It Was Good but I Can Do BETTER

[@James_Norris]

Great vid! - Mech. Engineer chiming in! Creating some compressive force is your friend for this sort of application - A cost effective method of overcoming the wobbling issue while keeping only a single post would be to add an additional hole to your base plate, centered to the extrusion porfile. This would allow a threaded rod to pass which can be locked off with a nut and washer on the underside of the base plate. You will need to secure the other end of the threaded rod to a cap at the top of the pole. you can adjust the amount of tension on the rod by adjusting the nut. By running a rod along the inside of the aluminum extrusion, anchored at both ends with a nut & washer to adjust the tension, you create a situation called prestressing. When you tension the rod, it introduces a compressive force along the length of the pole, effectively increasing the rigidity. This additional internal force reduces flex and deflection, which can help dampen or limit the wobbling effect. When the pole is hit, it oscillates mainly because of its length and the inherent flexibility of aluminum, which is a bit more prone to bending to other materials such as steel. The rod acts similarly to how a guitar string does: when tensioned, it becomes very stiff. When you add tension to the rod, it makes the entire structure behave as though it has a higher modulus of elasticity (stiffness). This helps counteract the pole’s tendency to oscillate by adding resistance to bending, especially at the top. You could further dampen the wobble by fixing the whole arrangement onto a dampening layer before fastening to the base plate - somethging like a thin rubber or foam to absorb some of the kinetic energy when struck. Alternative options would be to create more of a frame to support the pole - either by way of more aluminium extrusion or gussets (more material, cost, weight and complexity) or to add something like tensioned guy-wires from the top of the pole to the corners of the base plate (similar to how tall antennas are supported). I would imagine this solution to be harder to use and adds to the cost and complexity of the project. Hope this helps :)

[@MarshallLoveday]

Best solution that I can see here, and should be fairly simple to add to the rig.

[@grainincidentallyyew]

This is awesome stuff. Thanks for chiming in! "the inherent flexibility of aluminum" Oof. I need to keep remembering that aluminum alloys are all more flexible than steel, no matter what decades of bicycle marketing has told me.

[@James_Norris]

@@grainincidentallyyew Totally fair point! The phrase ‘inherent flexibility of aluminum’ could use a bit more nuance - aluminum itself has a lower modulus of elasticity compared to steel, meaning it does flex more under the same load. Having said that, not all aluminum alloys are created equal, and some alloys are impressively strong and stiff, especially when used with optimized cross-sections, material grade and correct tempering such as for the extrusions shown in the video, likely a 6063-T5 (common for the manufacturing proceeses involved for producing the profile). That said, aluminum’s flexibility doesn’t necessarily mean it’s weak! In fact, it can be quite advantageous for absorbing shocks and vibration - hence why the bike industry has marketed it so effectively. For a tall, unsupported pole like the subject of this video, though - aluminum’s lower stiffness (relative to steel at least) makes it a bit more prone to wobbling.

[@Alexandra-Rex]

How would it be with three poles and some 45° angle bars between them at atleast the top and bottom? It's just what popped into my head just before he started with the second pole, I have no knowledge of this at all.

[@coolbugfacts1234]

That was my thought too, post-tension it like a concrete slab. First I thought about anchoring it like a radio tower, but the camera would run into the lines.

[@mikestone-w1q]

Vibration damping is kind of the opposite of stiffness: you have energy making the pole vibrate, and you need it to go somewhere else. Making the system stiffer just lets it hold the energy better and transfer it more efficiently. Try putting heavy felt pads between the metal plate and the caster mounts. The energy making the pole vibrate has to push against the ground to make the pole stop and go the other way, and making the energy pass through a slightly mushy pad will disrupt that. Some of the enrgy will make the fibers move relative to each other, converting the vibration to a small amount of heat. Better yet, saturate the with pads with heavy grease. The fibers will still be able to move, but when they do, they’ll also move the grease. Grease is a liquid, so it has low shear strength (one layer moving past another), but the high viscosity means a moving layer will transfer energy to the layers on either side of it. Basically the wobbling energy turns into energy stirring the grease at a microscopic level. Again, the energy changes from motion to heat, but the fibers-in-grease system do that *really* well.

[@jack002tuber]

I agree with this. Shock absorption is what you need and stiffness is the enemy

[@Wordsnwood]

Love seeing the Tron Lights shooting around in the background.... Cool Beams!

