Thursday, May 24, 2007

I'm a super genius.


Nalgene Camera Mount
Originally uploaded by thewbert.
Recently I made this. It's a camera mount made into a nalgene cap.

Pause for this to sink in.

Yes, I know I'm a super genius.

I got the idea to make this when I wanted to build something that would let me attach a camera to my bicycle handlebars. I searched DIY sites, but mostly turned up ideas for DIY camera mounts that did not involve bicycles. One such design that turned up was making a camera mount out of a bottle-cap, like one would find on a two-liter bottle. I thought this seemed mildly clever, but mostly useless. When would one need to use a two-liter as a tripod? This would only be useful, I thought, when one was traveling or hiking and needed a clever tripod. But two-liter bottles aren't prevalent when hiking, at least not in my hiking circles. So thus the nalgene camera mount idea was born. It's very simple to make. Here's what you do.

Materials:

1 1/4 inch x 20 stainless steel bolt, about 1 1/2 inch long
2 1/4 inch stainless steel washers
1 1/4 inch stainless steel locking nut

Drill a quarter inch hole through the nalgene cap. This works perfectly in the small-cap bottles that I prefer. I have not tried this with the wide mouth style cap, but there should presumably be no difficulty with this. Put a washer on each side of the cap and put the screw through the washers and cap. I used a slightly bigger washer on the inside for stability. Then screw down the locking nut on the outside.

Viola!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK, S-G.
That net that's holding the bottle looks familiar. Could that possibly have my fingerprints on it?

1) You don't splain how you attach that thing to your handlebars.

2) Your design needs a "Stop Nut" or "Jam Nut" on the screw to prevent screwing it too far into the camera such that it would either punch through or strip the threads inside the camera. I would suggest a lock nut with a flange, turned upside down so that the flange is against the camera.

Good work though. McGyver would be proud.
Dad

Gretchen said...

I saw that picture on Flickr and wondered what it was. You are too clever for your own good, Wylie.

Tenly said...

I am so excited that a super genius thinks the duo photo with the red background is hott! With TWO "T"s!!! We're going triple platinum once we get that pic on a CD cover...

BTW, it is the photo we chose for our new website that has audio clips on it. HOTT!

BTW pt. 2, I would love to see Ken Jennings take you on in the "Space Weather" category. You would rock his space weather world.

Anonymous said...

Round toits also work very well for this application. However, they can be somewhat difficult to find.