Weight for table set-ups.

[ChrisR]

I was thinking about something like this:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-6-ft-x ... ar/3059257

I'd go for more "square" than strip. Using two together, glue as Mike says or using lots of screws so they can't separate/slip, will give you 4 times the stiffness. 9x for 3, etc.

[ray_parkhurst]

The WeMacro Vertical Stand has a 420mm maximum height from the base. I know it's quite sufficient for use with the Amscope 4X, Mitutoyo 5X, Canon 35mm Macro and even the Printing Nikkor 105mm F2.8A which has a working distance of 143mm at 1X
...

It's certainly big enough for detail shots of coins, or for shooting small coins, but for larger coins like Dollars I don't think it will work. A US Dollar is 38mm diameter, and usually you don't want to completely fill the frame (I target 90%) so you need a FOV of 42mm. With a 15mm vertical sensor dimension, this means m = 15/42 = 0.36. This lower mag increases the required working distance, and the physical size of the camera and lens reduce the available distance, so in the end there probably is not enough available.

If you use a 50/55/60mm Macro lens instead, you can almost certainly make it work.

[Deanimator]

Did I mention that I'm a lousy carpenter?

Despite carefully laying out the holes and center punching them, I still managed to be slightly off. I was able to elongate the holes so that the hand knobs could snug the Arca Swiss clamp up straight.

Then when I was tightening down the post, the insert pulled out. So I screwed and glued in a new one. I'll let the glue dry over night and see how stable it is. I might end up drilling straight through and substituting a 3/8" bolt inserted from the underside of the table. I'll have to cut my own posts, for which I already have the material.

This hobby has caused me to spend probably twice as much on non-photographic tools and equipment than actual macro gear.

[Deanimator]

I was thinking about something like this:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-6-ft-x ... ar/3059257

I'd go for more "square" than strip. Using two together, glue as Mike says or using lots of screws so they can't separate/slip, will give you 4 times the stiffness. 9x for 3, etc.

I bought some stiff aluminum plate this evening. I'm not sure it'll be necessary, since a washer seemed to be ok... until my post mounting system failed. When that's fixed, I'll see how well it works out without reinforcement.

[Deanimator]

As far as a horizontal setup, why not get another Vertical Stand and lay it down and bolt it to your wooden baseboard. I would ask William @ WeMacro if you could buy 6 additional Right angle brackets with M8 bolts & T nuts.

While I'm no longer in the parlous financial state I'd been in for the last eight yeas, TWO $100+ mounts aren't really in the cards any time soon. I'd rather put the money into a Canon 77D and a couple of Flashpoint strobes at the end of this year or the beginning of the next.

The Wemacro mount seems like a good product, but perhaps more specialized than I need right now, a "unitasker" as Alton Brown would say.

[Deanimator]

The new rig is mostly done. I may add a couple of braces on the side, but it's stable as is. I continue to demonstrate the wisdom of my not choosing a career in carpentry.

The new rig:





A couple of examples of the working distances I can now achieve:

A 100 Won coin:



A commemorative pin:



Both were shot with the Tokina 100mm macro.

[Deanimator]

The attachment point failed again.

The threaded insert in the cutting board keeps pulling out. Following instructions on the net, I originally drilled the hole oversize. It was tight enough for shorter posts with less lever force. This long post is just too much for it, especially with the poor gripping force in the hole.

I'm going to go the through hole route, with a 3/8" bolt from the bottom, probably with a hand knob attached. I unscrewed the bolt from the bottom of the post, leaving an excellent hole to work with. I think I'll put in a 3/8" threaded insert. I'll probably also add a wider base to the bottom, screwed and glued in place to spread out the forces at the base.

I've got about an hour a day to get all of this done, so it's going to take me a while.

[ray_parkhurst]

Another of my hobbies is furniture building, so I feel I can give some advice here...

What you have is what's called a "butt joint", where two pieces of wood are simply butted-up against each other without any joinery. You are relying on small brackets to do the joining, and typically this won't work well if there is much leverage on the pieces. Think about what you're building as if it were a table, and the vertical post was one of the legs. You need to provide a significant amount of bracing to keep the leg from failing.

The classic way to do this is to mortise the table top, ie cut a hole that exactly fits the leg, and then insert and glue the leg in place. This is the strongest way to do it, but is a whole lotta work with a chisel, or expensive/specialized mortising equipment.

If I were doing this, I would cut 3 more pieces of post material, perhaps twice the length vs the diameter (if it's 2" material, cut 3 pieces of 4" long material) and laminate (glue) them to three sides of the post. Make sure the pieces are flat vs the bottom of the post. This will give you much more contact area for the butt joint, and thus more stability. Then put a corner bracket (or two) on each piece (on farthest surfaces from the post), and bolt the assembly to the table using bolts that go all the way through the table.

[Deanimator]

Another of my hobbies is furniture building, so I feel I can give some advice here...

What you have is what's called a "butt joint", where two pieces of wood are simply butted-up against each other without any joinery. You are relying on small brackets to do the joining, and typically this won't work well if there is much leverage on the pieces. Think about what you're building as if it were a table, and the vertical post was one of the legs. You need to provide a significant amount of bracing to keep the leg from failing.

Since I didn't post pictures of it disassembled, it might appear that way, but it's not really. That one bracket was just reinforcement against the post leaning forward.

There's actually a bolt in the bottom of the post that screws into a threaded insert in a hole in the top of the board. The problem is that every website I've seen with instructions on how to install the threaded insert directs you to use a drill bit that's too big, leaving the insert loose in the hole. I glued the insert in originally, and with the much smaller bases, it worked ok. With this much taller post, there's too much force on the insert, causing it to loosen. Screwing the post in just pulls the insert out.

