Vertical Setup using extrusion .. V-Slot

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Fri Sep 27, 2019 8:34 am

GOOGLE Translated .. maybe you will find "funny bits"

After making the V-Slot structure for a horizontal "all in one" setup ...

IMG_20190713_173419 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

I also thought about making a vertical one.
I finished it today .. I hope not to have another stroke at night

ddd by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

ccc by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

I first drew everything in CAD at real scale so as not to have any surprises .. but as I already have a fairly large library of the equipment I own designed in CAD... It was just paste and assemble components ..
I just had to draw the structure.
The end result does not differ much from the drawing.
I would have done it in black anodized with yellow gutter to fill ... to resemble a wasp .. but that would made the project 30-40% more expensive ... it takes about 15-20 meters of gutter.

eee by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

The keystone to the dimensions were the existing weight discs (15 KG / 33 lb. The frame was designed around them. I want the discs to be easily removed to easily carry this anywhere.
The trapezoidal frame also allows for a wider base without having an excessively wide top. I was also very curious to try out these angled connections from Makerlink

kkk by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Practically this is a kit to assemble .. only requires patience to screw 110 screws.
I just had to do 2 extra jobs .. two holes in the vertical beam to fix Wemacro (but Wemacro has so many holes in the base that it's easy to position). The only 4 holes in the center of the plate suitable to fix it to the horizontal beam interfered with the XYZ stage .. I had to drill 4 holes in the periphery of the plate .. but it is easy. The plate is aluminum and is 3mm thick

aaa by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

If I don't want to use flashes and use the Jansjo, I don't need to disassemble the flashes, just park the flashes under the plate.

IMG_20190927_144233 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

The large sturdy quick plate (for video) not only allows for a quick rough adjustment .. it also prevents the camera from falling by distraction and damage a lens .. the B button is a brake .. it has to be pressed for the camera to come out .. .

ggg by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

I think it is a nice design and "kit" (of course I do .. I did it ..

).

- It's all in one ... no loose parts .. Portable just turn off the wall power and take it everywhere. No need to take apart anything.
- It occupies very little desk space (30x30cm ... 12x12 inches.
- Anyone can make the structure effortlessly .. doesn't use exotic or hard to find pieces on eBay, surplus, scrapyards . You can buy everything at once, in the same store and in a single order.
- The structure is very rigid.
- The price seems very reasonable to me ... the structure cost me 123 euros with VAT and shipping.

list of parts if you are interested:
NOTE: The plate is "B-Stock" 50%0ff normal price is 22 euros..... B-Stock are parts in perfect technical condition.. just have small defects , usually scratches during the shipping...

Screenshot 2019-09-23 at 14.40.48 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

mawyatt · Post by **mawyatt** » Fri Sep 27, 2019 8:55 am

Beautiful Vertical setup, just like the Horizontal setup!!!

Something to consider with the Weamcro rail is the sides accept standard ARCA clamps. This allows an easily movable stage for coarse focus without having to remove and rebolt the rail and only raises the rail attachment to the bar ~10mm. I use this method with Wemacro and THK rails and it's very stable and rigid with a quality long ARCA clamp.

It's pretty simple, just securely mount the long ARCA clamp to the bar with 2 or 3 1/4-20 bolts thru the bar with large washers, then the Weamcro slides into the ARCA clamp. You can also use "T" nuts under the ARCA clamp if you don't want to drill holes in the bar, but I believe the thru hole like you've done with a large washer might be more stable than the "T" nuts.

Best,

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Fri Sep 27, 2019 9:11 am

mawyatt wrote: Something to consider with the Wemacro rail is the sides accept standard ARCA clamps.

Best,

Thank you ..... I never noticed that detail... I must have a couple of Arca type shoes somewhere.
That will help a lot because I like to use also enlargers lenses who require quite a lot of working distance...and in that case I maybe will have to move the Wemacro up a bit.

António

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Sun Sep 29, 2019 4:57 pm

first use ... works fine (the picture needs corrections .. transparencies)
Lomo 3,7

FB 97 Photos - 2019-09-29 - C by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Deanimator · Post by **Deanimator** » Sun Sep 29, 2019 7:22 pm

mawyatt wrote:Something to consider with the Weamcro rail is the sides accept standard ARCA clamps. This allows an easily movable stage for coarse focus without having to remove and rebolt the rail and only raises the rail attachment to the bar ~10mm. I use this method with Wemacro and THK rails and it's very stable and rigid with a quality long ARCA clamp.

Let me second this.

On my previous mounts, there was no sort of linear bearing, and the use of an Arca Swiss clamp made coarse focus MUCH easier than otherwise would have been the case.

I still use an Arca Swiss clamp on the current rig, which gives me two alternate methods of coarse focus, not counting my lab jack.

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Mon Sep 30, 2019 10:08 am

I think I'll never have to change Wemacro rail's position ...

Microscope lenses use very small working range variations. 3 cm to 1 mm or something around that.
in the position the rail is any lens will always reach the stage, no matter i use empty tubes or relay (tube lenses) ...

