The $14 Tripod

The original instruction set from Johnny Chung Leeis from this site.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/


What you will need...
Drill

1/4" in. drill bit for galvanized steel caps*

Dremel tool with grinding bit*

Pipes--> 3 1/2" galvanized steel or black iron pipes 10-12" in length (I used black
iron 2 12" and 1 10")

End caps--> 1/2" diameter steel or iron just as with the pipes

Basic T-joint--> 1/2" diameter steel or iron as with the pipes and caps

Weight--> 2 1/2 lb. weight with ~1 inch hole (I got mine at the Sports Authority)

Other small parts
A - two 1-1/2" 1/4" machine bolts
B - one 1/4" wing nut
C - three 1-1/2" diameter flange washers for 1/4" bolts
D - three lock washers for 1/4" bolts.
E - two 1/4" machine nuts.


Instructions:

The first thing you will want to do is get some holes drilled through the middle of two of the end caps. *This may call for a dremel tool to get you started because of the hardness and thickness of the caps. I used a grinding bit to thin out the center of the top of the caps and then used my drill bit to finish the job. A vise would sure come in handy at this point, but if you need to, putting it on the floor and holding it with your feet is an option (note: I don't take responsibility for any misuse of power tools).

Once the holes are drilled, the rest is pretty easy to put together. First you'll want to take a bolt, two regular washers, one locking washer, a nut, the weight, and an end cap and put all that together. Lay out the pieces on a table and from left to right they should line up like this: bolt, regular washer, 2.5lb weight, washer, end cap, lock washer, nut. The bolt should thread through all of those items in that order, with the end cap opening facing away from the weight.

















Now lay out the other parts as such: bolt, lock washer, end cap, lock washer, nut, washer, butterfly nut. The bolt will thread through in that order with the end cap opening facing away from the butterfly nut and covering up the slotted end of the bolt. Then thread this contraption onto the end of one of the pipes.
It should look like this...
















Now make your pipes look like this...















Screw together your parts add a camera and you have a bad-ass, cheap steadicam-ish camera holder!




Here is a detail view of how the camera mechanism works.