If you want to salvage most of your current design, you can attach a french cleat to a roof beam over your workbench. With only minor modifications you can then have your mounting arm hang down, giving you pretty much the same maneuverability while tremendously cutting down on a lot of the flexing because the whole thing doesn't span as far horizontally and the force is more in line with the mounting plate. You can even allow it to rotate around an axis on the mounting plate if you want.
correct, and consideration could also be given to making rails (if there is room) from which to hang the main support as a carriage. That could make the whole assembly capable of traversing the length of the rails without the need for extending the arms. I built a similar device to carry a rather large pair of binoculars on a homemade tripod. The parallelogram allows me to raise and lower the glasses (to suit different users) without changing where they're aimed, and I provided a counter weight to offset the weight of the binoculars...turned out very smooth and easy to operate.
Yeah, need a beefier connection at the bottom end. In addition, even though you have those locking mechanisms, it might benefit from tensioner springs on the arms.
Yes, the tensioning springs will take some of the bounce out of the arm. You could consider using bungie line for tension instead of traditional springs.
Again absolutely mindblowing! I really like all your projects and can't wait for more. The ammount of precision is outstanding to me, and I think your ideas are absolutely worth finding their ways into so many woodshops more!
There is always play when it comes to moving parts, it looks great. I think this would work best if kept within the 2D plane of extension, as 2 arm parallelogram only supports along that shear....but if you want an articulation to swing into the 3D, you will need to do 3 arm support in order to prevent too much twisting. I am happy to see that not everything you build works as you intend, it lets me know that you still build to completion to find what works and doesn't work.....and that is commendable.
steel at the base, aluminium at the second stage and wood for the last stage. Strength at the point of most stress with less weight at the point of most mechanical advantage
Hi. Great video. Thank you. There are so many great ideas in your workshop. Just shows that it's not nessesary to have a massive workshop to be a maker. Keep up the good work.
i tried something similar for a monitor mount. Basically, any play in the mounts gets multiplied times the length of the arm, so the first thing you need to do is to remove any play. Bearings do help, but I had to resort to using less pivoting points and aluminium bars (20mm squared which I had lying around) to make it work and even then there is still some play. What also did help is to make the main pivot very long as it will reduce the effect of play in the endpoints.
Run a thin bungee cord from the base up through the paralell arms, where the locking mechanism you need a rose ? washer the ones with the pronouned lines on to add to the friction, also below the french cleat if you have part of the bungee with j bar on you can add a weight which will add tension, small camera small weight, larger camera or took a heavier weight. I am a steadicam operator and the tension is done in three places, the hinges, the mount and spring tension. dont thrown the design out! it works, just needs correct tension, keep at it, and stay healthy. Good luck.
Thank you as always for showing the wins and the losses while you create. That and your incredibly creative solutions to design and implementation challenges are outstanding. Please keep up the great videos and stay safe. Cheers!
Super cool! Only basic woodworking skills here, but worked in mechanical engineering for over a decade, and lots lots of CADD/ dynamic sim time. Previous comments are right on, but depends on your intent. Are you using only wood? Can you add pre-tension springs ? That's the first step. The areas close to wall are under more loads of various sorts, so lateral stability and making those parts more rigid would help. I've been at that stage before, and had good results with things like fiberglassing the areas that need reinforcement. You could also use some bracketing close to the wall, to beef up the high-torsen parts. LOVE the woorking lessons I get from this. SG
Primary fixing point: A taller two bearing point mount, maybe about 150mm tall on a 25mm or larger dowel through two precision drilled holes. Stronger and more rigid articulated joints: Moving your parallel moving arms further apart from each other will reduce unwanted movement at the articulations. Read up on moments and levers on the internet to get something rigid enough for a DSLR.
On the back of the locking semi circles glue on sand paper and it will help stop the weight of the arm from pulling it down. Also most of these rigs use springs to offset the weight, which also has the added benefit of keeping the system under tension which helps remove the play from the system.
Very cool build. I got lucky I was able to get a wall mounted articulated light mount from a dentist office that went out of business. I replaced the light with an led. Less heat when it is close to the work area. Yours is better because it can be placed anywhere on your wall. I might change the one I have to mount on a rail.
I am glad I found your channel, you are very clever. I think you are going to need to start welding before you are going to get the stability you are looking for. Thanks for sharing.
Again your ingenuity amazes me! Love your vids, man! You see these "arms" used in desk lamps, and they all seem to have springs worked into the construction to add stability and to counter the weight.
