Homebuilt Steadicam
- Thread starter pmpworks
- Start date
rogar-Love(DBG):
BrianMurphy
Veteran
Beautiful work! You have a gift my friend, you are talented and skilled. Congrats.
BrianMurphy
Veteran
Looks like a 12 volt battery from a power tool as a source and counter weight to me.PaPa said:jesus! what have u built!
amazing.
care to make me one?
what is that contraption at the bottom of the steadicam ( not the monitor )
Daniel Schaumberger
Active member
Very nice work. Really superb steadycam!!!
I want to build one for myself. Could you share some plans? Any info would be very cool...
thanks
Daniel
I want to build one for myself. Could you share some plans? Any info would be very cool...
thanks
Daniel
BrianMurphy
Veteran
It is all awesome andI wtoo would love to know more about your gimble is is very slick.twocik23 said:
Justin Kuhn
Veteran
Good job! As an aside--the bolts on the vest look pretty badass.
pmpworks
Well-known member
Thanks everybody!, here's a little video clip about the gimbal
http://www.pmpworks.com/videos/gimbalvid.mov
The battery on the bottom is from my old Black and decker 14.4 Volt DC drill that recently died after 10 years so I have 2 spare batteries that I can use with it, the monitor was bought on ebay pretty cheep, quality sucks but I just use it as a reference anyway. The battery runs the monitor for 3hrs which is great since my HVX battery dies at 2 1/2 hrs. As far as building one of these I got pretty lucky by finding alot of my stuff already machined although I did a lot of machining too.
Most of my reference's for building came from looking at HBS and all the different types of rigs, and Mikko Wilson's picture on his website. I don't have any specific plans drawn up but as time allows me I might be able to put up small video clips explaining how I built some of the stuff. Be prepared to make a lot of mistakes and rebuild many times, trust me I had to rebuild everything at least 2 or 3 times til it was right. My arm is not actually built like a steadicam arm with 3 springs working together in each section but what I did do seems to work really good for me. And even when your done don't think your gonna put it on and start making good video because you have to learn how to use it first, practice X100%! I almost gave up after finishing my first arm, putting my camera on and watching it buckle like a rubberband. If you look at HBS and see how heavy duty some of those arms look, there is a reason for that so don't be afraid to make it sturdy.
http://www.pmpworks.com/videos/gimbalvid.mov
The battery on the bottom is from my old Black and decker 14.4 Volt DC drill that recently died after 10 years so I have 2 spare batteries that I can use with it, the monitor was bought on ebay pretty cheep, quality sucks but I just use it as a reference anyway. The battery runs the monitor for 3hrs which is great since my HVX battery dies at 2 1/2 hrs. As far as building one of these I got pretty lucky by finding alot of my stuff already machined although I did a lot of machining too.
Most of my reference's for building came from looking at HBS and all the different types of rigs, and Mikko Wilson's picture on his website. I don't have any specific plans drawn up but as time allows me I might be able to put up small video clips explaining how I built some of the stuff. Be prepared to make a lot of mistakes and rebuild many times, trust me I had to rebuild everything at least 2 or 3 times til it was right. My arm is not actually built like a steadicam arm with 3 springs working together in each section but what I did do seems to work really good for me. And even when your done don't think your gonna put it on and start making good video because you have to learn how to use it first, practice X100%! I almost gave up after finishing my first arm, putting my camera on and watching it buckle like a rubberband. If you look at HBS and see how heavy duty some of those arms look, there is a reason for that so don't be afraid to make it sturdy.
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BrianMurphy
Veteran
Again, Nice work and thanks for the clip and for sharing your knowledge and expertise.
mikkowilson
Steadi-Guru
Pmp,
Nice work. Congrats.
You have a good looking build, be sure to get it up on www.homebuiltstabilizers.com .. check out their forum at http://hbsboard.com too, lots of good info.
Your rig is far more developed then my home build from a few years ago.
One peice of advice that I'd sugest to improve the performance of your arm (If youa re up for jus ta little more experimentation): Try moving the springs lower on the end blocks, so that they don't span the whole diagonal corner to corner. Leave the far ("lower") end on the coner axel, but move the end closest to the vest lower down to resduce the lifting angle. You will need stronger, and shorter, springs for that. But it will give for a much smoother, less bouncy, ride. The lower the better, somewhere around 1/3rd of the way up (and 3 times stornger spring) is the magic spot for "Iso alastic" arm performance.
- Mikko
Nice work. Congrats.
You have a good looking build, be sure to get it up on www.homebuiltstabilizers.com .. check out their forum at http://hbsboard.com too, lots of good info.
Your rig is far more developed then my home build from a few years ago.
One peice of advice that I'd sugest to improve the performance of your arm (If youa re up for jus ta little more experimentation): Try moving the springs lower on the end blocks, so that they don't span the whole diagonal corner to corner. Leave the far ("lower") end on the coner axel, but move the end closest to the vest lower down to resduce the lifting angle. You will need stronger, and shorter, springs for that. But it will give for a much smoother, less bouncy, ride. The lower the better, somewhere around 1/3rd of the way up (and 3 times stornger spring) is the magic spot for "Iso alastic" arm performance.
- Mikko
mikkowilson
Steadi-Guru
Thanks Blaine. 
I always admire those who have the guts to go out there and try and make, build.. .. create, something.
PaPa, who should build you one?
- Mikko
I always admire those who have the guts to go out there and try and make, build.. .. create, something.
PaPa, who should build you one?
- Mikko
pmpworks
Well-known member
Thanks, It took me about 2 monthes working on and off during the weekends mostly. The vest actually took the longest with all the sewing my mom did for me. As far as cost not much because most of the stuff I found laying around our shop at work and we don't us most of it, what did cost was material, velcro, padding, latches & etc. I have around $70.00 in materials.
Thanks man, that means alot coming from the you. I'll look into lowering the spring location like you say and stronger springs. I'm actually wanting to build a more steadicam type arm in the future but for now I'm extremely happy with how it all turned out. Thanks again.
Thanks, exactly what I thought when it was done. The vest actually took the longest to figure out how to do it, I didn't want it looking like a fight seat from an F16 or something but it had to be strong enough to support everything. I'm happy with it.
pmpworks
Well-known member
No adjusters, I didn't make any and ended up getting lucky with the springs I had, I did have to add one more spring to the first arm because it was too loose. I do however recommend adjusters, if you will be adding things to your rig. I had my Firestore mounted behind the monitor but then the sled was just too heavy so I took it off. The footage with it on was beautiful but the damn thing about broke my back, you wouldn't think it would add that much weight but it did. Also when you balance your sled make sure your wireing is mounted as close to the center as possible, I had my wiretied to the side and it threw the whole thing off.