities: BK-bright hard, BKW-bright soft, GBK-bright annealed, NKB-normalized bright annealed"

I have no idea what that means. I looked thru the website and couldn't find anything to help explain.


Althought I did find this which was fun to look at...
http://metals.about.com/od/metalphotogallery/l/aametalsgallery.htm
 
Hey j,

For the loads your talking about, I would think a stainless (seamless) tube with a wall thickness of 1 or 1.5 mm would be more then strong enough. I didn't look at there pricing but they do have a $85.00 min. so mayby you could to get togeather with another DIY'er and split the cost.

Chuck
 
Do you need to use steel for a camera like the HVX? Could you get away with using aluminum rods instead, or is there going to be too much flexing? I'm interested in making a system like the Zacuto

J, what thickness were the tubes you bought that were too heavy?
 
jmc said:
Do you need to use steel for a camera like the HVX? Could you get away with using aluminum rods instead, or is there going to be too much flexing? I'm interested in making a system like the Zacuto

J, what thickness were the tubes you bought that were too heavy?
Click to expand...

Hello jmc,

Aluminum would be fine. I just suggested stainless as they won't rust or corrode as fast (depending on the grade) as plain steel or alum.
The camera is irrelevant as the load is what is hanging on the "rods"

Chuck
 
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