[@Craftlngo]

what you also could do to improve the stability is feeding a long piece of all-thread through the middle of the extrusion. Screw it tight into the bottom plate and anchor it at the top with a disc-shaped nut that is secured in the extrusion against movement along its length (maybe a slot that takes up the nut). If you now tighten the nut on the all-thread it gets set under tension stress. On the other hand the extrusion gets elastic compressed, which damps the wobble by changing the "wobble-frequency" of the extrusion.

[@philip6102]

Nice idea but one question. Wouldn’t the tension pushing down on a long extrusion like that eventually cause it to shift and bend? Or am I thinking completely in the wrong direction here?

[@Craftlngo]

@@philip6102 No, I was thinking of an pre-tensioning in the elastic area of hooke's diagram. No plastic deformation would happen if the nut is tightened carefully.

[@charleshanson9467]

Some sort of angled bracing or gussets probably would have gone a long way. But, I'm glad you got it satisfactory.

[@Culpride]

And you think making it stiffer and stiffer wouldn't turn it into a giant tuning fork? It's not problem that it's not stiff or massy enough. It's the question: where does the enegy go? How does a dead blow hammer do it?.

[@joegibes]

​@@Culprideeh, it will definitely make it stiffer and reduce the vibrations - probably increasing the frequency of the pole's natural resonance. For this application, that's a good thing. You could consider using some damping rubber where the braces attach to the pole, to help those higher frequency vibrations if they're too much.

[@circadianrebel]

What I really like about this video is that it demonstrates nothing is perfect on v1, and part of the making process is iteratively acknowledging flaws and making (often small) changes to fix them.

[@EricFMyers]

Thumbs up for the bolt cutting tip, but if you forget the nut before cutting you can also slightly file a taper on the bolt's end.

[@MrDmorgan52]

I was going to add . I taper mine every time. Just doing what my Dad taught me 60+ years ago

[@EricFMyers]

@@MrDmorgan52 It also gets rid of that sharp burr which may prevent needing a🩹 in the future.

[@rogercoit2209]

Try threaded rod to put tension on the post, more you tighten the nut should be less movement 🤞

[@MohamedMagdy_94]

I was thinking the same thing... compression would really rule out the flexibility of the aluminum extrusion and couple it more securely to the base.

[@jbratt]

I was thinking a cable but a rod would be easier due to the available threading 👍

[@Culpride]

@@jbratt so make it a one stringed bass? Stiffening is a shure way to prolong wobble. Harden it like a one pronged tuning fork. A dead blow hammer on the other hand ... has a magical mechanism to transfer the energy into heat. Loose sand.

[@jbratt]

@@Culpride I think a stiffer beam would be better than a limber one to reduce the oscillation.

[@lowerdfool]

Two points of contact, from the base to that center extrusion, would add way more rigidity to that setup. Just add a piece of aluminum from the outside of the base plate to to extrusion about a foot from where it contacts the base on the both axis. You will lose some travel with the carriage, but it will not wobble anymore.

[@Knobiks]

the problem of the wobble can be solved by changing the connection to the baseplate. Instead. you can stiffen it and add a dumpning effect by adding a 3d print thats connected both to the "tower" and the baseplate, plastic, even pla will behave like a dumpner, just make it a triangle.

[@mmgodfrey]

My thought exactly, just like stiffening up a pergola to reduce racking

[@dubCanuck1]

Agreed.

[@ambsquared]

My thought too. Also make the connection to it taller and have a couple bolts going through 90 degrees to the first two. Triangulate the support a bit wider on all sides. Could also add rubber washers to the bolts that could increase the damping. A bit of lead shot in the pole could make it act more like a dead blow hammer too.

[@Ovni121]

I'm not a mechanical engineer but I think it needs more triangle between the base and the pole📐

[@penguiin12]

damp or damping. not dump, not dampen, not dampening, not dumpning

[@JohnDlugosz]

18:38 "Down to just the pole" And just in time for Festivus! It has a very good strength to weight ratio.

[@esh92]

i find your belief system fascinating

[@dainperrault585]

I absolutely love follow up or V 2 videos of projects! That shows that every project isn’t always 100% perfect the first time every time. Mostly Berber perfect ever. So any follow up videos on anything are such good info. They help people think further into the future and get deeper problem solving and planning sooner than later.