Replace the bottom lip of the lower mount, so that it supports the full length of that first arm angle piece. You can see it flexing at 14:53, so it needs double thickness there also.
One major thing that is rather essential to this kind of design is as some have mentioned is to have springs to counter the weight of the arms. Basically, the springs need to be strong enough so that you shouldn't need to use the locking mechanism to keep the arm in its position. If you look on lamps that have this kind of design there's always some kind of spring mechanism on them. To eliminate any sort of play or as much as possible is also important. Most people who have made this successfully uses a bolt with a metal bushing as you sort of has. The metal bushing should be just large enough so that the bolt can go through without any play. Your copper bushings are too wide for the bolts you are using. The bushings should also be just flush with the arm and be fastened on the arm with either epoxy or a set screw. The way you are doing it the wood is pivoting on the copper bushing instead of the bushing pivoting around the bolt. The bolt should be just tight enough so the arm can move freely but with some resistance without any play side to side as they do on your arms where the bushings are wider than the arms. You can also use some wax or paraffin between the arm and pivot points to remove friction while they are still tight between the pivot plates. You might also consider using a better hinge construction by adding more fingers almost like a box joint to make it more stable.
I have been researching these so thought this popped up because of that but seems I am not the only one interested! Great work as always, cheers from Australia
Does the additional degree of freedom from the joint in the elbow enhance the functionality much? You could replace that with an in-line joint to eliminate some flexing and complexity. Reinforcing the connection to the French cleat base with aluminum and making the whole connection much larger would help too.
Tension springs on the arm mounted against the wall. That should prevent the sag. They are rather large arms. I would suggest also a bulkier swivel block connected to the wall mount.
To improve the stability of the mount you could add a diagonal brace underneath the hinge on your French cleat mounting plate. You could also add some springs to the arms so that they are able to hold some more weight which will put less stress on the arm locking mechanism.
A heavy spring mounted 4 to 6 inches up on the removable mounting fixture, above the pivot to the upper part of the arm maybe at a 45 deg angle providing a pulling up against the arm sagging might stabilize it, tinker with it, you'll figure it out, great idea!
That is what I was thinking. Have a look at Pask Makes Channel. He made a lamp stand which I sort of copied for my microphone with a clamp mount on the desk. Try the springs they work!
I would put two bars on the top and one at the bottom, this would partly reduce the twisting of the arm and also increase the size of the support that in turn would increase the area of contact with the bars thus reducing the swing of the arm.
I have a architect lamp with some weight at the end. Looks like your solution will add stability, but this might add some more. I noticed your joints were all loose. The copper joints are a lot wider than the wood. On my lamp the joint plates are compressed onto the arms. The friction adds to the stability. The last joint has a wing nut that I can clamp down if needed. This is definitely not strong enough by itself for you, but it could add some extra stiffness to your design. Also the plate design should take less wood. Hope my thoughts aren't to late.
Howzit Jean. Nice one. As said by a few people. Beef up the main connection at the base and thicken up those link arms. Also adding springs to tension up the system would help, I think. Just do what you do and keep making cape town proud
It reminds me of an old lighting system I have only ever use heavy springs on the bottom but it’s more stable control to lock trying to think of something to use like that
When the stability issue is solved I suggest to insert a small water leveler to make sure the camera is level whenever you're setting it up. That last shot when you were using the mount seemed skew to me. I love your merch btw, glad they ship to the EU as well :)
All of the force is downward (even when empty) which needs to be countered. To counter the downward forces you need some sort of pilling device on each arm. Either a coiled spring or some form of elastic cord.
I would suggest double the arms on the lower section, and connect them together with bracing to prevent torquing. it will make it more stable, although I do not know by how much. I'm currently designing a similar arm set up, but from metal, and meant for even heavier load, and longer distance. and running into all kinds of problems with that. stability is and always will be a big issue, and very difficult to get right with limited materials, tools etc.
Boet i must say another rad project! some very clever use of ur tools as well :) love the fact that you are not afraid to post your mistakes as well!! i would suggest increasing the distance between the base plates that mount to the french cleat and adding tension springs sounds definitely stiffen it up. but keep it up dude really proud of your work!
I think making the hinge at the wall much taller, maybe the full height of your cleat, with a longer hinge pin should give the mount a lot more stability.
