New Crane!!!

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Whiteside Production

Active member
So today, I built myself this ass-kicking crane. It is almost done; there is some touchup work to be done such as cleaning up welds, adding a monitor holder and power center plus some more. I spent about $113 in metal:
  • 10' of 2"x1" rectangular tubing (stood on tall end for main arm)
  • 10' of .5"x.5" box tubing (9 foot piece as "tilter," 1' piece for tilt lever)
  • 5"x6' flatstock (used for camera holder and arm holder)
  • 2 6" flatstock discs
  • 1.5"x5' tubing
The crane is held up with a speaker stand, and the aluminum tube for adjusting speaker height is replaced with the thickwall 5' tube. A flatstock disc with a permaenant 1/2 inch bolt is welded to the pipe. The "Arm holder" is wellded to an identical flatscock disc, with a 1/2 inch hole in the center. The whole crane is attached to that, which drops directly on to the welded bolt of the 1.5" tubing.

The tilt mechanisim is auto-leveling AND manual. Auto-leveling is accomplished by putting a bolt through the "tilter" while the camera sled is level. Manual tilt is accomplished by removing that bolt.

I also don't have weights yet, and those will be added on Wednesday.

Like I said before, there is a little more work to be done before it gets powdercoated, and I will get more detailed pictures on Wednesday, because it is at my cousins machine shop.

But here's one pic.

crane.jpg


If anybody wants to know exact specs on anything, feel free to ask away!

Yeah that's me in the pic :2vrolijk_08:
 
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I have thought about selling them, but I have to figure out more on how to mass produce them. Plus mine isn't 100% perfect. The holes and welds aren't perfect, and the discs that the "arm" rotates on were just cut with a plasma from squares. If I mass produce or sell, I will get discs that have been milled and cut with a water jet for perfection.

A whole nother issue is powder coating. I could either powder coat them, or just paint them with black Rust-Oleum spray paint.

As for the arm rotation, if you make 2 identical discs and set them on top of eachother, it seems to rotate without problems. When I go back to my cousins shop on Wednesday, I am going to add an acrylic disc between the two.

Hey TC, you live in Northridge? That's funny because I live over in Chatsworth.


Real quick...Does anyone have any ideas for strong mounting of the camera to the sled? i have the usual 1/4 inch tripod screw and all, but I just don't feel that it is enough. What ways can i make this a better mount?
 
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Nice job. It looks like you're using steel, if so how much does all of it weight? Are you experiencing any sway?
 
I am taking a guess that it weighs about 35 or so pounds. I haven't had much operating time, but there doesn't seem to be much sway.

Haha i live in the north valley...and once its done, yeah I may rent it.
 
Whiteside Production said:
Does anyone have any ideas for strong mounting of the camera to the sled? i have the usual 1/4 inch tripod screw and all, but I just don't feel that it is enough. What ways can i make this a better mount?
Click to expand...

If your concern is that the cam might wriggle or twist, you could try some soft [self-adhesive on crane-deck side] Silicone Rubber. If the cam can't twist, it should be fairly secure with a 1/4"-20 bolt, and it will also provide tension maintenance on the bolt, kind of acting like a locking washer would.
 
My main concern with mounting is that somehow, some way the camera will wiggle the bolt off and i will be out $2500 and not making any movies anymore. When I mounted it for the first time, the camera seemed to wiggle around a little bit.

Where can you get the sillicon rubber stuff?
 
better yet, put a fluid head on the platform. then you can operate the jib from the front and make complex pan/tilt moves while moving the jib. i do it all the time with mine....
 
Well, I have actually thought about that, but the tripod head that I have is not the best one in the world. I know everyone is thinking, "Just go buy a new one." Well I would love to, but we need to spend money on other production stuff. Plus I'm only 16...and no, my parents haven't bought me a single thing for my film compmany. It's paid for all by me.

So a new tripod head is pretty much out of the question for a while.
 
When putting my camera on a jib I always use zip ties as a secondary securing method. If the bolt were to somehow come loose my hope is that the zip ties would save my camera long enough for me to commence rescue operations.
 
Even cheaper... Bogen/manfrotto makes a quick release plate (the one I have uses the octagonal plates). It's just a QR mechanism with a plate and a 3/8" and 1/4" screw hole. I used it for still shoots on my big camera stand, should work well for this; their octagonal plate system is pretty robust.
 
Whiteside Production said:
Well, I have actually thought about that, but the tripod head that I have is not the best one in the world. I know everyone is thinking, "Just go buy a new one." Well I would love to, but we need to spend money on other production stuff. Plus I'm only 16...and no, my parents haven't bought me a single thing for my film compmany. It's paid for all by me.

So a new tripod head is pretty much out of the question for a while.
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I admire your motivation... and understand your lack of resources. A couple of things, look at something like "Killer DV Rigs You Can Build" , a great book with lots of ideas on fabrication. Even if you don't follow them to the T, you can get alot of ideas, and shoot off at odd angles from that. :-)

Secondly, keep rakin through ebay and craigslist (if they have it for your city). You can find some amazing things on there, for next to nothing in some cases. Keep looking for that $15 fluid head ball.. Im am the champion scrounger in my household.. :-)

Best of luck.

Ohhhh, one more thing. Is it a steel crane? How heavy is it? Would aluminum be sturdy enough and still lighten the load?

Thanks,
J
 
TeamJoeDawn said:
...look at something like "Killer DV Rigs You Can Build" , a great book with lots of ideas on fabrication....
Click to expand...

That book is worth every dime. I just built a glidecam 4000 clone for around $100 (that's not just for parts, but tools that I can use on future projects too!). In fact, your crane design is very similar to the one(s) in the book, but you may still wanna check it out to help improve your design. Nice job though.
 
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