Anyone have any luck building a homemade "Fig Rig" (with all due respect to Manfrotto of course!). I love the Fig Rig, but cannot afford it.

There has to be an off-the-shelf lightweight (aluminum?) 'circular tube' that I could use as the basis for creating my own Fig Rig. I know a welder who could easily secure the other parts -- I just can't think of what may work? Does anyone make a steering wheel that does not have anything inside the interior of the circle?

Thanks -- sorry for such an obtuse message.

An aluminium rim for a cycle wheel would be the obvious starting point?

Available in 16", 20" and upwards diameters in the UK.

There are people here that have built one.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/showthread.php?t=33841

I have been thinking about building one myself. You could cut a circle out of plywood to your own liking. Might be a bit heavy though.

You might also wonder why such a rig needs to be round. Why not use aluminum pipe or stiff PVC and build a rectangular shape with the assistance of molded corners? Perhaps a rectangular shape would better enable the shooter to keep the camera level when shooting.

A circular mold, some carbon fibre cloth/ribbon, a few ounces of West System Epoxy......

How about just using some black bicycle handlebars like these:

http://texomacyclingcenter.com/site/itemdetails.cfm?ID=2883

Some foam handgrips on either side and a bolt-on camera mount in the center should do it.

Yeah Laurence that's probably better than the fig rig! You'd loose the ability to mount stuff on the top but that'd probably be a lot lighter and it's cheaper and just as manuverable.

I like the handlebar idea... but do people think using a non-circular (i.e., square, triangular, etc.) rig would work as well? Is there something especially useful/helpful with the round shape of the Fig Rig? (FWIW, I tend to doubt it, but perhaps someone who uses it can attest)

thanks for all of your good comments / suggestions.