Wood Camera Tripod Mount

In Tutorial by admin

I bought a used tripod and saved myself $70 off the new price, but it didn’t come with a mounting plate to go in the head of the tripod. It was a pretty easy fix really, just took a chunk of chechen wood and a 1/4×20 bolt to build my own.

Music by Hope;

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Notable Materials:

> Tripod

> Scrap hardwood

> 1/4-20 bolt

> Spray polyurethane

Notable Tools:

> Table saw

> Miter saw

> Drill press

> Angle grinder

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Build Details

It’s at this point that I realize we have a problem with the new tripod, my old camera mount will not work with this one. But I have tools so I can fix this situation!

Now I want a nice dense piece of hardwood for this so it will last. I grab this little piece of chechen out of my scrap hardwood drawer.

I measure the head of the tripod and cut the piece down to size on my table saw, then my miter saw so it fits in the head. I also cut it down square so it can fit in either direction.

The camera mount attaches to the tripod head using a 45 degree dovetail, so I set up my table saw with an extension on my miter gauge to cut the matching angle on all 4 sides.

Test fit and we’re good!

Now I just need a standard 1/4-20 bolt to fasten the bracket onto the camera. After a little rummaging through my miscellaneous hardware drawer, I got one!

First I bore out the bottom of the bracket the size of the head of the screw, then I drill through for the rest of the bolt to fit through.

Test fitting the screw, but this guy is going to be a little too long to fit in the camera so I cut the bolt down shorter with my angle grinder and chamfer the corners so it fits into the camera easily.

Then it’s just a matter of applying the finish and here I use a few coats of spray polyurethane to make sure it holds up for me.

So it’s just a matter of screwing it into the camera and we’re ready to film!