10'/20 Hypercrane Build

[Gary Sconce]

Now for the lateral suspension stays. Cut four 5/8" tubing stay bases 4" long, grind the bottoms to fit the 1 1/2" rear jib tube.

Drill a 1/4" hole in each as shown. Use the 1/4"-20 bolt threaded into the 1/4"-20 nut so it will align with the hole perfectly and weld on the nut. These will be used to lock in the stays to the 4" long bases of the lateral suspension.

More later!

 

[Matt Sconce]

Wow there is so much hard work in this thing! You are one awesome dad!

 

[Gary Sconce]

Not hard work... Just fun! :thumbsup:

 

[Gary Sconce]

Man... There is something wrong as I just dumped 9 more pictures and lost all of the intructions that took 15-20 minutes. Bummer. The reply screen starts black and then I put in the photos, but when I make the mistake of trying to preview the post, the screen turns grey and all of the stuff disappears... With no way to get it back. This has happened twice. Oh well. Back to posting it again.

After you weld the cable guy tips on the lateral stays. Put them into their bases and tighten down the 1/4"-20 bolts to clamp them in. You will notice that the dorsal or top stays have no bolts to hold them as the tension of the guy wire and gravity hold them in. You really only need the screws on the lateral stays before you tighten down the cable. IMPORTANT: I told you to make three lateral stays the same length, but that was wrong. The front lateral stays are 16" long. The rear right lateral stay is 10" long and the left rear lateral stay is only 6" long. Please make those changes... Sorry!

Weld on your rear lateral rings in line with your lateral stay bases. Again, weld them very strongly as you will have a lot of force on these rings. Weld these lateral rings on 12" from the rear of the crane.

Weld on the front lateral cable support rings in the same place as the front dorsal suspension stay ring.

That did it! You can attach the rear end of the lateral suspension cables in the same way you did with the dorsal suspension... run the cables through the little tubes at the ends of the lateral stays and then connect them to locking rings at the front. Tighten them to slightly firm with the cable clamps and then use the tensioner to pull the cables tight. If you started with the 20 length of the crane slightly arcing up before the lateral stays, you will tighten the laterals down until the crane is straight. Double check all of your clamps, rings, cables and ends. Weigh down the rear until it is balanced and shake the rig slightly to see if the whole length is very solid. Here is the tensioners at the rear.

See the stays all attached here. Notice the cables going through the small guy tubes. I remind you to make sure you have filed away the small crimp on the inside of the guy tubes that could wear at the cable if not removed.

A beautiful shot of a 20' headless crane going up to the tall pines in the Sierra Nevada near Yosemite National Park. Wish you were here!

Ahhhh... Fresh air during a summer sunset...

 

[Gary Sconce]

I weighed the construction of the head for a long time. I had some outstanding bearing based pivots that are very hard to come by but would have made a really wonderfully smooth vertical head movement, but you may have not had access to those. So I went back to a tight hinge that would be more available to DVXuser DIY's. The hinge is a 3 1/2" wide steel hinge. Don't get brass!

I then used a steel 20" bike front fork as it is a readily available part.

Cut off the steering tube with the cut off saw.

Align the hinge with the end legs of the forks. Take care to get this straight and then weld it strongly.

I used another 90 degree bent Simpson strong tie piece for the back of the head.

I think it was a 2 1/2" by 4" long. You can use any 90 degree stock here or bend your own from flat plate.

Here is the placement on the hinge. Weld it on away from the hinge joint.

Another view. You will use this 90 degree bend to weld to the head tube.

I clamped it with vicegrips to keep it straight, and then finish welded it on.

More later!

 

[Gary Sconce]

Align a 6" scrap 1 1/2" tube to the 90 degree bent Strong tie as shown and tack weld.

Another view... After tack welding, finish weld strongly as this holds a multi-thousand dollar camera rig.

Here is the basic head mounted on the end of the front 10' section of the HyperCrane.

Time to start the control surfaces. For the vertical control we will build a big, ugly cam to retain the mechanical advantage on the movement no matter where the position of the head. First cut a vertical 1/2" tube 24".

After cutting measure halfway and notch to fit against the bike fork head tube.

Position the tube vertically on the head on the left near the pivot.

Make sure the tube is directly vertical left to right and front to back.

More to come.

 

[Gary Sconce]

Grind both ends of the 24" tube to fit tightly to another tube.

Here is a view of the vertical tube part of the cam.

Bend a 1/2" tube with your knee to get a radius of 12" and a diameter of 24".

Test mount the cam tube on the notched ends of the vertical.

Push in the cam until there is an exact radius of 12" all around. Once that has been measured and checked, tack weld onto the ends of the vertical. Double check to see that this tube is directly in parallel with the crane.

Here is the tacked cam.

More to come!

 

[Gary Sconce]

Here is the cam welded on. We will do a lot more work on it.

