salvaged material crane

2062ad

2062ad

Active member
5 July 09 update
Here's the finished video of the cam crane project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFfhq...eature=channel


25 June 09
Ok, this isn't fancy but what I can say is it has been a fun as heck project. I'm building this almost completely out of salvaged material. (so far I have $6,00 U.S. in it) It's a 16 ft wooden crane mounted to the top of my house as I gear up for a little thriller indie short. It's a project in progress so it's got some tweaks to be done yet. But as I said. It's fun! And BIG!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9fxS4eSM7A


4 july 09
Yay! A good degree of success! I think I got a pretty decent shot setup this time with the crane. I used 2-5 gal buckets for the weight containers and instead of sand used water as the medium for balance. Easy to adjust the weight and after doing so I could operate the thing with 1 finger.
 
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Good job. The only thing that matters is if it helps you capture the shot you're after. All the cranes and dollies started out as someone's DIY project, with refinements added as they learned.
 
Pretty sweet. But is it balanced? In the video it almost looks like you're having to put some effort into pulling the back end down or then letting it up slowly with a rope. If that's the case I'd try adding a little more weight to the back. It should balance out. It'll really help smooth out your moves.

I finally started building my own crane, and I'm going to be utilizing a fair amount of scrap materials as well. I found a bunch of nice aluminum at a scrap yard for $1/pound that I'm pretty excited about.
 
crane balance etc

crane balance etc

It's a project in motion so to speak. Work work work has kept me busy but this weekend I plan on adding a better balance system to the back of it by utilizing a bucket screwed to the back to be loaded with sand. This way I should be able to get some pretty sweetly tuned balance by adding the sand little by little. Also going to add a couple bungee outriggers of sorts to control the swaying I get when the wind picks up.
I'll do another video on how that works.
:dankk2:
 
cam crane 2

cam crane 2

Yay! A good degree of success! I think I got a pretty decent shot setup this time with the crane. I used 2-5 gal buckets for the weight containers and instead of sand used water as the medium for balance. Easy to adjust the weight and after doing so I could operate the thing with 1 finger. I'll put a video together for tomorrow night (Sunday). Hey, it's the 4th of july weekend and I'm going biking tomorrow day.
Watch for the vid tomorrow night sometime.:Drogar-Happy(DBG):


 
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thanks!

thanks!

yeah, it was really fun to build too. I pulled it off the house a week or so ago and my lady was sort of upset with me, if you can believe that. Yeah, me either. But she said she wanted it up there when her folks came to Alaska to visit us in a few weeks. So I guess I'll be putting it back up. Ok, I'm game :)
Actually, this whole gear up for the movie has been a really rewarding experience. Here's the latest green screen 'gear up'.:beer:
http://someplaceak.blogspot.com/2009/07/green-screen-experiment-3-horror.html
 
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