All of component parts of what you have made, remain of interest; despite any discontent you might have with the overall assembly. My own sense would see me use those components to make something with one arm rather than two. I enjoyed watching how you theorise/design and make/construct. I think the bottom line is that of materials used. Wood/composites are being imaginatively and creatively used: but there then is a limiting weight/strength issue; the principles of moments rather defeats your materials/methods, in this instance. I look forward to following you in these videos; I get the feeling I could learn a lot I might adapt across my own projects.
If you want to support a DSLR in a more rock stable config.... Your rig is translating all sorts of forces - bending moments and torque moments which vary all over the place as you adjust ( look at the arms, and specifically the joints for 6 axis robotic arms for CNC or Assembly robots ... the joints are huge compared to the arms, the minute you bend away from the straight line established by the first arm at the middle joint, you are introducing a twisting moment to the first arm ... take a stick the length of your 2nd arm, hold it in your hand -1 hand - at the very end so that it is perpendicular to your arm and horizontal, then hang something the same weight as your DSLR + the tripod part on the end and see if you can hold it horizontal with your 1 wrist alone ... this is what you are asking that center joint to do. It's a big ask. Most folks do not allow that center joint to swivel left and right, only up and down ( like the lamp in the Pixar intros) and this is the reason why. You can do it, but the structure of your 1st arm will have to be significantly different, and as noted below, the way you grab onto the wall as well - assuming that the twist is prevented at the elbow, then it all goes back to the shoulder at the wall where it now has both the maximum twisting moment as well as the bending moment to prevent it falling down ( this moment is maximum when both arms are straight out from the wall at 90 degrees and set so that the camera end is as far away from the wall as possible - you can simulate that with the stick in your hand again if you want to get an idea what your asking the wall and arm to do. 1) Make your auto locking board span 2 or even 3 rows of cleats and wider. You are effectively building a cantilever arm to support +/- 1kilo at what looks to be about 1.5 m out and to be stable in 3 dimensions. Your base needs to be large in all directions to get the initial stability off the wall itself. 2) That first pivot mount needs to be bigger - wider and taller so that it attaches to much more of the mounting bracket. 3) Your arms, especially the 1st arm, need some lateral stability - make it a quad armed rig - in the horizontal plains, but some diagonal bracing, in the veritcle plains, you should have something which slides and locks about mid span - you could do with a pair of strong springs - this would help counter the weight at well - but getting them set up right is going to take a little fussing - 2 strips of ply which are a little longer than half the maximum diagonal distance that the link needs to be as the arm moves, the inner one with a hole and a carriage bolt epoxied in, and the outer with a slot, some washers on each side and a wing nut ( but you need a par of these, one on each side to balance the forces ... maybe just another pair of those locking plates you make with the semi circular slot, I'm just not sure if that is the correct travel path for the locking pin/bolt, but I guess if it works at the end it will work in the middle... 4) for your outer arm, if yo won't want to make that a 4 beam arm like the 1st section, try making the 2 arms into a T .. picture the entire arm as an I - Beam split along the virtical web about half way between the top plate and bottom plate - that will carry the load anyway, it won't give you as much added left and right stability ... 5) Your linkage between the 2 arms, you need to do similar to the wall mount in some way - it needs mass and rigidity in lots of directions Not sure if you have the room in that shop, but you can look at John Heintz's over head camera dolly - he runs it on rails which run the length of his shooting area and allow him to slide the camera across on a dolly - this shortens the length of all the articulated arms....but you need to make sure that the gantry can move and clear things, and that later things don't get in the way...you have a tight shop. Joung Ye also did a camera dolly design .. and Fisher's Shop just did an articulated arm for a light holder, can't remember if he put it on a gantry/dolly or not. Good Luck - can't wait to see what you ultimately come up with!
The problem is each joint has a small amount of play. That play also depends on load. The arms act as levers and magnify the load and the play. You need stronger pivots. Once you've done that you may find the arms themselves are the next weakest link and will need more rigidity.
The only problems I see is that: 1> your base MUST be lower than ANY end-point of the arm extension including fully extended, 2> your base must have a weight added to it, near its back-most portion by the attachment point to the cleet. Quick, easy and free if you a spare hunk of metal or an actual freeweight.
That was an amazing proyactmate, congrats! Im pretty new to woodworking, but if i may i would loose one of the arms, and the wooden hinges do make it loose stability. But again, it looks really awesome. Keep up the good work!
