The cheesy new PVC camera stand got to go out on the strait with the new video camera.
Camera stand all the way forward.
It was too hard to reach the stand when it was under the foremost bungees, and it was almost in the way when under the bungees right in front of the cockpit.
All the way back.
It's hard to get the 1/4" camera-mount screw vertically aligned with the clamp, so the clamp is a bit to one side. The stand ought to be a little higher so that the clamp isn't resting on the deck.
I can tell from the videos I took with the camera on the stand that it isn't entirely stationary. This might be because the inner tube on the conduit elbow isn't glued down, and it's slipping.
I took the old Kodak EasyShare Sport, attached to a clip that fits on the end of the paddle, to see how it would work for self-portraits.
Selfie-clip prototype II.
It needs some work -- the lens is so close to the paddle shaft that the paddle and drip rings intrude (and sometimes steal the focus), and the leash I had the camera on wasn't long enough to let me position the camera as far from the boat as I could.
When I got my first kayak I tried making a spray skirt, even tho I really had no idea what I was doing, and I started making a homemade wood paddle, just for the sake of doing it, I guess. I had only a slightly better idea of how to make a paddle than I had of how to make a spray skirt.
The shafts are from closet poles, and are probably douglas fir. The blades are from marine plywood left over from an old project, and the blades' shape was traced from a cheap aluminum paddle. The blades are epoxied to the shafts, and have a few stainless wood screws as well. A length of aluminum tubing from an old paddle if fitted to the end of one shaft so that I'd have a two-part paddle. The wood finish is tung oil, and there's epoxy on the blade tips.
Although I started it a few years ago it's never been completed. The shafts ought to be thinned, and maybe the blades should be reshaped, and I don't want to bother with it.
The back of one paddle blade.
The unfinished wood paddle.
The aluminum tubing joint thing. The inner-tube cover was meant to retain a pin or clip that would hold the other shaft in.
The marine ply I used was old and stained, but doesn't look too bad.
I started making a greenland paddle just so I could try using one when I was finished. I used maple, poplar, walnut, and teak scraps that were already hanging around, but next time I won't use as much hardwood. The redwood was from a local home-improvement place.
This paddle (like the other one) gets put aside for long periods, and probably won't be done anytime soon.
Ugly scarf joint. If the paddle ever gets done I might put
something on the middle of the shaft to hide it.
The homemade spray skirt was put aside when I got a nylon touring skirt, and I've been waiting for another old wetsuit to come along so I'll have enough material to finish the waist.
Homemade spray skirt (with a too-small tunnel) that came with my first hard-shell kayak.
Homemade, still unfinished, inside-out spray skirt made from an old wetsuit.
The camera stand should be plugged with some kind of closed cell foam so it will float. I'll probably use some foam sheets from an old life jacket for that, and then test it to see if it's buoyant enough to keep the camera from sinking. If it isn't I can add foam to the outside of the stand, or put the camera PFD on the camera's lanyard.
The steel spring in the cheap plastic C-clamp will probably be ruined by salt exposure, but the clamp was already broken, so I don't really care. The camera will be closer to the clamp (and so a bit less prone to going out of alignment) when I find a stainless or nylon screw the right length. (And a retaining clip to keep the screw from falling out.)
I could also put the bilge pump on the deck forward of the cockpit, and clamp the camera to that instead of using a stand. I think the convenience of using the stand will offset the annoyance of having extra gear, and the camera won't be in the way if I need the pump.
Camera, clamp, and PVC stand.
By having the camera mounted on the clamp I can also clamp it to the end of
the paddle and use it for self-portraits at more than arm's length.
And there's other stuff that I just never bother to write up, like the kayak seat made from an old PFD, the Seascape .5 project boat, canoe repairs, the folding kayak project, and re-purposed gear. Is anyone else interested in that?
This is a kayak cart that can be broken down and stored in the kayak. Most of the parts are from a junk store (but can be replaced with off-the-shelf hardware, if necessary), and most of the pieces will float (once the internal foam plugs are added).
The cart was made with common hand tools--a hand drill, a coping saw, a file, scissors, a utility knife, various clamps, and a couple more that I can't think of right now. The materials are 3/4" and 1" PVC pipe and fittings, inner tubes, a couple of plastic wheels, a fiberglass tent pole, a skinny fiberglass rod, rubber bands, and a few other bits and pieces.
