Make Your Own Camera Monopod With a Bottle-cork

This tutorial is so easy to do and also very cheap. All you need to success is a 6mm long tripod screw (1/4") and a bottle-cork. IMPORTANT. You need to have the exakt thread on the screw for this purpose or you will destroy your cameras thread. If you are unsure, bring your camera to the store.

I bought my screw in the hardware-store for around 0.30$.
You also need a drill with a 5.5mm diameter size. 6mm might also work.

Step 1: Drill a Hole in the Bottle-cork

Start by using your drill and make a hole in the center of your cork.

Step 2: Insert the Screw

Screw on the screw from tha backside of the cork. Screw it all through the cork so that the screwhead (funny word for a swedish guy like me) meets the surface of the cork. I used a kitchenknife but a screwdriver would be more preferable (not needed thou).

Step 3: Attach the Bottle-cork to the Camera

Now when the camerascrew and the bottle-cork has turned into one part, attach it to the cameras thread.
Fill the bottle with some water to make it steady an you're done!

Good luck
Regards
Hobbyman
Please visit www.hobbyman.se for more tips (in swedish)

Comments

[Inspecter Gadjit]

Excuse me but that is not a cork, a cork is usually made of wood and used for wine bottles NOT water bottles....
I find it very inconvenient to find this page in my search result's for something pertaining to an actual cork.
However I will add that your idea of using a BOTTLE & CAP to make a camera stand isn't too bad except that sand would be better than water....
why not take it a step further and use colored sand, just a thought.

[EggHead101]

A "Powerade" sports drink bottle works great for this. Also if it's just the run of the mill small digital camera - you don't have to fill it with water or sand. The other Idea is to glue an inverted plastic bowl to the bottom of the bottle. Again more stable and no need to fill it with anything.

[vfontanela]

Why don't you put sand instead of water?

[joeny1980]

I hate to be negative, but here is the scenario I imagine: you just drilled thru the cap of a bottle of water/soda/whatever, now you put a bolt thru it that has far less than a watertight seal. Your poorly misbalanced bottle of water with the camera hanging over the side tips over, forget about the impact of the camera slammed into the table, but now the water splashing thru the drilled cap onto yor camera, and the camera snapping right off the tripod. I'd rather see a write-up on a gorilla-pod type item. Honestly, how useful is it to use this waterbottle tripod. Placing on the average table just lifted your camera only about 5 inches off the table, not exactly bringing you close to the typical "photo-height"

[joeny1980]

...sorry 'unipod'. But one last point I forgot to mention. If anyone thinks my point about water seepage is important or at least not worth the risk. Add a rubber washer underneath, and maybe a slim lock-nut on the outside.

[joeny1980]

Sorry, a triple reply is totally innappropriate, but an even better idea, how about a tab of (nontoxic) silicon/epoxy under the bolt on the inside of the cap.

[brian25]

I would add a small washer inside the bottle cap and on the outside. That would create an adequate seal. I would not use water though... just sand. The reason for using washers is so you can reuse the bolt if the cap gets worn. It's plastic afterall.

[teresajoy]

A rubber washer would work perfectly! It would seal it even more.

[LasVegas]

That would be a Unipod, rather than a Tripod. Tripod, by its very name is defined as "Three Feet"

[Crash2108]

The bottle may have 3 or 4 bumps on the bottom of it.

[LasVegas]

You must get some mighty interesting water bottles! All of them I've seen have round bottoms.

[Suppafly]

what country do you live in? almost every plastic soda bottle in the US has bumpy feet on the bottom.

[LasVegas]

The above sample is that of a Soda Bottle which holds pressurized, carbonated beverages. My statement referenced Water Bottles. Even so, it's really immaterial. My comment was that is isn't per-sé a "Tripod." There is one foot; The bottle. To make a tripod requires 3 feet. This is important because it's the most stable of structures. Even by a very long stretch, we were to consider those toes at the bottom of the bottle as feet, that would make it a "Quadpod." Since that don't perform the function of feet though, the unit is a "Monopod" (Yes. More acurate. A Unipod could mean for Univeral Use. :))

[hobbyman.se]

Since some of you focus on the name of it, rather than the function and instruction, I have changed the name from tripod to monopod. :-)

[LasVegas]

Good man! Your project is fine. It's just semantics! :)

[sam]

more commonly known as a monopod.. anyway- a bottle with bumps may look like this-

[meddler]

Would that be to wobbly with a bottle like that? I want to set up something similar with my antique box camera. Maby fill it with sand?

[Crash2108]

Sand, don't get me started on sand.

[Crash2108]

I tried this once but when I was filling the bottle the sink overflowed and the pole in the basement rusted out and fell over and then the house fell down. So... Maybe not a good idea working with water, it is dangerous.

[spinach_dip]

cool. I've done the same thing, but with a longer screw and a wing nut. The proper thread is 1/4-20. That's one quarter inch dia., twenty threads per inch