Ok, so it didn't work exactly as you wanted but its was a great proof of concept and I loved watching the build and the design come together. Just think of it as giving you 2 YT videos instead of one :)
You demonstrated some good skills in the construction but IMO chose the wrong materials. The mount that attaches to the cleat should be steel or 6mm minimum aluminum. The parallel arms need to be light steel or aluminum. Front wheel bicycle hubs could be used for pivots. They can be snugged up for virtually zero slop. Some stout tension springs will balance the weight. They could be mounted with turnbuckles to adjust the weight capacity. Other options for the pivots would include shafts with tapered roller bearings or bushings bored and reamed to a precise size to fit centerless ground rods. That’s not as costly as it might sound. A bearing supply store can help. As long as you’re not trying to photograph while making moves with the support a small amount of play may be tolerable.
Om daai ding net uit hout te maak is so bietjie gewaagd. As ek jy is, gebruik aluminium vir die arms, staal vir die skaniere en miskien 2 klein gas lift shocks om spanning op die arms so bietjie teen te werk. Like jou werk en so bly dat ek uiteindelik op 'n SA DIY channel af gekom het... . .
the mounting is really hard to get secure, I've yet to figure a way around it, and if you look at lamps with the same sort of arm you'll find they are just as wonky. I don't know if it will help but you can find the articulated rotary tool stands I built on Instructables under the user name sixsmith.
Hi, how are you? It´s look like the copper pipes you are using like bushings have too much space diameter between the screw and the pipe . Thats could be another reason for the wavy movement. a bigger screw, or a smaller pipe diameter should help. Sorry my english. Saludos!
About 1966, a Naval base in Australia. Cook Officer in charge, watching everyone TRY to eat his latest creation. All meals, ending up in the rubbish bin. Inedible. A rating walks over, snaps to attention in front of the Culprit Officer, rating extends his hand, Officer accepts, hands shake, rating says, " Fucken good try Petty Officer. Fucken good try." Woodshop Junkies, "Fucken good try".
"What did I do wrong?" Mate, you've exceeded the reasonableness of your materials. You're not a purist, you use metal fasteners and plastics... While I'm sure that wood could be used as a primary material for such a device, it takes a lot of engineering, mad skills, and time to exploit. Use more metal... Steel for the base and primary stage, and aluminum for the secondary stages... Your hinged-in-the-middle design puts a lot of torsional (twisting) forces upon the base and primary stage... Wood has too much flex, man... Keep at it, you'll persevere!
If you want to salvage most of your current design, you can attach a french cleat to a roof beam over your workbench. With only minor modifications you can then have your mounting arm hang down, giving you pretty much the same maneuverability while tremendously cutting down on a lot of the flexing because the whole thing doesn't span as far horizontally and the force is more in line with the mounting plate. You can even allow it to rotate around an axis on the mounting plate if you want.
That's very clever. Nice thinking.
correct, and consideration could also be given to making rails (if there is room) from which to hang the main support as a carriage. That could make the whole assembly capable of traversing the length of the rails without the need for extending the arms. I built a similar device to carry a rather large pair of binoculars on a homemade tripod. The parallelogram allows me to raise and lower the glasses (to suit different users) without changing where they're aimed, and I provided a counter weight to offset the weight of the binoculars...turned out very smooth and easy to operate.
Yeah, need a beefier connection at the bottom end.
In addition, even though you have those locking mechanisms, it might benefit from tensioner springs on the arms.
Yes, the tensioning springs will take some of the bounce out of the arm. You could consider using bungie line for tension instead of traditional springs.
I tough the same, like an architect lamp
Again absolutely mindblowing! I really like all your projects and can't wait for more. The ammount of precision is outstanding to me, and I think your ideas are absolutely worth finding their ways into so many woodshops more!
Cutting a semi circle with a router, that was pretty clever.
Even better - doing it with a simple jig so you can make more of them.
There is always play when it comes to moving parts, it looks great. I think this would work best if kept within the 2D plane of extension, as 2 arm parallelogram only supports along that shear....but if you want an articulation to swing into the 3D, you will need to do 3 arm support in order to prevent too much twisting.
I am happy to see that not everything you build works as you intend, it lets me know that you still build to completion to find what works and doesn't work.....and that is commendable.
steel at the base, aluminium at the second stage and wood for the last stage. Strength at the point of most stress with less weight at the point of most mechanical advantage
Hi.
Great video. Thank you.
