Hi this is my tear down bench and this is where I shoot a good lot of my videos and this is how I shoot them. I Got my video camera. this is my secondary camera. my main one's a Canon HF uh G10 but it sits on the same uh man froto Moto uh 785b tripod I've actually got uh, two of them and it basically just sits here like this: I can adjust it up and down I can change my angle and uh, shoot my tear Downs on here and um, it's it's not bad, it does the job.

but I've always wanted something that has more reach over the bench so that I can actually look down and often I've actually, you know, held it sort of in place like this and done all sorts of, you know, weird and wonderful things and and even, uh, sort of, uh, set the tripod out here so that the camera then looks down and I'm free to, uh, actually manipulate stuff under the camera. then I've got to invert the image and all sorts of stuff like that. So I just thought it'd be nice to have some sort of, um, permanent sort of camera Dolly system on the bench so that I could, uh do away with the tripod cuz I bumped the thing a lot. you've probably seen the image shake and you know things like that and I'm generally talking over it like this and it's It's not too bad, but I generally can't uh sit down I'm always doing it.

um, standing up. it can be for several hours or something like that, and it does get a little bit annoying now, of course. ideally what I want is like some sort of uh, articulating arm or something like that that just allows you know that, uh, came down from the roof or somewhere else that just allowed me to sort of, you know, position the camera sort of anywhere like that and tilt it from uh, the vertical down like that and over to the side. When I'm testing, you know, screen angles or I'm or I'm shooting a time-lapse t down or something like that.

So ideally I want sort of the camera to sort of operate in this sort of, um, sort of space envelope. uh, so to speak. Now, yeah, there's more than, um, one way to skin a cat here? No, I can't really Mount anything on the roof I've got these, uh, drop, um, ceilings. not really, uh, rugged enough I Thought about.

you know, something that came out from the benches out here, but that gets really ugly and doesn't look any good in um, shots looking in like that. So um, you know, really. and those articulating arms like you can get on the um, magnifying lamps and and stuff like that. they're pretty crusty.

kind of. um, you know things. So I thought it would be nice to set up, you know, a a dolly, a sliding Dolly system I Originally had the idea that I put some rails at the back there and then an arm would come out up like that and over and then back down and then that would sort of slide in and out. but then you've I want to put uh, test instruments under here I've cleaned up my uh, tear down bench I've got some instruments down in there I want to put more? So theyve basically got um two sets of instruments.

one's for uh, the tear down and one for my general Electronics uh, use over there. so that's the idea. So really I thought the only way to do it is to mount the Um linear rails on the bottom of the bench like this and then I can have an arm coming up like this. then then that then extends over and down so the camera can just tilt and move in and it can slide in and out and all that sort of jazz.

Well, that's the plan. So the idea is to have um, a couple of these linear, uh bearing rails I picked these up on uh eBay and you've no doubt, uh, seen them before. They can actually be quite expensive, but I um, sort of got them. uh Surplus I think they may have been, uh, used in something.

They didn't cost me much at all. So I'm thinking about mounting that on the bottom like that. so that gives me a framework for sliding um, the uh camera system across. Now you can't just use one because if you put, let me slide.

here's the little um bearing attachment which uh, then goes on there like that and if you try and load it down one side like that, it just ends up scraping in there and you don't get that smooth linear action. Now of course I'm going to get a lot of uh noise on this thing. You can probably hear it. Hang on there we go.

So you know it's not the best considering that. uh I mostly use the internal mic in the Canon HF uh G10 these days. so it's not great when it's actually moving. but that's not the idea, it's just to, um, not actually during the shot.

I'm not going to get, you know, dramatic, uh, sort of. You know, panning shots across equipment and stuff like that. although I probably, um, could if I just, uh, mute out the audio at that point. Probably couldn't, uh, talk over the top of it perhaps.

But anyway, the idea is is that you need uh, two of these because if you put all your force on like that, it just doesn't. You know it's not going to sit on the ball bearing. Part of that, it's going to, uh, scrape along the edge. I'll get a closeup of that.