The cart was constructed to fit snugly on either end of my kayak. The cart's shape was determined in part by the curved PVC conduit pieces that I found at Urban Ore. I used ¾" PVC tees and 1" tees for most of the rest of it because it turned out that ¾" parts fit snugly into 1" parts. Some of the parts are skinned with bicycle inner tubes so that the boat won't slide off the cart, and so that the connecting pins are held in place by the inner tubes, and because I thought it looked kinda cool.
In the above image you can see the tent-pole pins that keep two 3/4" tees connected to two 1" tees. The pins are drilled so that they can be leashed to the cart, and some vinyl tubing was forced onto one end of each pin to make it easier to pull the pins out. The other connecting pins are pushed under the blue rubber bands for storage.
The cart in a nylon bag. It fits thru the hatch (on the left) even tho it looks too bulky.
Everything is stored in a nylon ditty-bag when the cart is disassembled, and it all fits under the rear deck--although it takes up more room than I expected, and I might end up lashing the cart's frame to the bow or the stern so that I'll have room in the aft compartment for camping gear.
The cart seen head-on. The thick part right in the middle is pipe insulation.
The wheels have plastic bushings and plain-steels bolts for axles. I think the wheels might be improved by gluing some pipe insulation around the circumference, and then gluing shortened bike tires over that, so that the tires will be wider and get better traction, but I don't know if I'll ever bother to do that.
I'll post more details (although most of them aren't obvious from the photos) when I've got the necessary photos, and if it seems like anyone ever looks at this page
The stand is designed to use parts that are already available at home. Using more or fewer of the commonly available PVC fittings from the hardware store, the design could be made simpler or more complex, and there are probably hundreds of variations on this design that will work. And with extra parts, I could add a paddle rest, for instance, or a cup holder, or a small water cannon (connected to the bilge pump), or a soap bubble generator, or a beer dispenser (since the white PVC is food-safe), or some kind of Rube-Goldberg contraption that's completely impractical but looks cool.
The two tees in the center\right in the photo and the pipe that joins them aren't going to be glued. The tees have to be able to rotate to adjust the camera's position. I expect to be able to remember to check the stand when I adjust it to make sure the upright tee is sufficiently tight. The parts could be joined internally or externally (with elastic cord, thick string, whatever) to make sure it all doesn't come apart at some inappropriate time.
The latest stand with the invisible camera tilted up.
The stand in the above photo has a glued crosspiece to keep the two halves from separating. The end caps (on the left side) are there because using caps was easier than gluing foam into the ends of the fittings. A pair of right-angle elbow fittings would have worked better, but I didn't have any extras to use.
The right-angle elbow fittings on the aft end of the stand (near the cockpit) are there to raise it enough that the lower center tee isn't resting on the lengthwise ridge on my kayak's deck, which would keep the thing from being level.
The stand on the kayak.
The plug has been improved slightly: a wide, small diameter rubber band (from a bunch of broccoli) is wrapped around the lip on the outside end of the plug (it probably should be glued on), which makes it a lot easier to grip with wet hands. Something like the cap of an aspirin bottle, or some other plastic disk with knurled edges, glued onto the end might serve the same purpose.
On the adapter, the nylon screw is pushed thru a tight-fitting rubber bumper, which provides a good grip for putting the screw into the camera. A wing nut secured with a regular nut would also work. There's a nylon washer between the bumper and the bushing so the screw can be turned without turning the adapter. The inside of the bushing is filled with neoprene and sealed with RTV to keep water out, and there's a nut on the screw to keep it from sliding out of the adapter.
The plug and the adapter.
On top of the bushing is a rubber gasket that I found in my toolbox--it provides a much better grip on the bushing. There's a rubber washer at the end, which fits tightly over the end of the screw so that it won't fall off when I'm not looking.
The camera-to-stand adapter, and the tee plug.
The adapter works pretty well: there's enough friction to keep camera from twisting on the adapter when it's help sideways, but not so much that the camera can't easily be turned by hand. The bumper makes it easy to take the adapter on or off the camera with wet hands, and the rubber gasket makes it easier to get out of the tee.
The stand worked pretty well on it's trial run. I made some changes to the plug and adapter (as above), and I'll probably leave it at that.
A still shot with the Optio WP on the camera stand.