There are so many great ideas in your workshop. Just shows that it's not nessesary to have a massive workshop to be a maker.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks for this video; it's nice to see the honest result, even if it didn't work as expected.
I like your projects. You did nothing wrong. It's a mindblowing design. 🙌🏻 Thanks for sharing. Until next time. *Chris*
i tried something similar for a monitor mount. Basically, any play in the mounts gets multiplied times the length of the arm, so the first thing you need to do is to remove any play. Bearings do help, but I had to resort to using less pivoting points and aluminium bars (20mm squared which I had lying around) to make it work and even then there is still some play.
What also did help is to make the main pivot very long as it will reduce the effect of play in the endpoints.
Your ideas are fascinating. It amazes me how much you can create in just a tiny space. Please keep up the great videos.
Run a thin bungee cord from the base up through the paralell arms, where the locking mechanism you need a rose ? washer the ones with the pronouned lines on to add to the friction, also below the french cleat if you have part of the bungee with j bar on you can add a weight which will add tension, small camera small weight, larger camera or took a heavier weight. I am a steadicam operator and the tension is done in three places, the hinges, the mount and spring tension. dont thrown the design out! it works, just needs correct tension, keep at it, and stay healthy. Good luck.
Very cool design and not bad for just shooting from the hip, a heavier base and maybe some tension on the arms and you should be golden
Each time you use a power tool other than a saw TH-cam's captions say "[Music]", and that feels surprisingly accurate.
Thank you as always for showing the wins and the losses while you create. That and your incredibly creative solutions to design and implementation challenges are outstanding. Please keep up the great videos and stay safe. Cheers!
Super cool! Only basic woodworking skills here, but worked in mechanical engineering for over a decade, and lots lots of CADD/ dynamic sim time. Previous comments are right on, but depends on your intent. Are you using only wood? Can you add pre-tension springs ? That's the first step. The areas close to wall are under more loads of various sorts, so lateral stability and making those parts more rigid would help. I've been at that stage before, and had good results with things like fiberglassing the areas that need reinforcement. You could also use some bracketing close to the wall, to beef up the high-torsen parts. LOVE the woorking lessons I get from this. SG
Just found your site. Great imagination and craftsmanship on your projects; even the ones that need a version 2!
Izzy, this is what we hope to see from you. Clever things made from wood. Good to see your back holding up.
Primary fixing point: A taller two bearing point mount, maybe about 150mm tall on a 25mm or larger dowel through two precision drilled holes.
Stronger and more rigid articulated joints: Moving your parallel moving arms further apart from each other will reduce unwanted movement at the articulations.
Read up on moments and levers on the internet to get something rigid enough for a DSLR.
On the back of the locking semi circles glue on sand paper and it will help stop the weight of the arm from pulling it down. Also most of these rigs use springs to offset the weight, which also has the added benefit of keeping the system under tension which helps remove the play from the system.
Very cool build.
I got lucky I was able to get a wall mounted articulated light mount from a dentist office that went out of business.
I replaced the light with an led. Less heat when it is close to the work area.
Yours is better because it can be placed anywhere on your wall.
I might change the one I have to mount on a rail.
I am glad I found your channel, you are very clever. I think you are going to need to start welding before you are going to get the stability you are looking for. Thanks for sharing.
Again your ingenuity amazes me! Love your vids, man!
You see these "arms" used in desk lamps, and they all seem to have springs worked into the construction to add stability and to counter the weight.
Replace the bottom lip of the lower mount, so that it supports the full length of that first arm angle piece.
You can see it flexing at 14:53, so it needs double thickness there also.
One major thing that is rather essential to this kind of design is as some have mentioned is to have springs to counter the weight of the arms. Basically, the springs need to be strong enough so that you shouldn't need to use the locking mechanism to keep the arm in its position. If you look on lamps that have this kind of design there's always some kind of spring mechanism on them.
To eliminate any sort of play or as much as possible is also important. Most people who have made this successfully uses a bolt with a metal bushing as you sort of has. The metal bushing should be just large enough so that the bolt can go through without any play. Your copper bushings are too wide for the bolts you are using. The bushings should also be just flush with the arm and be fastened on the arm with either epoxy or a set screw. The way you are doing it the wood is pivoting on the copper bushing instead of the bushing pivoting around the bolt. The bolt should be just tight enough so the arm can move freely but with some resistance without any play side to side as they do on your arms where the bushings are wider than the arms. You can also use some wax or paraffin between the arm and pivot points to remove friction while they are still tight between the pivot plates. You might also consider using a better hinge construction by adding more fingers almost like a box joint to make it more stable.
