DIY tripod mods - Leg protector and Shoulder Strap

[raider]

Thanks fellas for all the tips. Mike, your donut advice make me laugh! hahahahhaha

Peter, I will take one of your drill please.

I will try out the wooden dowel thingy.....I will report back on their suitability

[Mark Littlewood]

I just got myself a slik 614cf too - very interested to know if you got a solution to the hook question - ideally not drilling, as i'd like to still use it when i have only the short centre tube in the tripod.

For the same reason i think i'll need to adapt your strap solution too!

[Ratmagiclady]

When I'd rig a tripod strap, I would usually put one end of the strap on a little sling about the head and one at the bottom of one of the legs: to carry, you'd have the strap go between the legs and sling that way, (usually head-down) ....this would keep the legs from any risk of unfolding when you aren't looking and snagging on something.

Bicycle tape, by the way, is also nice for covering tripods, and some will even take the foam kind of bicycle handlebar pads, which are much cheaper than those made for tripods.

And to go in a tube, to have an eyebolt, you can just find a rubber bushing such as goes on car suspensions, one that will fit inside the column's tube. and sandwich this between a couple of the kinds of nuts that have big washer-like flanges built in: put these on an eye-bolt of the appropriate size. If you put it in the tube and tighten the nut that you can still see, the rubber bushing will moosh out and hold nice and tight.

I forgot to mention, this scheme is an imitation of something you can *buy*, or part of something you can buy. At this hour, I can't seem to recall just what that is, though. (aha. I'm thinking of a boat part or something. I don't know if they come in the right kind of size as a piece. But you can get the parts.)

[Lloydy]

lot's of pictures, here's how I secured straps to an ancient Linhoff and a newer Gitzo tripod.


First the Gitzo.
I made this strap and fixings well over 10 years ago and they haven't failed yet, despite the 'recycled' nature of some parts.
I found a strap with the plastic spring catches somewhere, I'm pretty sure they were on a bag that I sacrificed, the kind of thing you can get in a charity shop for pennies.


That's the Gitzo with the strap inplace.


One half of the plastic clip is secured to the tripod by using this 'figure of 8' piece of flexible plastic that is threaded through the clip where the strap used to be.
The plastic is cut from an old gallon container with a craft knife. That is the original piece I made over 10 years ago and it hasn't broken yet.


A better view of the plastic bit. Obviously the holes are cut to suit the size of whatever tripod you have. I used a 'bell punch' but a sharp knife and some cussing will do the job.


The plastic clip in position and secured in place above the centre column locking ferrule.


The bottom clip uses some of the original bag strap with holes punched in it, the edges are then welded up with a cigarette lighter or a candle to stop them fraying.


The Gitzo has a 3/8 UNC thread in one end of the column so a bolt just secures it in place with a couple of washers. I leave it finger tight so it rotates, and use a long bolt so it wont fall out.

The Linhoff, my favorite tripod and an old classic so I certainly didn't want to hack it about, as I didn't the Gitzo either.

For this I made a couple of aluminium brackets, which being an engineer and having a workshop isn't a problem for me. But these kind of brackets could easily be made from plastic with basic home tools.


The bracket.


In position. There is already a rubber O ring on the column to stop it banging when you put it down, I added another above my bracket to stop it rattling around.


The bottom of the column has no threaded insert like the Gitzo, so I used a butterfly clip that is used to secure things to plasterboard walls ( sheetrock ? ) It's the spring device that you insert through a small hole and it springs out and secures behine the board.
Here I use it to secure inside the tube, so it might pay to just sharpen the tip of the clips to dig into the inside of the column tube, the Linhoff has a machined rim that the clip secures to very nicely, but not every column will have that.


The end of the column needs a blank with a hole for the screw to pull against the spring clip, I have experimented with a few houshold items such as bottle tops and they work ok. The picture shows a proper tube end blank ( stolen from an office chair ) that I pierced a hole in with my multitool.


As stolen from a chair.


Making a hole.


The assembled clip and bracket.


Inserting the clip and bracket.


Tightening, but once again I leave it loose enough to rotate.

As carried for miles.


I hope there's a few ideas there, I bought a strap that 'in theory' you can tighten around the legs, but the 'theory' doesn't work and I became so frustrated that I went the DIY route.

[Peter Zack]

Although I do something similar, that's friggin' brilliant. Works better than mine. Time for some revisions. Thanks for the detailed pictures.

[Mark Littlewood]

Yes thanks - that's a great photo-essay! Plenty of good ideas to try

[GerryL]

Pretty colorful backgrounds too for the photos..hehe.

[Russell-Evans]

The strap and leg wrap are great ideas. I wrapped my tripod legs in gaffers tapes before seeing this. I have more background in hockey than tennis, so this was my first thought.

On the strap mod, I think I have a better solution for the bottom attachment. The top attachments previously posted are brilliant, however. My simple solution is to use a small Optech Snoot Boot. It is large enough for all three lags to fit into, and tall enough that the drawstring can close over the top of the leg locks. This keeps the legs together and provides a better top to bottom balance when slung over the shoulder.

The issue I see with the previous methods posted is when you have a tripod with a reversible center column. As this doesn't attach to the center column, it is simpler to change it around.



Thank you
Russell