Poor man's gimbal

[Matthew Currie]

Every once in a blue moon I wish I had a gimbal for a big lens.  The 200-500 is pretty good hand held but it gets tiring when lurking for birds. 

Did you ever notice how much the arm of a Wimberly Sidekick resembles the leg of a mountain bike fork?  I did. 

This is definitely a shade-tree project, booger welded out of left over bicycle parts, assorted hardware, a clamp that I broke running over it, and a pad that I made that didn't come out right, but it balances and it works.

[Hugh_3170]

Well done - a nice repurposing of the bike parts.  Necessity is the mother of invention as they say.   

[Netr]

Well done.  Looks good.

[PeterN]

Clever re-use!

[Akira]

Looks so neat that I didn't understand what you were talking about at first.  Amazing job!

[Randy Stout]

Matt:

You would have to call this Yankee ingenuity !  How smooth is the action/movement?

Nice job.

Randy

[Matthew Currie]

Matt:

You would have to call this Yankee ingenuity !  How smooth is the action/movement?

Nice job.

Randy

It's pretty smooth.  The top portion is made from a cut down steel bicycle hub, with a cup and cone ball bearing at the lens end, and a bronze bushing at the other.  The axle is just a 3/8 inch bolt, and tension is achieved by tightening the clamp as a nut.

When I ran over my tripod a couple of years ago, and broke the clamp on the ballhead, I rethreaded it, and it now has a stud whose hole goes all the way through to the 3/8 inch mounting stud.  So once the drag is right, I can sock down that stud, and lock it in place. 

It all would have been neater if I'd been able to weld aluminum, and if I weren't so farsighted that my welding is often in the wrong place, and ends  up pretty messy.  I used a Mig welder, but in retrospect I probably should have brazed it.

[Randy Stout]

Matt:

thanks for the additional info!  Perhaps a tig welder in your future?  Very clean and pretty welds, if a bit fiddly to learn.

Depending on your RX, and how much astigmatism you have, often a simple pair of readers can be used under your hood for easier close up work.

Cheers

Randy

[Matthew Currie]

Matt:

thanks for the additional info!  Perhaps a tig welder in your future?  Very clean and pretty welds, if a bit fiddly to learn.

Depending on your RX, and how much astigmatism you have, often a simple pair of readers can be used under your hood for easier close up work.

Cheers

Randy

Indeed, readers under the hood do help, but I was lazy and the ones I was using in the shop were not very good.  I welded outside in the sun, and well, excuse after excuse....

Unfortunately, one thing I cannot correct is fine distance judgment.  A very nasty bicycle accident broke my trochlear nerve, so although my eyes work not so badly, and I have partial binocular vision at distance, up close I see double, and my eyeballs are tilted relative to each other, which is not correctable,  so close welding is a bit of a gamble.  For bigger stuff, I find it much easier to stick weld with a "drag rod."  My bead may wander, but I'm not quite so likely to be welding the sky.

[FredCrowBear]

Looks so neat that I didn't understand what you were talking about at first.  Amazing job!

+1 

[Steven Paulsen]

Instead of calling it a Sidekick, using bicycle parts.......You made a "KickStand."

(Is that a Bogen/Manfrotto 3001/190 on the bottom?)

[Matthew Currie]

It's a Bogen 3021 Bpro, which I bought at a yard sale a few years ago for $12 along with a 3029 three way head and spike feet and an L bracket and an added video tilting column.  Oddly enough, I did not dicker over that one.

The Kirk ballhead is a later addition.