[@MontgomeryWenis]

The wobble got worse _because_ you added the battery pack to the top. You added weight to an arm stretched out over nothing at the top of a long pole. The laws of physics would require more weights near the bottom and middle to absorb the wobble before it could transfer to the thinner, taller structure. Telephone poles aren't larger at the bottom and buried several feet underground for no reason.

[@sapelesteve]

Great suggestions and exactly what I was thinking! 👍👍

[@loganstrong5426]

Yeah, no offense to Bob because obviously he's just making stuff up as he goes along and doesn't need to be an expert or anything, but as an engineer seeing the lack of understanding of the physics involved was a little painful.

[@MontgomeryWenis]

@@loganstrong5426 Yeah I get that he's kinda just looking at one problem at a time. And we have the benefit of not actually being in his exact shoes doing a project ourselves, but that still seems like a pretty obvious oversight.

[@joegibes]

Also note that for stiffness, you want the pole wider and/or stiffer at the outside - rather than strengthening the middle. Sure, the middle reinforcement can help, but it would be more effective to add a second extrusion, or triangle bracing down to the base.

[@Leo99929]

Fun experiment: Glue a weight to the diaphragm of a chunky speaker and stick two of those to the top of the pole in perpendicular axis. Then see how long the vibrations last as you vary the resistance across the coils shorted through a variable resistor/range of resistors? It should convert the relative motion into heat in the resistors and you could have some fun with variable damping in different axis.

[@Alextherockingchief]

Pass a wire in the middle, attached to the top and the base and tighten it. It will transfert vibrations right into the base. The base acts as a dampener for the whole thing, add weight to it or a dampening material and it should reduce vibrations quite effectively. Just like road lights poles are installed.

[@henryoppermann134]

Or you can think of a radio broadcast antenna with guide wires, to bring the momentum of vibration (pendulum effect) to the base as suggested…attach a couple of wires and tension them to the 2-4 corners of the base with a couple of simple turnbuckles

[@_Jester_]

@@henryoppermann134 and those wires would always be in the way or in the shot.

[@billyriordan913]

I'd use a cable on either side of the extrusion under tension to triangulate the tower. It should still easily clear everything sliding up and down and it would cure the wobble in the remaining axis you're having issues with. An anchor on each side of the base plate and then attach the other end to the top next to the cable guides. Think of those super tall radio towers. They use guide wires like that. Also, I feel like the reason the wobble was worse is because of the added weight of the battery to the movable arm. It kind of amplifies the pendulum effect.

[@xavtek]

I was thinking the same about the added weight. Also there is a reason sailboat masts use shrouds and stays and I think this could be a simple solution to make it less wobbly.

[@andy_warb]

Thanks for reminding me about your fusion course. I haven’t been able to get my head around fusion due to my stupid messy brain but I just started adhd meds and I’m really hoping it might help things finally click for me!

[@soviut303]

I'm really glad you did a version 2 video on this! I feel like the wire should run inside the channel on both sides of the pully and connect to the top of the plate to reduce the prying force on the bearings. It would also free up the centre section of the T bar for attachments.

[@johnnyb95678]

Always enjoy watching you noodle through things and sharing your thoughts as you progress. Thank you!

[@manmadecrafts]

I made yours from the last video but with a few changes. I used Neewer threaded shoulder rig mounts which extend straight out so they can't limit my up and down range and it works really well. Made a few other changes as well but I like what you did here. I used push down door stoppers which work well but I really like that yours can stop with just one kick down. Pretty cool!

[@westleyleonstudios]

Just purchase the Fusion Course! SO excited to start learning this stuff - Thanks, Bob!!!

[@cheeseisgreat24]

So when you have a wobble from a tall thing, you have one of two things you can do, you can work to constantly stiffen it up in the axis it wobbles, or you can accept that it will wobble, and add something to the top that wobbles with it, but in an opposite phase, which reduces and removes the wobble faster. Look up “Tuned Mass Dampers” for the basic premise, the math required to design it is a little complex to describe in a YT comment, but it’s something actually very easy to experiment with. It can be as simple as making your top cap with the pulleys into one a bit taller and encasing a pendulum that you can add weights to.

[@Sethjxl]

Just added a post about exactly that. You can stiffen as much as you want, but your just changing the resonate frequency and as some point you might make it worse. I suggested using water as a damping method. A tuned mass is a good suggestion, too.

