DIY IndieSlider...

How are people mounting their camera heads onto the carriage? I've got a manfrotto 701HDV head and there's a long screw that comes underneath the head which will obviously drag onto the rail.
 
leaftors said:
How are people mounting their camera heads onto the carriage? I've got a manfrotto 701HDV head and there's a long screw that comes underneath the head which will obviously drag onto the rail.
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Sounds to me like you still have the half-ball mounted to the head. Take that off the head, there are set-screws up in there, loosen those and the ball should unscrew from the head. You can then mount the head on the carriage using the standard 3/8"-16 bolt!

It's just that easy.... scroll down this page: http://www.zazaslider.com/instructions.html and you'll see my 701RC2 head.
 
ZazaCast said:
Sounds to me like you still have the half-ball mounted to the head. Take that off the head, there are set-screws up in there, loosen those and the ball should unscrew from the head. You can then mount the head on the carriage using the standard 3/8"-16 bolt!

It's just that easy.... scroll down this page: http://www.zazaslider.com/instructions.html and you'll see my 701RC2 head.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot man. great support!
 
Anyone done this for GH1?

Anyone done this for GH1?

Well my 10-40 carriage and 800mm rail arrived today. I just have to drill and tap.

I saw a mention somewhere that stills cameras use a different thread size on the bottom- would this include the GH1?

I would be really grateful if someone could advise the sizes needed in UK friendly terms- all the taps I can find are listed M6, M8 and so on. Worked out that 3/8" is 9.4mm for the tap, but am a bit confused as to what drill bit or tap this means?
 
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mikrokev said:
Well my 10-40 carriage and 800mm rail arrived today. I just have to drill and tap.

I saw a mention somewhere that stills cameras use a different thread size on the bottom- would this include the GH1?

I would be really grateful if someone could advise the sizes needed in UK friendly terms- all the taps I can find are listed M6, M8 and so on. Worked out that 3/8" is 9.4mm for the tap, but am a bit confused as to what drill bit or tap this means?
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DSLRs typically have a 1/4 20 thread in the bottom and screw onto mounts (such as a tripod plate) that have that size screw. Tripod heads typically mount onto tripods with a 3/8 thread. You have to decide if you are going to mount your slider directly to the tripod via the tripod head (3/8) or onto a camera mount plate (1/4) that then goes onto the tripod head. There are valid reasons and different functionality to doing it either way.

If you want to use a 3/8 bolt you need to first drill your hole with a 5/16 bit and then tap it with a 3/8 tap.

If you want to use a 1/4 camera screw you need to first drill it with a #7 or 13/64 bit and then tap it with a 1/4 20 tap. The 20 refers to the coarseness of the thread and means 20 threads per inch... this is a common thread with camera gear and just in general (make sure you don't use 1/4 28!). If memory serves me I believe the threads per inch on the 3/8 needs to be 16. And don't confuse the #7 bit (for the 1/4 20 tap) with M7... it's not the same thing. The #7 is based on wire gauge but not North American wire gauge as if it wasn't confusing enough already ;)

I just went through all this and I had several different sized holes and taps to do and it's all getting jumbled in my head but I think those numbers are correct, I'm sure someone will correct me if I messed up.

By the way, I figured it all out at the time using google. There are drill and corresponding tap size charts on wikipedia that give both the number or letter (yeah, letter... even more confusing!) size a bit needs to be for a particular tapped size (if it even needs one of those odd ones) and also the closest equivalent in imperial (like 13/64 for example).

I don't know what a GH1 has for a thread. I'm sure it would be easy to find out ;)

Some tap & die sets even have a chart on the back of the box with the required drill bit sizes for each tap both in # sizes as well as the closest imperial or standard.

Oh, my mentioned numbers such as 1/4, 3/8, 13/64, 5/16 etc. are refering to inches incase it wasn't obvious.

Oh, also... when I say "typically" in my above stuff it's because those aren't always the thread sizes on those devices, but they are the most common.
 
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I know you're probaby in a rush to put your rig together... otherwise I'd just mail ya some bolts... and a tap if you wanted to spring for it but it's not that cheap to buy individual taps... and then there's the shipping across the pond. Hopefully someone can chime in and help you with the M size thing so you can buy locally.
 
mikrokev said:
Hi thanks for all this great info. I will be mounting a tripod head then...

The only problem I have is that here in the UK bolts and drill bits are listed in M sizes- not inches. Can anyone shed light on UK equivalents in drill bits and taps for 3/8" and 5/16"??

i.e which of these taps as 3/8" is 9.4mm, so M10? http://www.clasohlson.co.uk/Product/Product.aspx?id=155486652
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That´s pretty funny, since the Brits invented the Inch threads,
and than they also came up with

British Association screw threads (BA)
British Standard Cycle (BSC)
British standard fine thread (BSF)
British standard pipe thread (BSP)
British Standard Whitworth (BSW)

...which is an whole other Story.

Bottom line, there is no equivalent in M (ISO), cause the thrad angle and size is different. If you bolt a M bolt into a Inch nut you gonna mess up the threads.

But any self respecting hardware shop should be able to sale you a 3/8" and 5/16" tap for 2-4 quid.
If that fails look at Ebay http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-Scale-Workshop/_i.html?_nkw=tap&submit=Search&_sid=44687703

Since I got a pretty heavy rig up to 35lbs. I never was comfortable with taping the (rather soft) aluminum rail.
So I did it the other way round and taped the (steel) mounting plate of the tripod.

Just saying.

Frank
 
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"But any self respecting hardware shop should be able to sale you a 3/8" and 5/16" tap for 2-4 quid."

and therein lies the problem- all these independent hardware shops have disappeared due to the supestores, like B&Q etc. The places I've found so far that sell tap and die sets are Clas Ohlson and Halfords, who are listing everything in M sizes.

I wouldn't have posted my question if I could have just walked down to a local hardware store, have phoned many already.

Ebay is a possibility, but the urgency I need to do this prevents me.
 
If it's urgent, are there any machine shop type places in your area? I'm sure someone would tap the holes for a small fee.
 
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