Hi All
Here are a few bad pics of a boom holder I designed about a year ago for my own use. Several friends and Colleagues suggested I should do something with this besides hoard it to myself. So I present it here for input. (please note: I have good looking cushions on this now, in the pics, there were pads and green rubber tubing in place to prevent scuffing on my stands, that has been replaced with something more appealing and permanent)
It is a new take on an old design. I wanted something that could hold not only my boom mic, but light booms as well. As we went along, I made several mods to it so it can securely hold anything from a 3/4 inch pole, up to about a 2.5 inch pole. Allowing me to stick something as small in diameter as a mic stand in it.
Here is what makes these different from anything I have seen commercially produced:
***Not only will this allow you to put just about any pole in it, it will also keep the pole from turning in the saddle, allowing you to put a light boom pole in it, and then using a knuckle or something, you can go out diagonally (90 degrees left or right at the end of the pole, horizontally) with that extension in mid air without falling prey to gravity. (Hope that made sense, if not, see pic below with light sticking out to the left)
***It also has a rear locking holder, allowing you to put counter weights on the rear end of your boom pole. All the other manufactured versions i have seen, do not allow you to securely clamp the pole in place, nor can you counterweight anything without the pole falling out the rear end of the saddle. They rely upon simple laws of gravity to keep the pole in place. Not to mention, this design will also outperform the C-Stand it is sitting on. (meaning if you really overload it, you will probably snap the C-Stand stud or have the stand break in half, long before this gives way)
***They are extremely over engineered. Very heavy duty and will out-spec just about any stand you put it on.
My neighbor, a retired navy welder, makes these up for me. We have not made any for sale to date, but I think we can keep them around 100 dollars. Not bad in my humble opinion considering you can leave any dedicated light boom stands at home, and just use C-Stands for all your booming/flagging needs. With two of them, and two stands, two poles and a crossbar, you can boom-out and entire backdrop curtain so your stands do not get in the way of the curtain allowing for more viewspace ETC ETC.
I placed a full C-Stand in this for the pictures as an example. I left the base on for show, and a counter weight. In the pic with the stand extended the length of the van, NOTE: The pivot clamp is doing 70% of the work. The base of the stand was not enough to keep it from crashing to the ground. The light weighs about 2 pounds.
I will post more detailed pics later in case someone wants to take a whack at making their own. We don't plan to manufacture these in mass quantities presently, however if someone is interested in getting one, let me know. We can make a few up at a time.
These are all Iron and Steel construction, fabricated completely by hand right down to the locking nuts. It also has it's own pivot/clamp unlike all the other versions out there that sell for roughly 40 to 70 bucks, that still require a the use/purchase of a 30 dollar knuckle before you can use them.
I have a simpler version with a male stud off the bottom for use in conjunction with common knuckles. Not much different than some of the commercial versions out there other than mine can bear much more weight.
David Walker
"MagicCat"
PM Me or Email Direct. mail@mediamagicproductions.com
Here are a few bad pics of a boom holder I designed about a year ago for my own use. Several friends and Colleagues suggested I should do something with this besides hoard it to myself. So I present it here for input. (please note: I have good looking cushions on this now, in the pics, there were pads and green rubber tubing in place to prevent scuffing on my stands, that has been replaced with something more appealing and permanent)
It is a new take on an old design. I wanted something that could hold not only my boom mic, but light booms as well. As we went along, I made several mods to it so it can securely hold anything from a 3/4 inch pole, up to about a 2.5 inch pole. Allowing me to stick something as small in diameter as a mic stand in it.
Here is what makes these different from anything I have seen commercially produced:
***Not only will this allow you to put just about any pole in it, it will also keep the pole from turning in the saddle, allowing you to put a light boom pole in it, and then using a knuckle or something, you can go out diagonally (90 degrees left or right at the end of the pole, horizontally) with that extension in mid air without falling prey to gravity. (Hope that made sense, if not, see pic below with light sticking out to the left)
***It also has a rear locking holder, allowing you to put counter weights on the rear end of your boom pole. All the other manufactured versions i have seen, do not allow you to securely clamp the pole in place, nor can you counterweight anything without the pole falling out the rear end of the saddle. They rely upon simple laws of gravity to keep the pole in place. Not to mention, this design will also outperform the C-Stand it is sitting on. (meaning if you really overload it, you will probably snap the C-Stand stud or have the stand break in half, long before this gives way)
***They are extremely over engineered. Very heavy duty and will out-spec just about any stand you put it on.
My neighbor, a retired navy welder, makes these up for me. We have not made any for sale to date, but I think we can keep them around 100 dollars. Not bad in my humble opinion considering you can leave any dedicated light boom stands at home, and just use C-Stands for all your booming/flagging needs. With two of them, and two stands, two poles and a crossbar, you can boom-out and entire backdrop curtain so your stands do not get in the way of the curtain allowing for more viewspace ETC ETC.
I placed a full C-Stand in this for the pictures as an example. I left the base on for show, and a counter weight. In the pic with the stand extended the length of the van, NOTE: The pivot clamp is doing 70% of the work. The base of the stand was not enough to keep it from crashing to the ground. The light weighs about 2 pounds.
I will post more detailed pics later in case someone wants to take a whack at making their own. We don't plan to manufacture these in mass quantities presently, however if someone is interested in getting one, let me know. We can make a few up at a time.
These are all Iron and Steel construction, fabricated completely by hand right down to the locking nuts. It also has it's own pivot/clamp unlike all the other versions out there that sell for roughly 40 to 70 bucks, that still require a the use/purchase of a 30 dollar knuckle before you can use them.
I have a simpler version with a male stud off the bottom for use in conjunction with common knuckles. Not much different than some of the commercial versions out there other than mine can bear much more weight.
David Walker
"MagicCat"
PM Me or Email Direct. mail@mediamagicproductions.com
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