[@drunkramen]

Came here to say this, lol

[@davidknaul1162]

The challenge is that the natural frequency of the system will change as the weight and height of cameras are changed, so the damper would also need to be adjusted. Might be possible with a cable from the camera arm to the pendulum

[@cheeseisgreat24]

@ while true, the damper doesn’t have to be so precise to lower the frequency significantly, because he’s already not looking for perfect with the stiffening approach, just better. The only thing you gotta be sure of is that it doesn’t hit the system’s resonance frequency and end up adding to it, which on this thing I’m betting would be kinda tough to do even if you were trying to do it on purpose.

[@Culpride]

or you tape a dead blow hammer to the side that absorbs energy from basically any frequency and turns it into heat.

[@kylejacobs1247]

Note that adding fixed weights to the upper part of the pole will not dampen it from wobbling. Instead your spring-mass system will have a lower resonant frequency. Adding the wood in the center also does the same thing; it just adds mass to lower the resonant frequency, it does not meaningfully increase stiffness or dissipate energy. Wider posts like you mentioned will be much stiffer, but my guess is that most of the flex is happening at the base connection. Stiffen that up and the wobble will be nearly gone.

[@CapnFlags]

Oh. My. Gosh. I have a “fishing pole” behind my couch with my lights, fans, and a 36” pipe sticking out that hangs paracord down from the tip and suspends my WiiS4 controller. It’s helped with the weight of my modified Wiimote/Numchuk/Zapper so I can play longer! What you’re doing here is on my rig’s bucket list! It’s not freestanding, the couch smushes it against the wall. It should be freestanding. I find some inspiration from the few vids I’ve watched here. Seems like every project here can apply to something I want to do/want to do better! Thanks!

[@ralphq5895]

I have absolutely ZERO use for this project BUT I thoroughly enjoyed parts I & II of it. I love watching your process and am planning to build the ultimate wall mounting system for quad monitor configuration using extrusions and plywood. The idea is that is be portable and aesthetically attractive so that when I move locations or change desk configurations it remains consistent. It should contain all the wiring necessary and be well hidden in the design. Thank you for your inspirations, keep the content coming.

[@MadSpacePig]

I feel like the common-sense solution staring you in the face was to add angled supporting struts to the base of the pole. The reliance on a single, perpendicular connection point to the base is the thing that makes it an inherently unstable arrangement. Alternatively you could have taken a completely different approach and spaced out the two vertical extrusions, added horizontal beams for rigidity, and have the sleds slide up and down both simultaniously. |--------------| | | -----|--------------|----- | | |--------------| | | | | | | ---------------------------

[@achannelhasnoname5182]

It actually surprises me that he didn't think of that, it's such a basic thing?

[@coolbugfacts1234]

That would still wobble in one direction instead two. Easiest solution is drill a hole in the base, run a threaded rod through the middle and tighten from both ends, that way for the extrusion to wobble it has to stretch threaded rod.

[@nerdy1701]

​@@coolbugfacts1234that's a really good idea

[@Culpride]

@@coolbugfacts1234 and make it a one stringed bass guitar? Cool idea. But it wouldn't absorb energy to stop the wobble sooner. On the other hand, I can't imagine this thing wobbling for long if you taped a dead blow hammer to the side.

[@Carini76]

And turn 29 minutes of content into 5? Don't be silly.

[@Pootel]

Great video man! If you wanna negate the wobble without changing the size of the extrusion, I'm pretty sure you could tighten a steel cable that stretches from the bottom to the top inside of it. The added tension would stiffen the pole and you could easily tighten the cable by using a bolt with a hook that you tighten from the bottom.

[@arogers9986]

Really loving the build it and improve process. It's good to see the excitement on making it better.

[@napierpaxman]

17:25 - you need a thing called a tuned mass damper - a spring with a weight on the end attached to the top of the tower, so it will wobble instead - google 'tuned mass damper' - perhaps even a small tank of water - the AMP tower in Sydney, Australia has a water tank at the top to do just that... :)

[@magomat6756]

Since I work with fusion 360 and my 3 d printer my brain doesn't stop to come up with things to make .I wish I ass 18 again and have a whole life to thinkering .😊 I'm happy when I see a video of you i love you channel from the start way back

[@hazael_d]

At 25:00 what you set the little piece in its place, can be seen how the camera wobbles a little. I think this problem also lies at: the camera being part of some sort of like tower-assembly and the top of that all not having support That can probably be corrected through modeling some arm that let the camera rest over the pole or something. I hope the idea comes handy for some end

[@Mortagus]

