Ever want a really big tripod, but not willing to spend the $200+ on one? Well, now you can make your own for less than $30 that will stand eight feet high in less than an hour!

What You'll Need
1 two foot high camera tripod from Wal-mart. Cost: $15
3 six foot long x 1 1/4 inch PVC pipes
3 six foot long x 1 inch PVC pipes
3 end caps that will tightly fit onto the 1 inch pipes
3 short fattish screws

Tools You'll Use
1 drill
1 drill bit
1 friend (optional)

Step 1: Making Sure It Fits

First you need to get your PVC pipes and make sure that the smaller ones will fit inside of the larger ones. You don't want the fit to be too tight or else you'll have a hard time adjusting the tripod, but you want it to be snug enough to prevent the whole thing from being wobbly. You'll also want to make sure that your end caps fit onto the ends of the smaller pipes tightly.

Step 2: Drill Some Holes

Now you want to take a tape measure, and mark off six inch increments from the end of the smaller pipe. I suggest making six marks. Make sure they are measured properly because you'll be using these marks to know where to drill. You can make the marks closer together if you like, but six inches seemed like a good distance to me. Don't make any marks on the last two feet of the pipe because you will not be drilling any holes there. You're going to want to choose your drill bit based on the size of the screws you have. You want the screw to be able to be removed easily from the hole.

Step 3: Put It Together

Now you just need to smack the end caps onto the end of the smaller pipes where you started your measuring from, and slide the smaller pipes into the larger pipes. You can then put the legs of the tripod inside the other end of the large pipes and you now have a tall tripod! To raise it up even higher go around and lift each leg one at a time, and place the screw in the hole. This will prevent the legs from collapsing back into themselves. Working your way around you can get the tripod up to several feet in the air. Just don't place your camera on the top until you have the tripod to the height you want it. This thing does have a habit of falling over until all the legs are in the desired positions, and I'd hate to see you loose a camera.