I also use a lot of enlarger lenses ... with magnifications between 0.5 and 3.0

in the position where the wemacro is there is a possible maximum space of 25 cm (10 inches) from the flange to the stage ... I have carefully checked the tables the person at Coinimaging.com has published for enlarging lenses

i use 50, 45, 35 and 28mm enlarger lenses

25 cm is enough for the sum of the extension tube + lens length + working distance, ... with the lenses I have and the magnifications I use .. I hope I checked the tables well and made no mistake.

The big advantage of CAD is this .. it's all designed to scale .. I could experiment various positions, vertical bar lengths, various lens systems etc and "sse" it for "real" without having to use the actual parts.

The vertical bar has the minimum size I could figure (because of the bending due to the weight of the equipment) but considering the use I will give it...
usually the vertical setups have an "L" structure, with all the effort supported at the angle

I made mine an inverted "P" structure ... with the column supported at 2 points .. the free part that can be bent is just the half of the bar.. only about 30 cm (12 inches)

I hope I have no problems because I tried to think this through and did not rush ... but one never know.

The Wemacro travels 12 cm . and if i change the settings from micron to millimeters it can be roughly adjusted pretty quick with the "App"...

However the idea of the ARCA shoe pleases me very much .. it is quite possible that I will use it in the near future.

Deanimator · Post by **Deanimator** » Mon Sep 30, 2019 2:48 pm

Yawns wrote:However the idea of the ARCA shoe pleases me very much .. it is quite possible that I will use itin the near future.

I actually ended up using the capability this morning, since the object I was photographing was taller and hence the near end was closer to the lens than the previous one.

Smokedaddy · Post by **Smokedaddy** » Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:01 pm

Beautiful work along with an incredible image. Thanks for sharing.

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Wed Oct 02, 2019 1:27 pm

Thank you .. it's nice of you to say that.

the new vertical rig allows me to have all the studio gear in the workbench... before there was no space for the bracketing gear at the right for live beasts. And that's really nice because I did not do many bracketing because I couldn't bother to make space and mount the gear everytime.

IMG_20190929_124647 by antonio caseiro, no Flickr

The vertical setup is very comfortable to use.. very much like using a microscope...at eye level and I reach everything without having to stand up (except for the camera controls, but if I am too lazy I can control the camera with the smartphone (Wi-Fi)... I don't do that.. sucks the camera battery.

IMG_20190929_124844 by antonio caseiro, no Flickr

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Wed Oct 02, 2019 2:06 pm

Very nice set-up. I do see one point that can be improved though. You mentioned that wireless sucks your camera battery. That means you don't have an AC power supply for your camera? Having an external power source is a huge convenience, since you never have to think about batteries again.

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Wed Oct 02, 2019 5:14 pm

Lou Jost wrote:Very nice set-up. I do see one point that can be improved though. You mentioned that wireless sucks your camera battery. That means you don't have an AC power supply for your camera? Having an external power source is a huge convenience, since you never have to think about batteries again.

Thank you for the tip .. that's a good idea. In fact I already lost a few sequences because the battery ran out

. I will look for one.

EDIT: there aren't any for my entry level model E-M10 II... there isn't even a socket in the caemra.
Apparently only the new E-M1 II supports AC power via the Power Grip.

I also need to take the camera grip to the grinder and enlarge the space where the battery / card goes inside. I can't remove the card only for a few millimeters.

With the use minor adjustments can be done.

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Wed Oct 02, 2019 7:21 pm

Sure there is. It's made by TetherTools and consists of a dummy battery comnnected to a power supply. This works on the PEN F and the E-M5, at least. Very reliable, I have used mine for years now.

Deanimator · Post by **Deanimator** » Thu Oct 03, 2019 12:10 am

Lou Jost wrote:Very nice set-up. I do see one point that can be improved though. You mentioned that wireless sucks your camera battery. That means you don't have an AC power supply for your camera? Having an external power source is a huge convenience, since you never have to think about batteries again.

I just keep a battery charger on the table with my rig and change batteries between significant stacks. I do the same thing with the batteries for the wireless trigger.

An AC adapter for the camera isn't a bad idea. You just have to be careful about what kind you get. I've read horror stories about cheap ones cooking cameras.

Lou Jost · Post by **Lou Jost** » Thu Oct 03, 2019 4:28 am

The TetherTools ones seem very good. Oddly, I have the Olympus AC power spply and battery grip for my E-M5, and it screws up the camera's software. The TetherTools dummy battery has never caused me problems after years of continuous use. They have similar devices for most cameras.

It really is nice not to worry about batteries running out during a stack. Same goes for flashes, of course.

grgh · Post by **grgh** » Thu Oct 03, 2019 7:43 am

Lovely horizontal setup, could i ask why you needed to make a separate vertical setup?

one could just take the weights out, and stand the horizontal on end.
perhaps two end rails extra in the end for your holder to slide on?

no critique but i feel that i must be missing something.

Must explain that i am a complete novice in the stacking way but i have been looking at various setups to understand what is needed and why.
please forgive me for what could be a stupid question.