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Homemade platform
Hi all
Like many I have the need to move my heavy rig out of the garage over some rough paving to a good viewing position on my driveway. I decided on a moveable platform on which the tripod would sit and be stabilised by raising the casters off the ground once in position.
My first attempt was a failure with too thin a ply base, too small casters and an unwieldly stabilising mechanism using inverted second hand scissor jacks on the underside of the platform to raise the wobbly casters off the ground.
I am very happy with the outcome of my Mark 2 model pictured. I used 26mm ply instead of 17mm, larger 5" casters and had some hand operated screw jacks made up out of 16mm threaded rod, with 16mm coupler nuts welded on to a solid 26mm deep u shaped bracket that fitted snugly over the ply.
An eye shackle and turnbuckle assembly attached to the underside of the mount when tightened locks the whole rig down solidly onto the platform without need of something to keep the tripod legs in position.
It works wonderfully well over some rough bits of paving and provides an almost rock solid platform as well as a place to move out associated gear like batteries and boxes of stuff.
Positioning and levelling the mount is a breeze with the casters and screw jacks. A pleasant surprise was that the screws made marks in the concrete so that the rig can be positioned precisely the same each time. I have used blocks in the picture to avoid marking our sunroom patterned concrete. My wife would kill me if I didn't.
It cost over $200 to make so was rather expensive with the most expensive part being having to pay someone to weld up the metal screw jacks as I cant weld. Nevertheless I still think it money well spent in relation to the cost of the hobby.
I am happy to supply any other details to anyone interested.
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