I have been researching these so thought this popped up because of that but seems I am not the only one interested! Great work as always, cheers from Australia
Does the additional degree of freedom from the joint in the elbow enhance the functionality much? You could replace that with an in-line joint to eliminate some flexing and complexity. Reinforcing the connection to the French cleat base with aluminum and making the whole connection much larger would help too.
Tension springs on the arm mounted against the wall. That should prevent the sag. They are rather large arms. I would suggest also a bulkier swivel block connected to the wall mount.
To improve the stability of the mount you could add a diagonal brace underneath the hinge on your French cleat mounting plate. You could also add some springs to the arms so that they are able to hold some more weight which will put less stress on the arm locking mechanism.
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with! 👍
I'm a fan of reinforcing joints under high stress with aluminium or steel sheet cut to size, screwed and glued (with suitable builders glue or epoxy).
I love the first version, you'll get it figured out.
A heavy spring mounted 4 to 6 inches up on the removable mounting fixture, above the pivot to the upper part of the arm maybe at a 45 deg angle providing a pulling up against the arm sagging might stabilize it, tinker with it, you'll figure it out, great idea!
That is what I was thinking. Have a look at Pask Makes Channel. He made a lamp stand which I sort of copied for my microphone with a clamp mount on the desk. Try the springs they work!
I would put two bars on the top and one at the bottom, this would partly reduce the twisting of the arm and also increase the size of the support that in turn would increase the area of contact with the bars thus reducing the swing of the arm.
Springs to provide tension could ad more stability?
I have a architect lamp with some weight at the end. Looks like your solution will add stability, but this might add some more. I noticed your joints were all loose. The copper joints are a lot wider than the wood. On my lamp the joint plates are compressed onto the arms. The friction adds to the stability. The last joint has a wing nut that I can clamp down if needed. This is definitely not strong enough by itself for you, but it could add some extra stiffness to your design. Also the plate design should take less wood. Hope my thoughts aren't to late.
Howzit Jean. Nice one. As said by a few people. Beef up the main connection at the base and thicken up those link arms. Also adding springs to tension up the system would help, I think.
Just do what you do and keep making cape town proud
It reminds me of an old lighting system I have only ever use heavy springs on the bottom but it’s more stable control to lock trying to think of something to use like that
Great design. Thank for sharing.
When the stability issue is solved I suggest to insert a small water leveler to make sure the camera is level whenever you're setting it up. That last shot when you were using the mount seemed skew to me. I love your merch btw, glad they ship to the EU as well :)
All of the force is downward (even when empty) which needs to be countered. To counter the downward forces you need some sort of pilling device on each arm. Either a coiled spring or some form of elastic cord.
I would suggest double the arms on the lower section, and connect them together with bracing to prevent torquing. it will make it more stable, although I do not know by how much. I'm currently designing a similar arm set up, but from metal, and meant for even heavier load, and longer distance. and running into all kinds of problems with that. stability is and always will be a big issue, and very difficult to get right with limited materials, tools etc.
2 Pivot points at the top and bottom of the cleat mount with 2 arms meeting at a 3rd point is probably the simplest, most solid solution :)
careful a lot of wobble will come from loose tolerances on the joints. Even if you beef up the attachments be sure to make the tolerances tight.
Boet i must say another rad project! some very clever use of ur tools as well :) love the fact that you are not afraid to post your mistakes as well!! i would suggest increasing the distance between the base plates that mount to the french cleat and adding tension springs sounds definitely stiffen it up. but keep it up dude really proud of your work!
Try adding springs.
Brilliant.
I think making the hinge at the wall much taller, maybe the full height of your cleat, with a longer hinge pin should give the mount a lot more stability.
All of component parts of what you have made, remain of interest; despite any discontent you might have with the overall assembly. My own sense would see me use those components to make something with one arm rather than two. I enjoyed watching how you theorise/design and make/construct. I think the bottom line is that of materials used. Wood/composites are being imaginatively and creatively used: but there then is a limiting weight/strength issue; the principles of moments rather defeats your materials/methods, in this instance. I look forward to following you in these videos; I get the feeling I could learn a lot I might adapt across my own projects.
If you want to support a DSLR in a more rock stable config....