Awesome video, I love to see the "chase the problems and find a solution" style ^^. I can't stop thinking about another video about the same kind of build : Alexander Chapel made the same kind of camera support but a bit bigger. That seems to be really handly to have around ^^

[@nathandrouin4730]

Long time watcher of the channel and you almost never do a version 2 ...I love you did this video...its shows always be leveling up

[@NemesisLex]

Alexandre Chappel here on KZbin made a great version of such crane. Also with 3D Print and Wood/Metal. If you need some inspiration :)

[@pixelrancher]

I did much the same thing but instead of ordering that chunk of steel, I poured cement for the base, adding angle iron from industrial shelving (with all of the holes and slots already cut into them) while the cement was still wet. Four strips of angle iron in a square on the floor of the base with eight bolts run through the cement. I moved the camera support out on one edge and angled two legs back and away from the camera support creating wobble-free triangular supports with a ton of holes and slots to attach things to. (Shelves, storage boxes, lighting, cables) Ratchet set and a few bolts, the entire thing can collapse quickly and easily and get chucked into the van. Triangles are the key to no wobble. And the 40/40 connects to the angle iron - which is super-cheap per foot compared to the 40/40.

[@normie26]

Really love the vibe lately on the videos... I can't say whats different but, something is and I like it.

[@HowardKloc]

I was a pro photographer and had a 10 foot “unipod” in my studio that easily supported an 8x10 view camera. It had a wishbone shaped base on 4 inch lockable casters but the center pole was a 4 or 5 in hollow chromed pipe with the counterweight inside the pole. Solid as an I-beam.

[@michaelbuddy]

I have that. Bought it from a retired photographer. The weight goes through the center of the tube in the middle, which is very important. I only wish I could extend the arm a bit for reach. Just a little would be nice. Trying to figure out how I might mod it.

[@Teckstudio]

I do have the same in my studio and was just looking for "this" comment. Using a 4"-5" aluminium pole/pipe is so unbelievable strong. Also placing the counterweight inside the pole gives you more flexiblity. Even more: You can rotate the camera arm freely around the pole, no need to move the base when its looked in place. Its a quite clever, simple and incredible sturdy construction.

[@themeandrousengineer]

I would add to the thread trimming tip from experience in the machining world. You can also just cut it with a grinder or hacksaw, but them take it to a sander, face the end flat/square, and then angle it at 45 degrees as the belt sander runs while rotating the thread so you can chamfer the end. This will eliminate the nasty burr you had on there too.

[@JamackeynGubby]

Simple solution with complex engineering: A spring loaded extendable pole that uses the ceiling as an additional point of support. That and a (previously suggested) thread down the centre to put the extrusion into compression

[@Slikx666]

A thought comes to mind. In the very tall skyscrapers they have a massive weight and shock absorber setup to dampen the movement of the building. So if you had a suspended weight at the top with shocks from a RC car (minus the springs) it would dampen any vibration to near zero, just need to work out a few things and it's done. 🤔

[@Dsk001]

I came so say this as well.

[@whoisrhys]

All of these improvements seem great! The only additional change i would recommend would be to change the orientation of the battery pack. Just like the old base collected saw dust, the upward facing ports on that may start to collect dust and what not over time. Of course you could occasionally take a compressor to it as well

[@jb510]

You’re amazing. Some thoughts. Wouldn’t steel be less ridged than aluminum and bend more? What you need is to increase the modulus and a bigger cross section would help, as two do. To be cleaner, I’d run the usb cables inside the extrusions. I’d also try putting diagonal knee braces to make it more ridge, that’d change the bending length dramatically, even if the knee brace was only 2’ off the base I think the effect would be huge… could either be ridged or cable stays.

[@susan_halla]

I know you don’t want to do a v.3, but I’d love to watch you try all the things you mentioned at the end PLUS some of the great ideas here in the comments. I’m invested now because the experimentation scratches my scientific itch. Thank for liking to make stuff, Bob!

[@novotd443]

I have a similar setup for a portable light use in a paint booth. I simply started with a steel I beams, used the sides are a railing, some cobbled together rollers. Top was similar to yours, used a concrete filled car tire as a base, bolted the beam to the disk and put it on a retractable wheel setup. Dirt cheap (although it didn't look nowhere near as nice as your setup), highly effective.

[@TheNewJankyWorkshop]

Great video Bob! Love that you returned to this project specifically, as I loved this build initially, and need to make something similar.