This big, robust crane head will be able to be balanced. We will now put on the first of two counterbalances for the head camera load. Cut a 6" 5/8" tube and notch the back to fit a 1/2" tube. Place this tube perpendicular to the left of the crane and 9" back from the bottom end.

Make sure the weight-bearing tube is welded on strongly.

Here is the balanced rig with a tiny weight on it. Later, you will put on another weight to the other side. With the front head balanced, it will be able to be moved easily with only a little force on the controls.

More to come later.

 

[Gary Sconce]

Here is another view of the vertical control cam on the head. You will notice that there are two weights balancing the head.

Now we will put on the lock down for the bottom vertical control cable we will put on later. This cable lock will be placed 6" down from the vertical pivot on the left gimbal arm. It will lock down the head later, so when you lift or lower the crane it will automatically align the camera on the head to follow whatever it is pointing at.

Mark 6" down and drill out a hole to match your cable lock bolt size. I think this one was 1/8".

Hold up the 'U' shaped bolt from the cable lock and mark with a pen your second hole, then drill it out.

Once it is drilled, place the cable lock on the gimbal arm as shown. You can weld down the block, but don't weld the U shaped bolt or the nuts.

Later you will lock down the lower vertical control cable with this and will have very smooth automatic movement of the camera on the head. A very simple solution that works well.

Now we will bolt down the head. Align the head exactly vertical by tilting the head down and using it as your guide.

I drilled with a drill series up to a 3/8" bit for a 3/8" bolt.

Finally, I put weight on the back to balance the rig to check for any wobble and shake. This is me lifting the HyperCrane with only one light touch of a finger.

More later!

 

[Dvader]

Lovin' this!!! Thanks again Gary!

 

[Gary Sconce]

Lovin' this!!! Thanks again Gary!

Glad to help.

 

[Gary Sconce]

Cut off the extra top plate on the head mounting bracket with a cut off saw.

Use a grinder to smooth out the top to a round shape but don't grind off the weld as it needs to hold the camera!

Here is the head bracket all smoothed out.

Now for the horizontal controls. Take two 3/4" wide 4" by 4" angle brackets and cut them off to have them fit the head bracket.

Weld the newly cut pair in the middle.

Weld them vertically upright near to the hinge pivot on the head bracket.

You will put on the screen door cable pulley wheels (the ones with the precision bearings built into them.) on the bottom bracket holes. Use locktite on the threads of the bolts holding them on. I used 1/4" 20 bolts and nuts. Lock nuts would be great here.

Here are both bottom pulley wheels on the bracket.

More to come!

 

[Gary Sconce]

You will measure and drill 1/4" holes above the lower holes that are already in the bracket so the upper pulley wheels will be extremely close to the bottom wheels. This way the cable that will control the horizontal movement of the camera will not slip out of the pulleys no matter where the front of the head pivots. Here is one of the two upper pulley wheels mounted on the bracket. Do the other one on the other side the same way.

That's my dad posing in the background! See how close the wheels are?

Here are all the wheels on the bracket.

These will hold in the horizontal cable.

Now mark and cut off the extra metal above the top pulley wheel. Cutting weight.

Cut off the extra metal on the vertical cam at the head... Top and bottom.

Here is the top cut off the horizontal control pulley bracket.

Now to strengthen the head for the big load. Take a 2 1/2" by 2 1/2" 90 degree strong tie bracket and stretch it out until it fits between the two horizontal control brackets.

Top view of the angle.

More to come!

 

[Gary Sconce]

Here is the placement of the bracket behind the horizontal pulley support bracket and in front of the head support bracket.

Place it in and weld it on by tacking the sides first and then finish welding.

I then cap off the back of this new brace with a scrap locking in the top of the brace to the top of the head suport bracket. This finishes the structure into a superstrong triangulated supported box. I would put a Red Epic on this and would know it will NEVER break or loosen.

This is a side view of the brace and the small scrap welded to the top to secure everything.

Grind your welds if you can reach them.

Inside view of the welds.

Top view showing it is ready to remount the horizontal pulley wheels.

Next time I will finish the head!

 

[Gary Sconce]

We will strengthen the head now by adding a thin but strong 3/4" angle iron frame to the bicycle fork on the front. This will make it really strong for holding the camera at all sorts of angles. You measure the width of the front fork and then, using a 90 degree angle magnet hold it in place and then weld it. After welding it together inside and out, you weld it on to the fork. Now it is ready for a plate on the front and the addition of the horizontal turning pulley (a fence gate roller wheel.)

This was my measurement for the front piece, yours may vary.

Tack on the corners so you don't fry your magnet.
Remove the magnet and finish weld after check fitting it to the bike fork head.

Weld it on inside and outside to the fork.

