"People make prototypes at the asylum." This is a statement I have made a huge number of times. So far I have not been one of those people. So far I've always built to a plan or from scrap found around the place, but never have I built with a specific need and set of functions. Here's how I learnt exactly how important a space like the Makers Asylum is.
Last month I started a build, a very good friend wanted a camera stand. A desk mounted mobile camera stand for taking videos of stuff being done on the desk. Those were the requirements and the specs. Oh and of course the camera should be able to take a video of an area of 3 feet by 2 feet.
I started working on this immediately. It seemed easy enough, right from the beginning there were decisions to be made. Various designs regarding the stand came up.
Should I have 4 legs coming in from the corners.
Should I have 2 legs coming in from the sides
or maybe on leg which would hover over the area.
Should the design allow for the camera to be lowered and raised. or cover a variable area.
Should the legs arc over the space, or be at an angle.
After about a week of discussing with "the customer" and then with various friends I decided on have one leg, with one vertical element and one horizontal elements like a crane with a boom. The boom would hold the camera obviously.
The angle of the boom would be adjustable and also the angle of the vertical. This would allow the high of the camera to be adjusted and also the distance from the camera to the base of the stand which would determine how large an area could be left unobstructed.
Taking all this into account I decided on a simple design and an all wood construction(Ofcourse).
Here is the final outcome.
All of this wood was available in the scrap piles at the asylum. This is another cool thing about the makers asylum. I only wish we could make the space dedicated to "scrap"" bigger.
Anywho, cutting this wood to size on the makeshift table saw was a snap. The 3 pieces required were ready in 10 minutes. A bit of easy planing and I fell in love with recycled pine all over again. Pine has such a lovely, open look about it, the contrast between the dark and light is awesome.
Glue up and testing the fit of the pieces done. I went over to the drill press. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, that was quick. I put the whole thing together, pushed in and tightened the nut-bolts and was overjoyed. I was done. 4 hours of pysudo work and I was done.
LOL, I wish, The reach of the stand was impressive, but the entire stand would simply tip over with its own weight. Here I got 2 suggestions from innocent bystanders.
1. Use a counter weight on the base. (I found after a few trials that a 2Kg counterweight would be required in a very small space)
2. Use a clamp. I would never have thought of this. It was the only viable solution
3. Much much later I was also given the idea of using a suction cup.
The next problem I faced was how to mount the phone to the stand
1. Make a tray from acrylic
2. make a structure from wood
3. buy a selfie stick and scavenge the holder. This was the most realistic and worked on many levels. 100 bucks and I was in business.
After attaching the holder, ( I did some nifty finger joint stuff into endgrain, looks really good), I found to my dismay tat however much I tighten the nut bolts (there are 2 joints) the friction between the 2 sections of wood was just not enough and the stand would simply fold up. Again the community at the asylum came to the rescue.
1. Use sand paper between the joints to in crease friction. (This did not help, in hind side, perhaps the grit was too low, I used 120 grit)
2. Attach semi circles with holes to one of the members and then simply push a pin through. This took some work. I asked one of the space managers to etch out the semi circles and quarter circles on the piece of wood I had decided on and then using the newly acquired Bosch jigsaw I cut out the pieces.
A tiny bit of work on the belt sander, someone brought in and the pieces were smooth. These were 2 small for the plane.
I marked out the semi circle and drilled the holes on the drill press.
Glue up and a single coat of varnish and I was done.
This time I was done.
As far as I could figure, It took me 4 iterations to get to this point.
This is the finished stand.
Now after the "customer" used the stand I got some really interesting feedback.
1. The height of the phone above the desk is such that he has to climb on a chair to put on the camera.
2. Any slight bump on the table sets off vibrations in the stand which obviously ruin the video.
Clearly product design is not easy. It requires a number of cycles to get right. This is where a place like the Makers Asylum excels. For a montly membership, I was able to get a host of design ideas when I was in trouble and also to run 4 cycles of design iterations to come to a final product that could be field tested.
Last month I started a build, a very good friend wanted a camera stand. A desk mounted mobile camera stand for taking videos of stuff being done on the desk. Those were the requirements and the specs. Oh and of course the camera should be able to take a video of an area of 3 feet by 2 feet.
I started working on this immediately. It seemed easy enough, right from the beginning there were decisions to be made. Various designs regarding the stand came up.
Should I have 4 legs coming in from the corners.
Should I have 2 legs coming in from the sides
or maybe on leg which would hover over the area.
Should the design allow for the camera to be lowered and raised. or cover a variable area.
Should the legs arc over the space, or be at an angle.
After about a week of discussing with "the customer" and then with various friends I decided on have one leg, with one vertical element and one horizontal elements like a crane with a boom. The boom would hold the camera obviously.
The angle of the boom would be adjustable and also the angle of the vertical. This would allow the high of the camera to be adjusted and also the distance from the camera to the base of the stand which would determine how large an area could be left unobstructed.
Taking all this into account I decided on a simple design and an all wood construction(Ofcourse).
Here is the final outcome.
All of this wood was available in the scrap piles at the asylum. This is another cool thing about the makers asylum. I only wish we could make the space dedicated to "scrap"" bigger.
Anywho, cutting this wood to size on the makeshift table saw was a snap. The 3 pieces required were ready in 10 minutes. A bit of easy planing and I fell in love with recycled pine all over again. Pine has such a lovely, open look about it, the contrast between the dark and light is awesome.
Glue up and testing the fit of the pieces done. I went over to the drill press. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, that was quick. I put the whole thing together, pushed in and tightened the nut-bolts and was overjoyed. I was done. 4 hours of pysudo work and I was done.
LOL, I wish, The reach of the stand was impressive, but the entire stand would simply tip over with its own weight. Here I got 2 suggestions from innocent bystanders.
1. Use a counter weight on the base. (I found after a few trials that a 2Kg counterweight would be required in a very small space)
2. Use a clamp. I would never have thought of this. It was the only viable solution
3. Much much later I was also given the idea of using a suction cup.
The next problem I faced was how to mount the phone to the stand
1. Make a tray from acrylic
2. make a structure from wood
3. buy a selfie stick and scavenge the holder. This was the most realistic and worked on many levels. 100 bucks and I was in business.
After attaching the holder, ( I did some nifty finger joint stuff into endgrain, looks really good), I found to my dismay tat however much I tighten the nut bolts (there are 2 joints) the friction between the 2 sections of wood was just not enough and the stand would simply fold up. Again the community at the asylum came to the rescue.
1. Use sand paper between the joints to in crease friction. (This did not help, in hind side, perhaps the grit was too low, I used 120 grit)
2. Attach semi circles with holes to one of the members and then simply push a pin through. This took some work. I asked one of the space managers to etch out the semi circles and quarter circles on the piece of wood I had decided on and then using the newly acquired Bosch jigsaw I cut out the pieces.
A tiny bit of work on the belt sander, someone brought in and the pieces were smooth. These were 2 small for the plane.
I marked out the semi circle and drilled the holes on the drill press.
Glue up and a single coat of varnish and I was done.
This time I was done.
As far as I could figure, It took me 4 iterations to get to this point.
This is the finished stand.
1. The height of the phone above the desk is such that he has to climb on a chair to put on the camera.
2. Any slight bump on the table sets off vibrations in the stand which obviously ruin the video.
Clearly product design is not easy. It requires a number of cycles to get right. This is where a place like the Makers Asylum excels. For a montly membership, I was able to get a host of design ideas when I was in trouble and also to run 4 cycles of design iterations to come to a final product that could be field tested.
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