[@needamuffin]

Taipei 101, at one time the largest building in the world, has a massive metal sphere inside the top four floors. It's an inertial dampener, it helps stabilize the tower and stop it from wobbling during earthquakes. A similar system would solve your problem here as well. Extend the print that houses the bearing that carries the cable to the other side upwards and attach a large weight by springs in the middle of it. Now the weight will act as a tuned mass dampener and counteract any movement of the pole and both lessen the maximum amplitude AND shorten the overall period. You'll probably have to play around with the springs and mass a bit to get the resonance to be close to the natural resonance of the fulles loaded pole, but you can measure the resonance of the pole and I'm sure there are online calculators that will help you find the correct mass weight and spring constants. I'm sure other suggestions here would help just as well, but mine's more fun.

[@randall4876]

9:08 Bob... concrete is the lazy way, going ham with a sledge is called maximum effort. Lol, love the revisit, it's cool to see some of the changes that you made!

[@MontgomeryWenis]

It's funny he mentioned all the other silly ways people tried to fill it up to strengthen it before "the lazy way" of slamming a steel bar through it. That was my first thought. Never even considered sand or whatever. The Dunning-Kruger effect is very prominent I guess.

[@_Jester_]

@@MontgomeryWenis I was gonna say, he's reiterating all the clever ways to do it and then picks one that does nothing at all. 🙄

[@mikeshteyman826]

5:25 Throwing candy in their order would've been a much better selling point if the video didn't come out less than a week after Halloween. 😂

[@LoveCutiesIllustrations]

Long time watcher, 'ever commented, but just wanted to say that I love your vids and I absolutely loved your face when the new one stopped wobbling 😂 your sheer amazement is contagious, so go on and make more stuff, we love it! Cheers from France ❤

[@nateevans6528]

Another excellent video, thank you for taking us along for the ride!!!!

[@christopherbray598]

Looks like a lot of people have already suggested it, but I would agree that gussets are a very cost effective way to make this even better. It might require a change to your base storage. Great project.

[@johng1232]

One of the hardest things about continuous improvement… Don’t let perfection, get in the way of better. Good job, great video, fun project.

[@9bnmadden]

Really love this vid. Great to see iterative improvement. I know on making it you mentioned a distaste for this type of video, but just know this one landed and was fun!

[@shyft7401]

Late-coming suggestion, but my immediate thought regarding all of those power appliances in the base- is some sort of dock or easily accessed charging apparatus for the whole setup. I have no idea how it'd even be done- but anything to make it so you don't have to bend over and plug something in. Maybe a weight-triggered apparatus that when the cart is in place, a plug is raised into a receptacle for charging.

[@danielrisueno8003]

I'm definitely gonna use that trick to cut bolts down. Thanks for the tip!

[@D-One]

Really cool, i wonder if you could have a much simpler solution without needing a counter weight, v-wheels with eccentric nuts to add friction so it never falls down to fast, and then the handle adjusting thing to set a fixed position. One advantage is you could have several platforms that move up/down to put things.

[@WoodworkJourney]

Definitely recommend the Fusion course, it absolutely helped me even though I’m old and not the brightest lol

[@lucusloc]

If you want less wobble you want *damping,* not necessarily maximum stiffness. Think of it this way; tuning forks are very stiff, but will ring for a long time, a pool noddle is very floppy, but will not wiggle unless something is actively acting on it. Now of course for your application you do need a good amount of stiffness to resist outside forces moving your camera around, but you also need a good bit of damping when those forces do manage to get your rig moving. It is pretty ironic, but you actually mentioned the solution in your video; sand filling. If you had filled the rod with sand you would have added mass that would resist outside forces, but you would have also added a medium that is known for its vibration damping ability. As the whole system sways the sand moves around, and that movement absorbs energy that would otherwise keep the whole system vibrating. Maybe try filling the other tube with sand and see if that helps dampen thing out even more. Or an even better solution now that you have two extrusions is to put some rubber between them to decouple them. The rubber will absorb vibration in much the same way sand will, and the lose coupling will make it so that vibrations cannot transfer and reinforce each other.

[@pocket83squared]

A gem of a comment. And I totally agree. Simple solutions like that one can be so hard to realize. I once had a dampening problem with a lathe-based strip sander, and it drove me nuts. It had this strange, wobbly harmonic that would build into a sort of rogue wave of unpredictable bounciness. Counterweights, stabilizers, elastics, springs; none of them worked like a little (hanging) pouch of sand, which resisted the waves from every angle. Works like a charm.

