DIY Overhead Camera Mount?

[Danny1280]

Anyone have any ideas on how to make an inexpensive DIY camera mount, with materials from home depot?
I want to shoot down on a table from directly above. For use of craft how-to type videos. Would be great if I could mount my fluid head (Libec) onto it. Was thinking of something made of 2x4's and pipe. Something solid/steady, but something I could break down and store away when not in use.

Thanks in advance!

 

[SDub]

There's a DIY subforum where this question should probably go, but either way, while this doesn't answer your question directly, consider rigging a mirror above your table and then shooting into the mirror. This will allow you to keep your camera safe and sound on the ground and allow you to change exposure/focal range/focus w/o needing a remote.

 

[picturemark]

I did hundreds of videos like the ones you mentioned. I used two tripods, one on either side of the table with a 2X4 spanning the two. I used a 3/8ths bolt to attach my tripod head pointing straight down (I used a flat bottomed fluid head by Manfrotto, not a bowl head). Used the same setup for a stop action animation music video.
To attach the 2X4 to the tripods I ran a 1/4-20 bolt thru the qr plate into a 1 inch square tube that's about a foot long. Then I used a small clamp to set the 2X4 on top of the bar. The whole rig can be adjusted for height above the table