Your rig is translating all sorts of forces - bending moments and torque moments which vary all over the place as you adjust ( look at the arms, and specifically the joints for 6 axis robotic arms for CNC or Assembly robots ... the joints are huge compared to the arms, the minute you bend away from the straight line established by the first arm at the middle joint, you are introducing a twisting moment to the first arm ... take a stick the length of your 2nd arm, hold it in your hand -1 hand - at the very end so that it is perpendicular to your arm and horizontal, then hang something the same weight as your DSLR + the tripod part on the end and see if you can hold it horizontal with your 1 wrist alone ... this is what you are asking that center joint to do. It's a big ask.
Most folks do not allow that center joint to swivel left and right, only up and down ( like the lamp in the Pixar intros) and this is the reason why.
You can do it, but the structure of your 1st arm will have to be significantly different, and as noted below, the way you grab onto the wall as well - assuming that the twist is prevented at the elbow, then it all goes back to the shoulder at the wall where it now has both the maximum twisting moment as well as the bending moment to prevent it falling down ( this moment is maximum when both arms are straight out from the wall at 90 degrees and set so that the camera end is as far away from the wall as possible - you can simulate that with the stick in your hand again if you want to get an idea what your asking the wall and arm to do.
1) Make your auto locking board span 2 or even 3 rows of cleats and wider. You are effectively building a cantilever arm to support +/- 1kilo at what looks to be about 1.5 m out and to be stable in 3 dimensions. Your base needs to be large in all directions to get the initial stability off the wall itself.
2) That first pivot mount needs to be bigger - wider and taller so that it attaches to much more of the mounting bracket.
3) Your arms, especially the 1st arm, need some lateral stability - make it a quad armed rig - in the horizontal plains, but some diagonal bracing, in the veritcle plains, you should have something which slides and locks about mid span - you could do with a pair of strong springs - this would help counter the weight at well - but getting them set up right is going to take a little fussing - 2 strips of ply which are a little longer than half the maximum diagonal distance that the link needs to be as the arm moves, the inner one with a hole and a carriage bolt epoxied in, and the outer with a slot, some washers on each side and a wing nut ( but you need a par of these, one on each side to balance the forces ... maybe just another pair of those locking plates you make with the semi circular slot, I'm just not sure if that is the correct travel path for the locking pin/bolt, but I guess if it works at the end it will work in the middle...
4) for your outer arm, if yo won't want to make that a 4 beam arm like the 1st section, try making the 2 arms into a T .. picture the entire arm as an I - Beam split along the virtical web about half way between the top plate and bottom plate - that will carry the load anyway, it won't give you as much added left and right stability ...
5) Your linkage between the 2 arms, you need to do similar to the wall mount in some way - it needs mass and rigidity in lots of directions
Not sure if you have the room in that shop, but you can look at John Heintz's over head camera dolly - he runs it on rails which run the length of his shooting area and allow him to slide the camera across on a dolly - this shortens the length of all the articulated arms....but you need to make sure that the gantry can move and clear things, and that later things don't get in the way...you have a tight shop. Joung Ye also did a camera dolly design .. and Fisher's Shop just did an articulated arm for a light holder, can't remember if he put it on a gantry/dolly or not.
Good Luck - can't wait to see what you ultimately come up with!
Thank you! All the info you have supplied will be very useful as I finish up my version 2 design.
The problem is each joint has a small amount of play. That play also depends on load. The arms act as levers and magnify the load and the play. You need stronger pivots. Once you've done that you may find the arms themselves are the next weakest link and will need more rigidity.
The only problems I see is that: 1> your base MUST be lower than ANY end-point of the arm extension including fully extended, 2> your base must have a weight added to it, near its back-most portion by the attachment point to the cleet. Quick, easy and free if you a spare hunk of metal or an actual freeweight.
Andy is right, use springs like architect lamp ! (france - nantes)
What an idea👍
you impress me with your ideas !
Do you have a plan for the sander on the wall? 😁
Long spring on upper arm on first rail to wall mount.
That was an amazing proyactmate, congrats! Im pretty new to woodworking, but if i may i would loose one of the arms, and the wooden hinges do make it loose stability. But again, it looks really awesome. Keep up the good work!
Awesome! As usual.
Love the watch!
I like wood as much as most people, metal's probably a better option for some of this build though?!
Maybe u could try adding Car boot or bonnet shocks to the points that move. Might make it a lil more rigid?