So yeah, there it is. slides nicely on the ball bearings like that. but once you tilt that, you can see that hitting the wall down there and that's just going to scrape to a dead stop and that's going to be hopeless. So what I really need is to mount two rails like this, separated by 20 cm or something like that, not a huge amount.

get two of them and then I can mount my uh arm across both of them. So it takes the stress on uh, two different rails. and as far as having the camera like, uh, pop out from the bench I've um, got one of these, um, sliding, um, uh, kitchen, um, rack, you know, draw, um, things and there you know it's actually got a locking mechanism in place like that. so I can just hit it and of course it slides out like that.

Really quite nice. It's all a ballbearing system. These things weren't, um, hideously expensive from the local uh hardware store. So in theory I can mount that on two of these or probably mount a wooden block uh first.

so that allows me to screw down to there and then I screw this onto the wooden uh block and assuming you know, just pitch that being on the uh underside of the bench there. then all I can do is just oh. all I have to do is just hit that and boom my uh camera which will be mounted on the end here. I'll have like a block on the end and then mount my post coming up like this.

It'll sit in there like that right up against the bench and when I need to bring the camera out I can just push it and extend it to any distance. So I can get um, you know, uh, more distant shots all the way back here so that should be a good enough uh, maximum depth for me so that's a minimum and that goes out to maximum. That should do a treat. But of course, what do I do for the actual uh camera itself? Mounting the thing not only do I have to have the variable height like that, but it's also then got a tilt.

This arm has to uh, tilt and then the camera's got to go over and down like that. Well, as it turns out, why not use my existing tripod? I've already got it. I Love this Uh Man Froto! Modo And what I can do is I can just take off, uh, two of these legs here. So let's just assume that two of these legs are taken off and if I I can rotate this so that these arms actually fold almost directly out like that and it's really quite neat.

So imagine if I took our UNSC screw two of these arms here, then what then what am I left with? Let's have a look here. If I let's say I mounted this on my bracket which came out like that, then not only have I got a camera that moves in and out like that. I've got my existing ball head on here. so I can you know pan and tilt my camera to any angle I like but I can can then also tilt it like that and then Bingo the camera can then extend and it can still I haven't figured out how it'll go up and down here yet I that may just be uh, fixed cuz it's not often I have to go over the uh top like that.

but there we go. I can still extend that out like that. and I've got my existing friction lock connectors on the Um tripod here and my existing ball head so that can move AC cross like that now I've installed my first uh rail about uh, almost an inch in uh From the Bench here and the alignment of this one isn't that critical. although I did get it to the millimeter or thereabouts.

Um, it's more critical to get this second one the exact distance I.E make them completely parallel from one end to the other because if you don't do that, it's got a fixed platform on here of course, which can't change length so if it goes from one end to the other, it might slide fine at one end. When it gets to the other, there's a slight misalignment. If they're not completely parallel, then uh, well, it's not going to slide too well, so that is, uh, fairly critical. so I won't measure it I'll put a um a block in there at one end, screw it in, and at the other end and screw it in cuz the exact depth doesn't actually matter as long as they're completely parallel.

And yes, I am completely aware that these sliders are not designed to be mounted upside down like this. Really, they're designed to for the force to be on the uh top like that. and and pushing down? That's why the bearings are on the uh top side of this thing or now actually on the bottom side. so it's not actually rolling on the bearings anymore.

As such, it's pulling down on the plastic part. But you know, for a whole rig that's going to weigh like a kilo or less? Ah, doesn't matter now. what I've manufactured here is a plate which goes on between my uh sliding rails like that so that can bolt under there and then this is uh, the Um slide in extension rail like that which then is going to bolt onto this plate and then that will slide out from the Uh bench and then I've got a right angle bracket to then, um, still haven't figured out how I'm going to mount my uh tripod on that. um, but eh, you got to start somewhere.

