DIY sliding block for C1 Green Monster
I've searched the forum with various terms but I can't find anything that fits the bill for me on this one. I'm looking at getting a Calumet C1 and everything about the unit I'm looking at is top shape except for the missing tripod sliding block. I'm a bit uncertain about trying to balance such a beast of a camera without it. Has anyone here come up with a good DIY solution that doesn't involve metal fabrication? Because that's beyond my current skill/tool set.
Michael
Re: DIY sliding block for C1 Green Monster
You can try a sliding dovetail
http://woodgears.ca/tripod/
Re: DIY sliding block for C1 Green Monster
Find another 8x10 and go take pictures with it. Might be nice and pretty, but if it's not ready for work with nothing more than a general clean-up, let the present owner worry his soul over it. I promise you wouldn't have liked it when you open the shipping box. BTDT. Just say no to that one and move on. You'll thank me later.
Re: DIY sliding block for C1 Green Monster
Without the OE sliding block a C1 is junk.
Don’t buy it.
Re: DIY sliding block for C1 Green Monster
For the right price I would buy it and fabricate a sliding tripod block. There is nothing complicated about it.
Re: DIY sliding block for C1 Green Monster
Randy Moe is right. The sliding tripod mount is metal and making a wooden one will not likely be strong enough to hold the camera in the thin rail slots. Pass.
Re: DIY sliding block for C1 Green Monster
As simple as the tripod block is, it would be very easy to fabricate one from aluminum and brass using basic tools. A machine shop could make one and I would guess it wouldn't be that expensive.
Re: DIY sliding block for C1 Green Monster
The OE C1 sliding block is crucial to the design. The camera is as heavy as 18.5 lbs when aluminum, before the lens and it can carry a heavy lens.
Whwn you plop a folded C1 on a good BIG head such as the large Majestic plate which matches the C1 sliding block, you onfold the back extrension and then remove the the back from the front. They are clamped together.
Very quickly after doing this you need to rebalance, by slightly loosening the slider and pushing the upper body into balance. It moves like butter on a good one.
How many of you wood workers are using a metal camera?
Sure you can bolt a board to C1 rails and ruin the rails forever more.
Free C1...
Have fun.
Re: DIY sliding block for C1 Green Monster
I thought this was the Do-It-Yourself Forum. Apparently in this instance it's the Don't-Do-It-Yourself forum. LOL
In the past I've owned the Green Monster. Making a sliding block for it out of metal or even one out of hardwood and metal is not rocket science. And I'm not talking of bolting a board to the rails. With very little ingenuity and some degree of skill one could fabricate a sliding block that was at least as strong/rigid as the original one. I have a machine shop so it would be easy but someone with a modicum of skill could certainly do it. A rank amateur probably would not but there many who rise to the challenge when it is presented. I say you can, not you can't.
Re: DIY sliding block for C1 Green Monster
Quote:
Originally Posted by
John Earley
I thought this was the Do-It-Yourself Forum. Apparently in this instance it's the Don't-Do-It-Yourself forum. LOL
In the past I've owned the Green Monster. Making a sliding block for it out of metal or even one out of hardwood and metal is not rocket science. And I'm not talking of bolting a board to the rails. With very little ingenuity and some degree of skill one could fabricate a sliding block that was at least as strong/rigid as the original one. I have a machine shop so it would be easy but someone with a modicum of skill could certainly do it. A rank amateur probably would not but there many who rise to the challenge when it is presented. I say you can, not you can't.
The OP apparently does not have a machine shop.
You have not shown your wood-work solution.
I call bullshit.
I do not understand why you bothered to reply.