You can probably eliminate much of the slop by adding a 45°gusset below the thin lower pivot plate.
our very own SouthAfrican "this old Tony"
Ok, so it didn't work exactly as you wanted but its was a great proof of concept and I loved watching the build and the design come together. Just think of it as giving you 2 YT videos instead of one :)
I would suggest using the 3 points of contact rule. Triangles are to me the strongest pivot.
Would be good enough for a GoPro or turn it in to an anglepoise lamp
3:05 You need a light on your drill press !
Are there plans available for your camera arm
You demonstrated some good skills in the construction but IMO chose the wrong materials. The mount that attaches to the cleat should be steel or 6mm minimum aluminum. The parallel arms need to be light steel or aluminum. Front wheel bicycle hubs could be used for pivots. They can be snugged up for virtually zero slop. Some stout tension springs will balance the weight. They could be mounted with turnbuckles to adjust the weight capacity. Other options for the pivots would include shafts with tapered roller bearings or bushings bored and reamed to a precise size to fit centerless ground rods. That’s not as costly as it might sound. A bearing supply store can help. As long as you’re not trying to photograph while making moves with the support a small amount of play may be tolerable.
Use V1 as a go pro mount and do time lapse videos of projects 👍
Maybe a tight fit in the copper bearings pivot point and also springs. Even thought,great project as allways!!!
TO block your arms, what don t you use thé sale systèm as for a compas ? A greater circle could vive you more stabilty between thé 2 arms ?
QBE external springs on the arms on each side 🇦🇺👍🏽love your work
Can i get like a template of this? I wanna build somthing like this for my self but a little different
Couldn't you add springs to add tension and stiffen it up?
WOWOWOWOW.... clever solution ;)
How about running the first bracket vertically rather than horizontally? Another great video though pal
You should make it an Architect lamp
Should check out Stephens 8x6 workshop , he has a video on how to make the same thing
You need springs to add tension between the arms. I can send a pic if you like
Om daai ding net uit hout te maak is so bietjie gewaagd. As ek jy is, gebruik aluminium vir die arms, staal vir die skaniere en miskien 2 klein gas lift shocks om spanning op die arms so bietjie teen te werk. Like jou werk en so bly dat ek uiteindelik op 'n SA DIY channel af gekom het... . .
What if it connected to the french cleat wall in two different places?
the mounting is really hard to get secure, I've yet to figure a way around it, and if you look at lamps with the same sort of arm you'll find they are just as wonky.
I don't know if it will help but you can find the articulated rotary tool stands I built on Instructables under the user name sixsmith.
Somethings should be made from wood and other things from steel. Nice plan!
Lekker om suksesvolle Suid Afrikaners op TH-cam te sien. Great video, baie dankie
Perhaps a spring from the mount to the first arm to take some of the load...? 🤔 Legendary effort tho mate.
Hi, how are you? It´s look like the copper pipes you are using like bushings have too much space diameter between the screw and the pipe . Thats could be another reason for the wavy movement. a bigger screw, or a smaller pipe diameter should help. Sorry my english. Saludos!
Thanks! I'll take that into consideration!
About 1966, a Naval base in Australia. Cook Officer in charge, watching everyone TRY to eat his latest creation. All meals, ending up in the rubbish bin. Inedible.
A rating walks over, snaps to attention in front of the Culprit Officer, rating extends his hand, Officer accepts, hands shake, rating says, " Fucken good try Petty Officer. Fucken good try."
Woodshop Junkies, "Fucken good try".
Man, it's completely unrelated to the project but HOLY COW you sound so scottish.
"What did I do wrong?" Mate, you've exceeded the reasonableness of your materials. You're not a purist, you use metal fasteners and plastics...
While I'm sure that wood could be used as a primary material for such a device, it takes a lot of engineering, mad skills, and time to exploit. Use more metal... Steel for the base and primary stage, and aluminum for the secondary stages...
Your hinged-in-the-middle design puts a lot of torsional (twisting) forces upon the base and primary stage... Wood has too much flex, man... Keep at it, you'll persevere!
Yep build it in metal. Stay safe
Very nice 🖒☺
How about adding a 180 degree pivoting head where the camera mounts at the end of the arm.
Where are you from??
My be spring like on a lamp counterweight
Are you in south africa
I would try doubling up the first stage to use 4 arms instead of just two, this should boost your weight capacity up
uitsteekende werk...
The overall length is the issue. Idd suggest having a secondary arm. IE building 2 rigs supporting 1 camera forming a triangle with les flex.