Building a threaded pipe Steadi-cam

 Okie dokie,

I found this idea on the internet of course. There are quite literally hundreds of these designs floating around. I thought I might add my version to the pile since I'm a bit fussy about what the final design looks like. This one does not look totally professional, but it's not bad for a cheap project.

Materials List

1. 3 - 12" lengths of threaded pipe
2. 2 - End caps
3. 1 - Tee
4. 1 - Flange
5. 4 - 1/4" - 20 machine screws
6. 1 - Cast iron weight - I used 5lbs. You may want a few different weights depending on your camera
7. 1 - 1/4"-20 bolt for the camera mount (should be at least 1-1/2" long)
8. Some washers
9. 2 - Bicycle grips
10. Black spray paint

Tools Required

1. Drill or Drill Press
2. 1/4"-20 Tap
3. Wrench
4. Screw Driver

Step 1 Drilling and tapping the 5lb weight

1. Trace out the holes from the flange on to the weight.

2. Drill out the holes on the drill press if you have one. Your tap and die set will tell you what size of bit to use for each tap. I'll be honest, I just eye-balled this one by grabbing a bit a little smaller than the diameter of the machine screws. Anyway, a drill will work, but you want to make sure your drilling straight down. You might also like to center punch your holes first so that your drill bit does not stray on you. These holes need to be fairly accurate so that they line of with the flange holes.

3. Once the holes have been drilled, you can thread them with a 1/4"-20 tap. 1/4" is the diameter of the hole. 20 is the number of threads per inch.

4. If you don't have a tap and die set, you should get one, or at least the most common sizes. I use 1/4-20" for a million different things. It's my favourite.

5. If you still don't have a tap and die set, you could drill these holes larger, and put bolts all the way through, with nuts on the bottom side of the weight.