Make your own Gorilla Pod

The title says it all. If your unfamiliar with gorilla pods, they are tripods made with bendable coolant hose also known as segmented hose. They cost $22 to $55 to buy, but you can make your own for only a few dollars worth of parts. Lets get started.

EDIT: Adding grip step is added!

Yay, this Instructable won first prize in the Photojojo Month contest. Thanks for everyone who voted for it and the judges!

Step 1: Materials

Materials
-Segmented hose sections. I used 21 sections total.
-three way segmented hose divider
-segmented hose to 2/5 inch hose adapter
-1/4 inch segmented hose nozzle
-1/4 inch bolt
-8•32 socket head bolt
-8•32 lock nut
-some 1/4 inch washers. preferable rubber
-hot glue or super glue
-Optional, but recommended-7 Lego tires. The ones I used said "30.4 x 14" on them.

Note:segmented hose is available here. Just search for "Coolant hose"

Tools
-Drill press or hand drill
-11/64 inch drill bit
-Hot glue gun

Step 2: Make the divider and attach the legs

Get the three way segmented hose divider.
1. Drill a hole in the center as shown. Hole should be the diameter of the 8-32 bolt (about an 11/64 inch bit). Attach all the segmented hose segments into three equal sections. Then snap on the segments to the divider. See the pictures if you get confused.

Step 3: The mount for the camera mount

We are going to put on the mount for the camera mount.
1. Put the 8-32 socket head bolt through the adapter as shown. Then put the bolt through the hole drilled in the three way splitter.
2. Screw the lock nut onto the end. Tighten enough to keep the adapter from spinning freely, but not so much as you can not turn the adapter.

Step 4: The camera mount

Here we will be making the part that attaches the camera to the tripod.
1. Put glue on the 1/4 inch bolt and quickly slide it into the nozzle as shown.
2. Make sure the bolt does not turn with glue
3. Add rubber washers to the end of the 1/4 inch bolt until about 3/8 of inch of the bolt are visible above the washers.

Step 5: Adding Grip

In this step we will add some grip to our Gorilla Pod. This step is optional, but recommended. I used some Lego tires. They will be secured with hot glue. Thanks to Duck Lemon for the idea to use Lego tires!
1. Put tires onto the legs, two on each leg.
2. Glue them in place with hot glue.
3. Cut one tire into three or four sections with wire cutters or scissors.
4. Glue one section onto the end of each leg.

Step 6: Finish

Just snap the camera mount onto its mount, and your finished! Enjoy your new Gorilla Pod you made for only a few dollars! Don't forget to vote for this in the Photojojo Contest! Thanks for looking!

Comments

[supercoolbuilder3321]

VERY UNSTABLE

[mr.squeakers]

ingenius

[ebp]

What is the diameter of the hose and how much weight can the stand hold up?

[jjhale]

Great use of an amazing product.

I had a lot of trouble connecting the loc-line segments together. Then I found an easy way using a bit of wire instead of the special tool. Details on my blog:

blog.jjhale.com/2010/03/20/how-to-join-loc-line-modular-adjustable-hose-without-a-special-tool/

[thoughtstorms]

great idea - thanks for sharing it!    If i ever find some affordable LocLine, i will be trying it!

[kc135576]

I think you may have needed the tripod to take the pictures of you making the tripod.

[dagenius]

I know, right? Who sees the irony that there were blurry pics in an instructable of how to make a tripod?

[Pharoah6905]

Out of curiosity, how much did the project cost to make? The description just says "a few dollars" but can someone be a little more specific? Are we talking a $5 project, $20, or something on the order of $40?

[benthekahn]

I made it for free because i had all the parts around, but if everything needs to be bought, i'd say about $8 (excluding tools).

[Pharoah6905]

Wow that's pretty cheap! I think I might try it. I'll let you know how it turns out :-)

[qtm]

Looking at McMaster.com, 1' of coolant hose is $6.16, the three way connector is another $6, another $12 for the other connectors. Add shipping and it's over $40 for the parts. Nice instructable, but doesn't look like it's going to save you any money if you don't already have the parts.

[NinJa_RaiZer]

well then lets not buy the parts online huh?

[karrock]

Note that the prices for the connectors are multi-packs -- two or four in each. You could always economize by making four flexipods at once -- for friends or to sell completed.

[benthekahn]

McMaster is pretty expensive. You can also get it off ebay for cheaper.

[8bit]

I think you may have lucked out on that purchase.

[Lance Mt.]

 Man i want your name... Oh yeah nice 'ible

[imrobot]

does it have the ability to grip on to poles, hang sideways, or upside down like an actual gorilla pod?

[benthekahn]

it does.

[Exitao]

Could you not add a bit of hose to the bottom centre, beneath the camera mount and then make it so you could detach the three legs, connect them together, like a monopod which you could wrap around posts, or saplings or branches?

[benthekahn]

Not with the one I made because the grip on the end of each leg would keep them from being connected, but I'm sure you could easily make one that would work for that.

[Exitao]

If we find a way to thread them together, we could use the same threading to screw in the feety-type grips...

[benthekahn]

Go for it! Maybe even have a segment that had grip on the bottom for each leg. When the legs are combined, these segments could be removed and stashed somewhere?

[IW5 Industries]

i saw a thrift store gorilla pod for two bucks! (not kidding!)

[theRIAA]

i bought a kockoff at dealextreme for $12 and it's just like the original they don't have any more though...

[spidermac]

you found a gorillapodlike tripod on DX? can u tell me where or the name of the item? thanks

[MePerson]

There's a Gorilla Pod-like tripod at RadioShack, its called the Targus Grypton Portable Tripod. It's not too bad, and they have two sizes.

[M. Gyver]

I second this comment, I got the smaller one for about $10. It works well for a point and shoot.

I multi-tasked it and turned it into helping hands, similar to this. I should have taken pictures for an instructable, but I forgot.

[spidermac]

thanks but unfortunately i'm not close to a radioshack store.. i'm in italy

[bowmaster]

Go on a shocation.

[theRIAA]

they ran out a couple months ago, they had a big one and a mini one, i got both. it was under "flexible joints tripod" or something

[Kent]

B&H has a knockoff for $12.95. Search for: GGI TRF-01 Flexible Mini-Tripod/Grip - Black I bought a similar or maybe this same model at a ham radio show for $8. This is a small model, and it might hold an SLR on a pipe rail, but it would be a risk. Small digital cameras would be fine. At this price, save your time for making cooler stuff.

[flio191]

lol, i knew it was coming, sooner or later. and that tubing material too!

[hagure]

Yeah, I kind of had the same idea while looking at "3rd hands" and ilkilk in my electronics class.

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"So THAT'S what Instructables is for!!"

Next time I'm @ SD Electronics imma pick me up the parts and build away. The tires are a nice, DIY touch

[benthekahn]

you can get it here. Just search for "coolant hose"

[steelfuryMX]

thanks, so much for the help, my search for segmented hose didn't return what i was looking for.

[HardCoreHacker]

You are amazing. My mom has been so enyious of my aunt for getting one of these. My mom always likes the things I make so this is great and just in time for Mothers' Day!

[pink_efelant]

Cheater

[steelfuryMX]

where do you buy Segmented hose? and is that what it is called at the store?

[Atomik]

very clever idea using segmented hose, it's almost identical to the original, great stuff!

[axist47]

A good place to get a bunch of these tires is through brinklinks.com You can buy a dozen or so for under a dollar. Just do a search for "30.4 x 14 Lego tires" you should get a few thousand hits.