Wow! it seems those guys at HBS are very advance when it comes to building stabilizers. The formulas alone leaves you boggled.

Check the link out. I don't think I've seen homebuilt at this level before, anywhere else on the net. I could be wrong.
Amazing what these guys can do. I guess you can called it the official site for homebuilding stabilizers ;)

The link as 6 pages. Just go throught it from the beginning. Those pics of the guy's arm in progress is awesome. Looks so pro like:

http://p200.ezboard.com/fhomebuiltst...art=51&stop=55

BTW, Charles Papert, what do you think of all this? Being that you are a steadicam operator. I would like to hear your view.

His name is Andreas. Nice arm and very well made. His other pics shows the complete rig in it's rightful arena. Totally brilliant build

Dan, when is Volume II coming out????

Alex F

Jeez, I hate it when I miss questions. Simon, if you are still around all these months later, to answer your question: I think homebuilds are great; made one myself twenty years ago! Not nearly as sophisticated as some of the ones on Charles K.'s site, by a long shot.

Hi Alex,

Originally, volume 2 was to go to the printers back in December, But people kept requesting certain types of rigs, and I kept designing them. This has put the release back by months. The initial outline for the book was a few harder to build rigs and the rest on lighting. But it looks like I'm going to have to put lighting in a 3rd volume. I'm hoping the second volume will be ready by the end of summer. But, once the writing is finished, it still has a battery of tests from beta builders to go through before I feel comfortable taking it to press, so I can't give you a solid date at this point.

Thanks for asking!

Dan
www.DVcameraRigs.com

<<<-- Originally posted by Charles Papert : Jeez, I hate it when I miss questions. Simon, if you are still around all these months later, to answer your question: I think homebuilds are great; made one myself twenty years ago! Not nearly as sophisticated as some of the ones on Charles K.'s site, by a long shot. -->>>


No problem CP. Rather late than never. Got any pictures of your rig?

Charles are you really going to sell your rig?

Hello All !

I am new here, and it's great to see a forum dedicated to mounting and stabilization gear... especially home built stuff!

I have built a dolly and several stabilizers since 2000, but I am still in search of my Holly Grail... a good Gimbal that I can purchase for a reasonable price :-(

Any sources??

Thanks :-)

I see this is an old thread but what the hell. I'm going to answer your question. The cheapest I can think of is Glidecam's gimbal, which is around $2000. Gimbals don't come cheap because it is not off the shelf type product. They are usually custombuilt to fit the particular post of the the manufacturer.
They are expensive because of the precision, tolerance, material and of course labor and overhead cost.

Thanks for the reply!

I have made my own using ball heads, and they work OK. I have made a 2 bearing assembly that accomplishes the same task but works far better, but it is ugly.

I would never buy a gimbal for 2K when I can buy a great steadycam for under 5K... it's too bad that these parts are not priced better and readily available :-(

Don't blame you. I'd rather spend that 5 grand on a Flyer :)

can't access the website http://www.homebuiltstabilizers.com

does anyone know if it's "gone away"?

Nothing is wrong. I just did. Check again.

Just for your interest (if any) here's one I designed earlier...

Hope to actually build a prototype one day.

Designed before I'd seen or heard of a Fig Rig - but they are different beasts anyway - they just look similar at first glance.

http://www.videotutor.co.uk/stabiliser/frontview.gif

http://www.videotutor.co.uk/stabiliser/sideview.gif

The device self levels on horizontal and vertical. A simple brake system in the handle allows you to lock it off on either plane. When fully locked off on both planes that would be the equivalent to a Fig Rig. When not locked off it would self level.

Interesting design Kevin. That first pic looks similiar to how the Alien system works. I think that's almost exactly how it works. cool.

Hi Charles

What's Alien? Just did a quick Google with no stabiliser results..?

(Also offtopic - how do I get an automatic notification of a reply to a post)