What should I look for? I need a +1000mm rail for Cambo

[Patrik Roseen]

Hello,
I am looking for a replacement rail for combining my Cambo 5x7" and Cambo 4x5".

The original rails have a square profile of 1" x 1"...but I am looking for any 'standard alu profile' in this size that could be used as a rail. Unfortunately I do not know what to search for on ebay or elsewhere.

The so called 'rail' need to be about 1000mm or longer.

Any suggestions?

[Jack Flesher]

I have a friend who uses three or four Cambo monorails stacked end-to-end for a total extension of just over a meter. (He does this for extreme macro in his studio in case anybody is wondering ;) ) He had a machinist make him a metal plate with mounting bolts spaced to fit the normal Cambo base rails, then mounts that entire assembly on a two tripods... Seems to work quite well, though it is heavy.

[Clueless Winddancing]

Just find a 1 inch square tubing as long as you need from a supplier of metal rod.

[Jack Flesher]

Keep in mind that tubing "flex" increases at something near the square of the length -- even 1" square steel solid stock will flex quite a bit at a 1 meter length. If you need the rail rigid, which I suspect the OP does, then a wide base plate may be a better solution. The wide base plate prevents side-to-side flex, while mounting the stock rails to the top of that plate adds up-down rigidity like an "I" beam...

Cheers,

[Jon Shiu]

Hi, they have metal stock like that at the hardware store.

Jon

[ericantonio]

I'm with "clueless" I went to home depot and bought aluminun 1" square. Works perfectly.

[Clay Turtle]

I used a piece of 1 inch square stock from an aluminun from a patio & screen shop. It has channels on each side to facilate screwing & attachment purposes but it also increases the ridgidity & therefore reduces flex.

I tried out this with Bender kit camera but the bellows wouldn't allow for full length extenion. So when I tried to shoot 300mm macro, I ended up pulling the bellows loose fogging the film. The Cambo is probably heavier than those of the Bender so you may want to use an all thread rod runnig the length of the channel. Extend the rod thru the end caps (or use large washers on either end) & tighten the nuts down to give compressional force to the channel to give (prestressed) ridigity.

[Patrik Roseen]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.

I have thought about the 'flex' but hope to solve that by using two tripods.

I am situated in Sweden so I do not have the same home depots as in the US. A lot of the things here use the metric system unfortunately.

Clay Turtle's suggestion is what I will try to explore as it both has a search name (patio / screen ...) and that the profile might be good for avoiding too much flex.

I am ofcourse still open for more suggestions.

Patrik

[Clay Turtle]

If you use the threaded rod then bear in mind that you'll need to use similar material so the coefficient of expansion & contract are the same or you may need to use a wing nut on one end so that you may change the the pressure applied to the channel. Also you may want to see if you can get one square stock in stainless steel or chrome steel from a plumbing supplier (used to make towel racks) as they are thin walled (light weight) & use stainless threaded rod.

[Greg Lockrey]

Try filling your rod with fine sand like that's used in public ash trays and weld the end caps. That should stiffen it considerably.

[David Karp]

Try contacting a machine shop to ask them if they have any extra/scrap aluminum extrusion available in that size. Since the Cambo's are/were made in Holland, my guess is that there should be metric extrusions available in this size. If you use a piece of extrusion, consider including some kind of device (a cotter pin would work), that will keep you from rolling the standards off the end of the rail.

[justin mueller]

For what it's worth, I made up a 800mm rail for my cambo 8x10 legend out of maple. I machined the profile (which you don't have to do) on my table saw. much lighter than the ally one and very stiff.

[Dirk Rösler]

Hi, I have a leftover from what I made a 18cm rail for my SC. Not sure if it is still 100cm, may be 100-18. Let me check when I get back home.

[Greg Lockrey]

For what it's worth, I made up a 800mm rail for my cambo 8x10 legend out of maple. I machined the profile (which you don't have to do) on my table saw. much lighter than the ally one and very stiff.

In fact, wood is stronger by weight than steel. Hardwood should be pretty stiff as well.

[Dirk Rösler]

Indeed my remnant is only 80cm. Let me know if you want to have it anyway.

[Patrik Roseen]

Hello Dirk, yes I would be interested, thank you. I will contact you when I get back home from the midsummer weekend.
Patrik

[Patrik Roseen]

Hello Dirk,
just to let you know the 80cm rail you sent me works beautifully!

I will send you some photographs of mine when I return from vacation as promised.

This is a great forum, but it is all due to members like you Dirk.

Again, many thanks and kind regards.
Patrik

[Clay Turtle]

Well, I have been working on an extented variation as a 'Recycled Goods' revamp of a 4x5 kit camera. when I get it going I will share it with you.

[Clay Turtle]

I wanted to see if I could upload photo as I was thinking that even though I hadn't completed my own others might think they could use something similar & that I should share it with others as you may find it worthy of consideration.

This is for Hugo just so you don't think I had forgotten it. I started to make a paper version to show you what I was considering but then I thought why not do it out of wood? Now, you can understand why I asked about what formats were available as you see an 8x8 format should be adapted to 5x8, 5x7 & 4x5 as well as metric format of European film.
A bit off topic but I will bring it back around to your comment after I do some shooting.

[Clay Turtle]

The thing was that when I got to this point Recycling an old broken tripod, I thought ýa, I could use a flat bed camera by clipping it into the frame & attaching the front standard then it would slide the rear (film) back & forth for fine adjustment. Because the rails are perpendicular to the camera, they provide lateral adjustment while keeping the standard weight over the center of the riser. So I had an old wind chime that matched supply tubing sold in the plumbing dept. that I will use to form an extension at the mounting (point) bracket. This way I will extend the range of movement while raising the standards to align with the larger back plate.Now you may think I am still a little off target.

[Clay Turtle]

I tell you that I had a time trying to figure out how to bolt the cross members to the tripod legs. Luckily, this tripod used a system similar to the flash mount so I found that closet (toilet) bolts have an oblong head (brass bolt head in photo) which securely attaches to the tripod clips. But while working on it I would look on this bogen tripod & think ýes it would be nice to simply bolt things on by replacing the bolts of the cast pieces that it used. Of course, if I had used the two legs of this tripod then I would still have one remaining.

[Clay Turtle]

Hmm . . . no responces? Well, I thought that if I had used the Bogen tripod that I could use the third leg as a cross brace (instead of another tripod) to support (balance) the extended lengths but the legs are rather weighty so I wouldn't use it for that purpose.
Actually my thoughts turned toward using an extended pole type walking stick, which have appeared in the market as a hiking & backbacking. They are sturdy as they arree designed to support body weight & by using a holder like those used to carry flags in a parade. I could velcro the holder to a leg or the cener column & attach it to the rail. In this way I am not carring an extra item as it does dual duty as a walking stick while hiking to a shooting location.

As for the Bogen tripod leg, first it would require adding a key to maintain alignment of the sections. Then I could use the Cambo riser assemblies by attaching them to the clamps of each section. Of course the length of the closed (shortest) legs would require an extented rail Cambo setup. But it would form a traditional mono rail assembly & I would have to a make a clamp to attach the tripod to the leg being used as the rail.

[Patrik Roseen]

Hello Clay! I read your posts today with great interest. I am currently on vacation and only browsing the internet with my mobile phone. I will study your pictures when I get home later this week.

Thank you Clay,
Patrik