I'm going to use a 3/8" bolt so that not only can I mount a post for vertical shots, I can mount a ballhead directly to the table.

The solution (I think) is to drill a hole straight through the top of the board and run a bolt up through the top from the underside. That bolt then can thread into a properly seated threaded insert in the post. There's already a hole in the post where I unscrewed the existing bolt today. I'm thinking about gluing and screwing a wider base to the bottom of the post to spread out the force.

I really don't want whatever vertical rig I use permanently attached, as then I'd need a separate rig for horizontal work. I'd rather have one base and multiple camera mounts. My "studio" is in a corner of my living room, and I'm running out of room for stuff.

[ray_parkhurst]

Another of my hobbies is furniture building, so I feel I can give some advice here...

What you have is what's called a "butt joint", where two pieces of wood are simply butted-up against each other without any joinery. You are relying on small brackets to do the joining, and typically this won't work well if there is much leverage on the pieces. Think about what you're building as if it were a table, and the vertical post was one of the legs. You need to provide a significant amount of bracing to keep the leg from failing.

Since I didn't post pictures of it disassembled, it might appear that way, but it's not really. That one bracket was just reinforcement against the post leaning forward.

There's actually a bolt in the bottom of the post that screws into a threaded insert in a hole in the top of the board. The problem is that every website I've seen with instructions on how to install the threaded insert directs you to use a drill bit that's too big, leaving the insert loose in the hole. I glued the insert in originally, and with the much smaller bases, it worked ok. With this much taller post, there's too much force on the insert, causing it to loosen. Screwing the post in just pulls the insert out.

I'm going to use a 3/8" bolt so that not only can I mount a post for vertical shots, I can mount a ballhead directly to the table.

The solution (I think) is to drill a hole straight through the top of the board and run a bolt up through the top from the underside. That bolt then can thread into a properly seated threaded insert in the post. There's already a hole in the post where I unscrewed the existing bolt today. I'm thinking about gluing and screwing a wider base to the bottom of the post to spread out the force.

I really don't want whatever vertical rig I use permanently attached, as then I'd need a separate rig for horizontal work. I'd rather have one base and multiple camera mounts. My "studio" is in a corner of my living room, and I'm running out of room for stuff.

Doing a butt joint with a single screw can work but the screw has to be tightened extremely tightly, so it needs to be very robust. If you're set on doing it that way, I'd suggest what's called a "lag bolt", which are large and long bolts intended for heavy duty construction. I use them for bolting racks to walls for earthquake-proofing. If you drill a hole through the base, and then screw the lag bolt up into the post, you can tighten it very tightly, and it might hold together well.

[Deanimator]

Doing a butt joint with a single screw can work but the screw has to be tightened extremely tightly, so it needs to be very robust. If you're set on doing it that way, I'd suggest what's called a "lag bolt", which are large and long bolts intended for heavy duty construction. I use them for bolting racks to walls for earthquake-proofing. If you drill a hole through the base, and then screw the lag bolt up into the post, you can tighten it very tightly, and it might hold together well.

I think that a properly fitted insert (probably backed with epoxy) would probably work well, especially when glued and screwed to a larger base.

An alternative I'm considering is to drill a transverse hole in the post and fit a barrel nut. The threads will strip before that comes loose, since there's no way it's pulling through 2-3 inches of wood.

then there's always this:



https://www.lowes.com/pd/Waddell-Metal- ... d4QAvD_BwE


Thanks for the suggestions.

[ray_parkhurst]

Doing a butt joint with a single screw can work but the screw has to be tightened extremely tightly, so it needs to be very robust. If you're set on doing it that way, I'd suggest what's called a "lag bolt", which are large and long bolts intended for heavy duty construction. I use them for bolting racks to walls for earthquake-proofing. If you drill a hole through the base, and then screw the lag bolt up into the post, you can tighten it very tightly, and it might hold together well.

I think that a properly fitted insert (probably backed with epoxy) would probably work well, especially when glued and screwed to a larger base.

An alternative I'm considering is to drill a transverse hole in the post and fit a barrel nut. The threads will strip before that comes loose, since there's no way it's pulling through 2-3 inches of wood.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Yes, a barrel nut would be an excellent solution. You could tighten it up sufficiently to be very rigid.

[Deanimator]

Yes, a barrel nut would be an excellent solution. You could tighten it up sufficiently to be very rigid.

I think that's the way I'm going to go.

Theoretically, if I drill another hole at 90deg above or below the vertical mounting hole, I could mount the post parallel to the surface of the board for horizontal shots.

[Deanimator]

Yes, a barrel nut would be an excellent solution. You could tighten it up sufficiently to be very rigid.

I just ordered a bag of them. 3/8" barrel nuts (aka cross dowels) are REALLY hard to find. Ironically, after ordering them, I discovered that the company is just down the highway about 1/2 hour.

On the way into work tonight, I'm going to buy myself a drill press table so that even if my holes are placed inaccurately, they'll at least be consistently inaccurate.

And at some time in the indeterminate future, I'd like to replace the whole thing with an aluminum breadboard and an extruded post. Maybe next year.

[ChrisR]

Keep your eyes open for friendly kitchen fitters. A cut-out piece left when fitting a sink into a granite worktop can make a pretty good sub-base.

I hopped into a skip to get a piece which was 2" thick and near 2ft square. A different verb applies to how I got it out, as it's over 100lb.
Wife hoping to recycle as tombstone, otherwise she won't be able to get rid of it.