You might ask... "Why did you use a bike fork and then add the angle iron? Wasn't that redundant?" YES! I would not put a $40,000 camera rig on anything that didn't have extra-added strength. This crane will be completely trustworthy. Hey, I can always add weight to the back end, but I know that I will never drop a camera off of this crane through any type of structural failure.

Now pull the head hinge pin and then weld closed the hinge loops. Take care not to weld in the way of movement. Small tacks are great here. Grease the pin when you put it back.

Do both side halves.

I then used some scrap square stock to strengthen the underside of the front part of the hinge. I ground it to fit and welded it on.

More to come!

 

[Gary Sconce]

Hmmmm. Flickr says I am almost at my 'limit' of 200 photos and that I have to pay them money and upgrade to get more photo space. Time to make another account!

 

[Gary Sconce]

Add a small piece of metal to get the top front of the head platform to all the same height. Notice that the angle iron extends a total of 24" from the pulley to the front.

I found an old piece of a refrigerator plate and cut it for the front top plate on the head that I will mount the horizontal movement pulley wheel to. Since it is thin, I pop welded it by moving where I welded so as not to build up heat and blow it out. A pop here and a pop there until it is all welded. Then grind the bumps lower.

Then mark in the exact center and you will drill to fit the pulley axle bolt. Notice that the back of the plate is on the steering tube of the front fork. You will tack weld it there also.

 

[Gary Sconce]

Here is a view of all the horizontal guide pulleys re-attached on the head.

Remember to use lock nuts or locktite,

Mount a sliding fence gate pulley on the head as the pulley you will use to mount the camera mount. I used a really big washer and lock nut on the bottom of the plate we just mounted. This is a shot after the cable has been put on, so it is from a little later but just as valid as a view on how to do it.

I then used some 1 1/2" wide and 2" tall tubing welded to the pulley to raise it up to where a camera platform would rotate above the cables. Place this carefully so it will be exactly centered around the bolt and center of the pulley wheel. Then tack weld. Check one more time and then finish weld STRONG but take your time and weld a little here, then a little there so you don't cook the lubrication out of the pulley bearings. Be patient here.

I then made a camera mount platform 20" long and 2" wide and braced it on the bottom with 1/4" square stock and plate ends. You can use whatever you have to strengthen this. You just have to make it really strong and leave the holes accessable.

Full View.

The reason I am making this camera mount so long is to negate the need for tubes under the rig. The camera and accessories (Brevis etc.) can mount right on the mount on the head.

An underside view of the bracing welded on.

More coming!

 

[Gary Sconce]

Drill out the holes for the mount at 3/4" centers each. I use a small 1/8" drill and then drill out to 1/64th larger than 1/4". Then your 1/4"-20 bolts will go through easily t mount the camera rig wherever you want.

I borrowed a 1/2" drill from my dad and drilled the 13th hole out to 1/2" and then filed it a little larger. The reason for this is when you weld this mount to the tube you have already welded onto the front horizontal pulley, you want to be able to put a screw driver into the hole to tighten and loosen the pulley bolt for removal and lubrication. This gives you access to do that.

That drill is 65 years old and is a hulk of power and torque.

Place the camera mount on the tube, centering the 13th hole, which is slightly off center, and check for level then tack and finish weld. Weld this VERY strongly. Double check to make sure it has penetrated and welded really well. Double weld this if you doubt it is welded enough as this holds the whole camera rig onto the head. The head is now almost done.

Put 1" steel rings onto the straight cam tube for the lock down and variable control.
You will weld it onto the inside of the vertical facing back toward the back of the crane.

Notice that mine are 5 1/2" up and down from the pivot. This matches the lock down bolt back on the left side of the gimbal where the control for lock down shots will be.

I found I had some 1/8" solid steel stock and used two pieces of it to strengthen the vertical movement cam on the head. You actually could brace with whatever you had. I spoke-braced at 45 degrees off of horizontal top and bottom, then to the pivot at the head.

Here is a view back when I test attached the Hypercam low rig to the head. You can see the two braces on the cam in this shot.

Weld two more 1" steel rings to the top front of the vertical cam tube and the bottom front of the vertical cam tube. That will round out your attachment points on the vertical cam.

I then used the fabled pipe cutter to cut 1/2" pieces (oodles) that I then welded onto the outside of the cam so as to make a cable track to keep the control cable from slipping out when the cam is in use. First weld them on, then use a cutter to cut off the outside half and then grind smooth. Finally, use pliars to pull out the angles slightly. I placed them at approximately every 3" along the cam tube and then at 1" apart near to the ends of the cam.

More to come!

 

[Gary Sconce]

Cut off the outside half of the newly attached tubelets, grind away the crimp, round the edges and slightly bend the edges out a little.

This was the last thing to be done on the head except for attaching the cables. YAY!

Next time, I will attack the rear crane tube and will truss it up for strength. :beer: