As a just in case, you might want to consider getting cat leashes to hang from the ceiling so if there is an accident, the camera wont smash into the floor. You could run the cat leash right through the holes of that steel fixturing. My camera is mounted on a good tripod, and I have cat leashes all over the shop so wherever I put my camera I hook it up to the leash as a just in case. Also, I have a ceramic lens filter on my lens to protect it from mishaps as well. The ceramic lens filters are ultra-strong. Just a UV type filter so it's clear will work for indoors filming. The cat leashes are softer and wont scratch and are extremely flexible, can adjust with no issues and tuck away easier over normal camera tethers. It was a Hollywood cameraman that gave me the idea. Hollywood uses all kinds of unconventional things on their sets.
Nicely overdone! With the openness of the unistrut, you can add power cords to avoid the dreaded "the camera died 5 minutes ago & i didn't catch it" moments. Nice way to add lighting too, if needed. You'll be the envy of RU-vid machinists everywhere! Over time, I can also see you wanting to have repeatable camera positions for consistent/favorite shots, so there might be some rigid arms w/ magswitch bases in your future. (That, or a lot of tape/colored marks on your Noga arm! 😁) Have to add to the chorus of suggestions about a safety cord for the camera. Gravity is NOT your friend.
Clough i've been a machinist for 36 years, i have a cnc shop in CO. and buddy your all right in my book, i love how you don't ever let these trolls give you shit.
For the cold saw. When I use it I put the whole backside of the saw in a big upright standing cardboard box. With the material running just in front of the box opening. It realy saves on cleanup after sawing. The sparks ar hot but do not set the box on fire. And if you tape the bottom flaps no sawdust gets behind them and you just pour out the dust into the trashcan
Great video. Luckily my shop has open joists (basement) with 86" to the bottom of those joists. So I'm able to use a Manfrotto Double Articulated Arm and Superclamp to hold my cameras to the joists. I do use the big Noga to hold my camera when shooting on the mill and lathe, attached to a steel plate screwed into the bottom of the joists.
Absolutely brilliant exercise in unnecessary precision. 😁 On another note - it you think those cold cut saws make a mess you should try their predecessors which used 14" diameter abrasive wheels. They created a REAL mess!! Keep up the awesome work, Cheers from NZ.
One trick for making jank setups not chatter as much - zip tie a ziplock bag full of random nuts and bolts to the part. Acts as a damper. Also works for long boring bars in the lathe. Sounds stupid but it works.
Great project as always, your production quality is top-notch . I made a light duty gantry with that superstrut and some custom bent steel brackets mounted to the peak of my roof trusses last year and it works great, really is like adult erector set.
Always surprised more youtubers don't do a very lightweight bridge crane to support cameras and lights like this. Would be more versatile and just about as easy to build with unistrut since they already have rollers for it
I’m all in for making the process of recording easier and more rewarding. We all win. Thanks James for sharing how you created the infrastructure to make all of our lives better. 👍👍😎👍👍
Pretty nice! (There's no kill like overkill!) I'd probably put a safety cord of some kind on there, maybe with a carabiner on the end to clip to the unistrut? Cheap insurance, even though that mag base looks pretty solid. Does that one have a weight rating? I know there's a company that makes yellow switchable magnets with a variety of weight ratings.
Unistrut! We went through probably over half a ton of the stuff every day at my old job. We even had a hydraulic shear with a special shaped die for cutting it. Once you got in the rhythm of using it, you could break down an entire bale of the stuff into the required cut list in a single shift, just gauging the lengths by counting holes.
great video, i thought the best line was "do you need a milling machine to do this, of course not,. but we have one..", then 10 seconds later i hear "is this overkill, of course, what's your point"
When something is worth doing, it's worth over doing it...and you are doing an awsome job at it! The celing is so under-utilized usually. And very true about the vibration translated to the camera!
@clough42 If you ever use Uni-Strut again, there are some nuts called Cone Nuts that do the same thing as Spring Nuts but don't have the annoying spring that can slip out the back slots. Recommended if you have a chance.
Nice project. Had the same problem with the first magnetic camera rig i made. My second one has 3 arms to 3 magnets instead. I can now have it inside my cnc machines attached to the axis with all the quick movements back and forth, and it's sturdy like a rock!
I see James has the same sort of concentration face as the rest of us!!! That honestly made my day.... Thanks James. Yes, I can confirm the tripod myth is true..... One suggestion though if I may....... Get some line leashes that can mount to your celling and camera. Just in case, I mean you did reference Murphy so he'll be looking out for you.. Lucky for you sitting in the US, BMDC does not cost you as much as for us in Africa.
