In my last post I showed you a video clip of a video camera steadicam that Steve Eggleston has on his blog site "The Frugal Filmmaker". He had created this wonderful video tool for a very affordable $40. I liked the design up until I saw the PVC arm that he had used in the design. This was done to reduce cost I am sure but I knew that I could improve on the design and make the entire unit much more finished and professional looking. So this is what I came up with.
As you can see from the two photos my steadicam arm runs circles around the PVC arm as far as looks go. It also is many times stronger and only a little bit heavier than the PVC unit.
The new improved steadicam arm is made up of three main layers of 1/4 inch plywood which I designed and cut out using my CNC machine. Between each part I laid in a single layer of 8 oz. fiberglass cloth and resign. Once this was left to cure overnight I then trimmed the cloth and sanded all the edges smooth using a drum sander. Then the upper and lower 1/4 plywood doubler parts were added. Once these had also cured I sanded all the edges to round them off. Next I wrapped the entire outside of the arm in fiberglass cloth and resin and let it cure again for another day.
I then drilled out the 1/4 inch mounting holes that were needed for the balance weights and to attach the arm to the adjustable mounting platform. The arm was then covered in a fiberglass resin micro-balloon mixture to make a resin putty and left to cure for a couple more days.
After all this was done I then sanded the arm smooth using 120 grit sand paper and then again using 180 grit sand paper. When I was happy with these first sanding steps I then started wet sanding the arm using 400 grit sand paper to get a super smooth finish on the arm.
A couple coats of primer and more sanding later and I was finally ready to lay down two coats of gloss black paint. On a scale of 1 to 10 I think this arm turned out to be a 10 for sure.
I already have my video-cam and arm balanced and now will plan on getting some practice time in to be able to use it properly. I know this will take a little time but it will be worth it.
The project took me longer to build than the original design but was well worth the effort. Especially when I now own a steadicam that is much stronger, just about as light as the original design and still only cost me around $40 or so to build. When it looks as good as it does and improves on the original design it is always worth the effort. It should last me for a many years to come and always put a big smile on my face.
The new improved steadicam arm is made up of three main layers of 1/4 inch plywood which I designed and cut out using my CNC machine. Between each part I laid in a single layer of 8 oz. fiberglass cloth and resign. Once this was left to cure overnight I then trimmed the cloth and sanded all the edges smooth using a drum sander. Then the upper and lower 1/4 plywood doubler parts were added. Once these had also cured I sanded all the edges to round them off. Next I wrapped the entire outside of the arm in fiberglass cloth and resin and let it cure again for another day.
I then drilled out the 1/4 inch mounting holes that were needed for the balance weights and to attach the arm to the adjustable mounting platform. The arm was then covered in a fiberglass resin micro-balloon mixture to make a resin putty and left to cure for a couple more days.
After all this was done I then sanded the arm smooth using 120 grit sand paper and then again using 180 grit sand paper. When I was happy with these first sanding steps I then started wet sanding the arm using 400 grit sand paper to get a super smooth finish on the arm.
A couple coats of primer and more sanding later and I was finally ready to lay down two coats of gloss black paint. On a scale of 1 to 10 I think this arm turned out to be a 10 for sure.
The project took me longer to build than the original design but was well worth the effort. Especially when I now own a steadicam that is much stronger, just about as light as the original design and still only cost me around $40 or so to build. When it looks as good as it does and improves on the original design it is always worth the effort. It should last me for a many years to come and always put a big smile on my face.
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