Hi YouTube, my name’s Geoff and I’m the VegOilGuy.
This week I thought I’d share a simple camera stand build with you. It’s ideal for a phone
or small camera as it relies on one on these cheap clips. This one is built around on old
iPhone 5, but the concept could easily be modified for other shapes and sizes of camera
or phones. The stand itself is just a length of copper
pipe, though a broom handle would work just as well, and this simple set up allows for
vertical and tilt adjustment. It cost me nothing to make as it’s constructed mainly from
scraps, it’s very simple construction and all in all it’s a surprisingly sturdy camera
support. Dimensions aren’t critical as they can be
adjusted for your needs, but for this iPhone 5 which records most of my videos I needed
a block of wood approximately 5 inches long. This block needs to be cut but it’s helpful
to drill four holes in it first. A long drill bit is needed for this first
one. It’s drilled centrally on one of the small edges and needs to go nearly all the
way through, stopping approximately an inch shy of the outer edge.
A hole matching the diameter of the pipe is drilled next and this reveals the previously
drilled hole. A hole for the clip support goes roughly an
inch from the corner. Then one more hole is drilled centrally on
this front edge. I’m going to be using 6mm bolts and threaded
rod which doesn’t actually fit perfectly into these clips, which I believe have a ¼
inch thread… it’s close but not cigar. So I tapped the soft brass fixture carefully
by slowly drilling back and forth, cutting a 6 mm thread.
After cutting the block, I needed a length of threaded rod just a little longer than
the larger section. This will form the tilt adjustment.
For a control knob, I drilled another 6mm hole part way into a small square block of
wood, drizzled some expanding glue into this and set it aside to dry.
I found an existing bolt was just the right size for the other knob, which controls vertical
adjustment. So I drilled all the way through another square block and countersunk this.
Again expanding glue applied to the thread would bond this in time.
This small section needs to hold two nuts to grip the threaded bars.
I marked out the shape, drilled out the corners to a depth just lower than the head on the
bolt, and cleaned out the rest with a sharp chisel.
I bonded these nuts in place with car body filler which sticks to just about anything
and sets nice and hard. But here’s a vital tip.
There will be some moderate pressure applied to these nuts which could cause these to prise
loose. It’s not easy to see on this image, but I carefully angled some small shallow
holes around the edges. These creates a concave section for the filler to wedge into. It’s
also worth carefully scarring the sides to the nuts with a hacksaw or similar. These
extra steps help prevent everything from being pulled out.
The filler is applied to the holes and some spare bolts are used to hammer home the nuts.
It’s critical that these bolts pass right the way through the timber. Don’t pull anything
out just yet but give it five minutes – not ten – just five.
As I’ve mentioned before, car body filler has this wonderful malleable stage where it’s
not wet but not set, allowing for fast but useful tooling.
At that point, the majority of filler can be easily sliced away with a sharp tool and
the bolts carefully turned free. If you wait too long, any filler that’s on the thread
will set, making removal impossible, so work swiftly.
While everything was curing properly, I took two lengths of the same wood and half-lapped
them into a small cross. There’s not much weight in a phone and I have a sneaky trick
for stability I’ll share in a second, so these are only roughly 9 or 10 inches long.
Make yours longer is you feel it’s necessary. A hole matching the diameter of the pipe is
drilled centrally and for demonstration purposes, here’s a short length of piping.
Now the sneaky trick I mentioned… There. Finally I’ve found a use for those weights
that were stuck at the back of my wardrobe. A useful feature with using copper piping
is that these removable plastic connectors can be pushed on and off. This allows for
extra pipes to be added, increasing height if necessary.
Rather than bond the piping to the base, a small hole is drilled and a screw driven into
the pipe. A few minutes with an upside-down belt sander
enabled me to shape the square blocks into roughly octagonal handles. It’s important
to maintain a flat edge on this longer one. It will probably be necessary the round away
this top corner to allow for tilt. And that’s the construction complete. All
that’s left now is assembly. Notice this bolt has a nut and washer. It’s
pushed in from the bottom and on the top I found 3 washers create just enough clearance
for the phone to tilt nicely. The phone clip is screwed on, then underneath the nut is
tightened to hold the clip firmly. No excess tightening is needed anywhere on this build.
A wing nut might be more helpful here, or maybe just a tiny turn with a spanner, but
nothing more to pinch this clip home. I found that this nut wasn’t quite flush,
so I recessed the other side slightly to compensate. The other section is lined up and the long
bolt is fed through and lightly tightened – with the emphasis on lightly. Trust me
guys, this is a good build, but if you try to break the bolts free, you will. You don’t
need to overtighten anything as just a little light pressure it will hold everything in
place perfectly securely. Now the front knob is screwed in place, but
not all the way. And here it is on the pipe. It pretty much
holds itself in place, but a light turn allows you to feel when the bolt touches the pipe,
and that’s enough to hold it firm. The clip section can be tilted to any useful
angle and again a light clamping holds this in place.
If you don’t trust yourself to be light on tightening, or if you’re camera is a
little heavier, you could try this approach instead.
As before, drill a long hole centrally, but this pass all the way through. Drill the pipe
fixing hole, then cut the block. On the small section, drill a hole a little wider than
the head of your bolt from the outside, but don’t go all the way through. A long bolt
can now be passed from the outside and bonded in place with filler, expanding glue or a
mixture of the two. You can fill this outer hole if you wish. For the control knob, this
time set the nut on the outside of the knob. This should resist all but the heaviest twisting…
but really, if you treat the stand as you would your camera or phone, this isn’t necessary.
But the choice is yours. Now here’s everything with a little black
paint. I hope you agree it doesn’t look too bad and it does a surprisingly good job.
It takes very little time and effort to build but it’s a versatile camera support that
will certainly be useful. And that’s a finished video I think folks.
I hope you enjoyed this one and if you did, please like it.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already and feel free to drop
me a line with any comments, questions or video requests.
So that’s it for now guys - thanks for watching.