So um, that will get me the basis for that and that slides quite nicely. I Rather like that and uh, it's all nice and rigid and cheap so let's install that and it looks like this um aluminium plate fits a uh treat. It's 40 mm wide, exactly the same as my Um bearings. I've got four uh cap head screws in that and uh, that slides along there very nicely.

It's uh, it's quite noisy of course, but uh, you can't have everything now. the IDE is to uh, bolt that onto there. it sits on the uh top of the cap head cap head screws there but that doesn't matter at all. and then that gives me my slide out rail.

h I um, originally thought about using wood here and I actually cut a piece of wood and tried to screw it on, but it's just ugly. it's much easier to use. um a 3 mm um aluminium um sheet there. so much nicer.

So I'll screw this in and uh, Bob's your uncle and Tada here is the finished sliding camera rig. Well, it's not quite finished yet. um cuz what I've done is I've just um added some Velcro on there and then Velcro on the shaft of my tripod and I could put some down here if I wanted to and I knew it would uh, hold it but I also knew it would uh, you know, rotate a bit like that and if you move the bench, it has a little bit of a wobble in it, but not much as long as you don't touch it. I mean I can operate the thing with the remote control, so that's not a problem, but basically that's not bad at all.

And of course I can extend it all the way out here like this. and then I can uh, adjust my tripod up like that at this level and at this sort of extension? yeah, it does. actually, uh, jump around. you know, a fair, a fair bit there.

but once you've actually got the thing operate, you know, once you actually, uh, get the thing operational and stable H it's you know it. It does wobble. It's not the greatest, but it does actually work. So of course, you know it's not often.

I'm going to do a shot from right out here, though most of the time I'm probably going to be at an angle. uh, something like that. like most of my work is sort of done at that sort of angle. it would work quite nicely.

and of course, the microphones on the uh top here. I'm using my um main camera at the moment. this isn't my main uh camera, but it's got the same Mount and everything. So I can just literally take that off and then this is my uh, this is my main camera.

then I can just whack that on there like that and bingo I've got my shot. which then you know it's not a. you know, it's not like a dolly type system for moving shots. It's not that great.

You can probably see uh, vibration, and uh, all that stuff and certainly uh, noise but uh, that pulls out like that and uh and goes in so that's not too bad at all. And then of course I can adjust the uh adjust the height on that. But of course one of the big things I want to do is uh, obviously that velcro I don't think's going to be any good uh down there and then I can't compress the tripod anymore if I want to use it. So I have to figure out some sort of other Mount system here I just thought I'd try the velcro for uh kicks.

but anyway, now it allows me to bend this over like this and if I mount the camera back on there we go. If I mounted that rigidly on there like that, then I've got my adjust and I can even, uh, adjust the height of that by having a second thing like that I can sit the camera right up like that which you can't see in the shot anymore. sorry about that and that. if I originally like really clamped that properly on there then I can have the camera looking down like that and I can sit here and then have both hands coming around and work um, you know fairly well from that vertical uh camera angle.

And of course, if I wanted it low if I got my macro uh lens attached to it And I'm doing a uh closeup shot at time 10 or time 20 magnification or something like that, then that is going to work quite nicely. And of course I've just got the friction adjuster on there which then, well, can just slide the tripod. Slide the camera in and out like that kind of works. um, needs a bit of refinement, but still not bad at all.

So yeah, I think I'm going to, uh, leave that for today. That's uh, more than good enough. It does the job I just need a, uh, maybe a slightly better solution for the here, um to actually hold the thing in place down here. The problem is I've got to actually have multiple uh Heights here so I've got to solve that as well as I mean you know I've already got the tilting thing there and if I camp that on there really tight I mean this would actually, um, still be a pretty good uh system I just need the sort of, you know, adjustable sort of um, at least I say fixed two height solution there so that I can bend that over and uh, use that vertically.

actually three like that so I can make it a bit, uh, make it a bit higher there. So anyway, if you got any uh suggestions for that, then uh, please leave it in the comments. but uh yeah, that's not too bad at all. I don't mind that it does a reasonably good job.

Catch you next time.