Great video (as usual). I had two ideas when watching the video… Spring load mechanism which would allow docking the vertical arm horizontally up on the ceiling so the mount can be out of the way when not in use. Install a bunch of 80/20 track on the ceiling and convert to top/ceiling mount fixture to a locking wheel version. Hopefully this would allow for more flexibility with camera locations. Videos packed with tons of useful info. Thank you! Especially appreciated the duty cycle comment concerning your plasma cutter/setup. Something I hadn’t considered/fully appreciated until now. Especially in Arizona, opening the garage door during most the year would greatly reduce the duty cycle! 🙃
I think the duty cycle on this machine is specified at 40C (104F) ambient, so it's more of a worst-case scenario. Except where your live. I'm confident you can exceed that. :)
Nice job 👍👍👍 my only suggestion is to add a safety cord from the camera maybe with a carabiner that clips to the post just in case the unexpected ever does happen your camera doesn't crash into the concrete 👍👍👍
nice video as always. I use uni-strut as a trolley with a an electric winch , chucks and vices don't get lighter with age, no problem moving 500lb band saw
Another great build! Check out Manufacturing Models in Fusion, creating duplicates used to be the best/only way to nest/arrange parts for packing but they've somewhat recently added a dedicated solution for exactly that
Just remembered The unistrut nuts with the springs on them we used to call them "Zebs" here in the UK - named after Zebedee, a character in a kid's show in the 70's called the magic roundabout - he looked like a tomato with a mousetache bouncing around on a spring - yeah it was a bit weird lol!
The reason a fly cutter is called such, is that chips….fly everywhere. A few strategically placed milling machines along a fortified military installation would be good defense for advancing marauders. Blue chips exiting the mill at Mach 4? Great defense tactic.
Very nice. You gave me some ideas on how to flatten a 19" diameter 1" thick aluminium plate I'm going to need for a mirror grinding project. My mill isn't as big and rigid as yours so it's gonna be interesting! Wish I had a giant grinder that could get this done in one pass :(
This tripod has an extendable arm, highly recommend it, there are maybe newer better versions, I got mine from B&HPhoto in 2014, a BIKE rotatable mount on top of the tripod or similar is ideal Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro Aluminum Tripod BH# MA055XPROB
Unistrut is a brand name for generic strut channel.. All of then are interchangeable except the original (Kindorf which is 1-1/2 instead of 1-5/8). A very short list of some of many other brands.. B-line, Versabar, Superstrut...The current industry standard for the universal version is MFMA-4
It won‘t ever come off just from the camera weight, but I‘m pretty sure I‘d be able to walk into it with something I‘m carrying and knock down the expensive cam in the process in under a week. How about at least a cable safety with carabiners like when hanging studio equipment, between the magnetic base and the camera or the base and the arm?
Great video, as always. I was wondering, have you ever considered trying to make some camera gear like a cage or a (manfrotto or arca swiss) plate/nato rail ? Or is it just not worth it ? (cheaper to buy it/ not a good video subject ... )
I have a 1000lb rated magnet that would be great for this sort of project. I need to make something like this but with a stepper and driver to control the movement of the camera while recording to eliminate the shaking.
That remind me comment of my friend that wanted to attach lights in different places in workshop: "you dont need fancy stands when you have kids. TOOOOM! Come here! Stand here and hold that."
Nice solution for the camera! But you might also consider making certain shots more dynamic. This RU-vidr has a camera slider with steppermotors homemade. Yes, I know, it's in German ;-) Possibly a nice project for the future?
Was about half way through and thought an oversized GoPro style mount would have be cool. 3d print in your favorite carbon Fibre nylon, with your base plate or integrate a magnet in the plastic. That way you could start print and go do something else - Pump iron or respond to the PC master race commenters hehe
Now I can't help but wonder if dross or burr is the right thing to call the sharp edges of the metal here, dross is specifically waste byproduct from molten metal that doesn't have the same desired properties as the metal, so usually you skim the dross. I'd imagine this would be more of a burr, but it was also made by making the metal go molten..
You have a great list of links for the tools you used but you didn’t include those structural screws. I know, you try and try and we still complain…..🙄
On a set you'd put a safety chain on it, mainly to avoid it hurting someone, with the added benefit of it saving the camera, even some bright tape would help in this scenario. If it fell it would probably just trash the lens hood, it might destroy the lens, but it's convenience vs effort and convenience nearly always wins. I've put more expensive gear in sketchier situations and seen much more expensive gear on much much more sketchier rigs.
I was woundering how do you move around in Fusion while your mouse is not used for moving around, are you using some kind of a detecated device to move your design objects ?
Just a thought on the plates run thin tabs (breakaway so 0.5mm?) on the Plasma jobs to keep the tip up issue minimal, much as it will mean a little more cleanup but you still need to deburr anyway.
James, I enjoyed this video just as all of your content. In your machining approach this time however it felt like overkill when you machined the surface of the pads with a fly cutter. I know the urge; everything has to look good at least, but this is just a surface to cling a magnet to... No more than that. A belt grinder would suffice to make it look good and perform the desired function or am I missing something here? No nagging, or just a little bit, but I'm a sucker for a functional approach and this machining (especially with the "indicate it in" part) is really over the top for such a part with such a function. (next to edge finding a location for holes in the profiles to match wood somewhere in the ceiling or have a level surface for a free moving articular joint with no accuracy needed) Maybe you're trying to impress your new girlfriend (joke) but please stick to a minimal "mean and lean" or "this is sufficient enough" for the approach to accomplishing working parts.... Conclusion; you know how to work accurate but the best machinists I know also know when to go quick and dirty and achieve a perfect workable result too in less time. This episode was over the top in my point of view. Thank you James. Just a heads up from a long time loyal appreciating viewer. All the best, Job
Overkill ??? No level on camera ... Rather than a magnet just screw the holder arm into a threaded hole (or welded bolt) in the steel Plate ... (No chance of arm coming loose). Just having fun with you and your obsessive compulsive nature ... Thanks for Sharing ... Stay safe and Well