I'm going to upload a few trial (and low-quality) videos to youtube, like this one:
This is a homemade camera stand made from leftover stuff from other projects. I plan to use it for shooting video with a compact camera while paddling the kayak.
It's made to be inexpensive and easy to assemble, with measuring, cutting, and drilling all kept to a minimum (I didn't feel like trying to clear off my workbench). The camera can held horizontally (in landscape position) or vertically (portrait position) and can be adjusted to point left and right, and tilted up and down. The stand will also float if it has to.
The bare PVC camera stand.
The material is 3/4" PVC pipe and PVC fittings (all available at Home Depot, OSH, etc.), a nylon screw, neoprene scraps, and rubbery plastic foam packing stuff. The pipe and fittings would be glued with PVC cement if I had any--I'm going to use Plumber's Goop instead.
The stand is held in place by the forward deck rigging, or by a bungee cord (the red one in the photos), or both. The camera is attached to an adapter, a ¾"-½" PVC reducer bushing, which is shoved into the top or side of the uppermost PVC tee fitting, as shown in the photos.
The stand under the deck rigging with the camera held vertically.
The open hole in the upright (uppermost) tee has a plug in it to keep water out. Neither the adapter or the plug is fixed in place--they should be pushed into the tee with enough force that they'll stay put, and loosely enough that they can be removed by hand. I suppose they could be kept in place with hitch pins in rough conditions.
The stand with the camera held horizontally.
The camera is attached to the adapterwith a 1/4" nylon screw. I could have used a plug or an end cap instead of the bushing to make the adapter, or I could screw the camera onto a tee (and move the tee to change the camera's position). I used the bushing because I couldn't find a plug or a cap.
The camera attached to the PVC adapter.
The thing on the end of the adapter is a spacer for the screw, a sort of a thick rubber washer that was meant to be put on the bottom of a small appliance. It's not necessary--I used it because it was handy. The black stuff is scrap neoprene, and isn't necessary or even, as it turns out, a good idea. Eventually I'll find some kind of thin rubbery gasket for the top of the adapter, and a nylon or stainless steel washer for the bottom, and I'll cut the screw to the correct length.
Plugs and the camera-to-stand adapter.
The 3/4" PVC pipe is either the thick-walled or thin-walled stuff, depending on what was handy. It's probably a good idea to use the thicker pipe since the thin pipe can break.
The pipe is plugged at one or both ends with some expanded rubbery plastic packing foam, which is sealed with RTV silicone. These plugs are the "bulkheads" that keep the stand from filling with water (and possibly sinking) if it gets broken.
A quick google of "kayak cart" shows that the cheapest one cost $60, and most of them are over $100 - so forget that. I decided to make my own, and I did, and that's it in the photo.
The construction should be almost self-explanatory: a pair of training wheels from Thrifttown ($1) are bolted onto PVC t-connectors, and the rest is made from tees and thick-walled PVC pipe, and a "pool noodle." If it seems like it needs a stronger frame I'll add another crosswise pipe to it.
Improvements: I suppose the tees can be joined to the pipe sections with clevis pins to make a cart that can be disassembled. If the wheels were closer together then the thing could be turned upside-down and used to load the kayak onto the car. Bigger wheels would make the cart more usable on lawns, beaches, and gravel roads, but as it is it's only useful on hard, flat surfaces.
Materials:
training wheels from the thrift store or flea market
four 3/4" PVC tees
one pair each of 3/4" x #14 machine screws, nuts, and washers
glue (I used Plumber's Goop), clevis pins, or sheet metal screws to join the PVC parts
pipe insulation, pool noodle, or other foamy cushioning thinger
The cost so far for the parts that didn't just come out of a junk box (that means the training wheels and the pool noodle) is about $2.25.
Edit, October '11: This thing is usable, but it really needs to be sturdier, and the padded parts should be farther apart. PVC cement would be best for permanently joining the PVC pipe and couplings, but I don't like to buy that stuff--most of it ends up sitting in the can until it goes bad.
December 2012: If you make one of these, plan to make a better one and keep your eye out for a bigger pair of wheels and some aluminum tubing from an old pair of crutches or something. A jogging stroller with an aluminum frame is a good source of parts.
Edit, October '11: This thing is usable, but it really needs to be sturdier, and the padded parts should be farther apart. PVC cement would be best for permanently joining the PVC pipe and couplings, but I don't like to buy that stuff--most of it ends up sitting in the can until it goes bad.