[@TriSamples]

I’ve seen people do this setup hung from ceiling tracks. What you really needed to stop wobble was add two angled supports at the base at 90 degrees. Less material, more fun with brackets.

[@bj_]

Look at "tuned mass damper" to reduce the wobble. Sand, epoxy, and other fillers are designed to reduce motor vibrations in machine frames (converting vibration to heat) which doesn't really work for very low frequencies like wobble. Tuned mass dampers are what tall skyscrapers use to cancel out wobble

[@wolfpreist]

Tip for drilling and taping holes use your end mill. you can create or buy a tap follower. Drill your hole, then before you reset or move, tap it with the follower.

[@mkegadgets4380]

In part three of the series you could, get real 8020 inch and a half by inch and a half size. Add gussets from your steel plate to your 8020 that would stiffen it up pretty good. Remove the tool box storage on the bottom and place some used brake rotors on top of the steel plate. Look forward to your next video.

[@jp51552]

A thought on your steel pole, what about using a six or eight foot fence post? They are readily available and relatively inexpensive.

[@mglenadel]

The wobble comes from the natural frequency of the aluminum extrusion, plus the extra mass up high. One possible solution would be to reinforce it with more extrusions, as you tried, but with different extrusions (maybe a 20x20) so their natural frequencies would be different. Another idea would be adding a fluid dampening vessel (a sealed jar with water and baffles-they could be 3D printed) so the vibration is transferred to the water and dampened by its flow across the baffles. A similar idea to those mass dampeners in very tall buildings.

[@therick0996]

Love the V2 video! Using something and iterating later is a huge part of creating

[@the_str4ng3r]

See you in a couple months for the steel reinforced version. Can't wait!

[@shopwood99]

Attach a spring with a bolt and a weight to the top to create a resonance damper. Screw the weight in or out until it is most effective. Quick and cheap.

[@Fotozones]

Studio stands or salon stands (in old timer speak) are what we use in photography studios. They can be very expensive but the key to their stability is their mass and the materials used to make them. Aluminium needs to be much thicker than what you have used for your stands.

[@1973Grejluder]

Have read a few comments, but not all of them. So someone might have brought the idea !! The idea with struts from baseplate to tower is what should been done. Look at the old tower see how low the camera have been used the subtract 5" from that hight. Add 4 struts from each corner of baseplate they should meet at the tower at the subtracted hight. Some have wrote wire, but I think that 2 threaded rods that forces tube down will be better ?

[@bendavanza]

Most camera stands have a much larger column, and the counterweight rides on the inside of the column. Big improvements from version 1!

[@chrissetter]

I love the DIY engineering and problem solving. HOWEVER, this stand exists in the professional studio environment, albeit way more expensive. It’s called a salon stand. It is ROCK steady, very maneuverable, and easily adjustable at every axis. I would implore you to study the design of that stand if you ever feel like tackling the issue again. Also, tubular structures are much more steady as compared to extruded aluminum. I wonder if there’s a DIY set of tubes with an infrastructure of bits and bobs (like clamps, slides, mounts, etc) that one can buy and build whatever they want with it similar to extruded aluminum. Love the videos and cheers from a professional photographer who also fabricates with wood and metal ;)

[@Skinny_Studios]

Have you seen Alexande Chappel's camera stand??

[@Craftlngo]

it's very complicated and larger than necessary in Bob's case.

[@michaelbuddy]

I think this one is better for price and time. Alex's stand is obviously nice but it's extensive travel is probably not necessary for almost every shot. With more parts and more prints, the things that can go wrong is so much more too, PLUS it's going to take up more visual space in the room and it won't duck in the corner so easily. Something in between is probably best. Some travel without being an enormous monster in the room.

[@pmdinaz]

Also, I think he referenced that build in the 1st go around, iirc.

[@ToxNano]

It's very cool, but 15 days of print time and 10kg of filament are pretty extreme. The one in this video is a bit flimsy but 23:00 addresses that.

[@Craftlngo]

@@michaelbuddy so the solution Marius Hornberger came up with? A ceiling mounted camera arm.

[@ge2719]

i think the easiest way to make it a far more rigid structure is to make it a larger frame not just a central pole. Get three pipes, make a triangle of posts with a nice wider spacing, make a big top plate triangle to hold them together, and then either a couple of plates, or a bunch of triangular reinforcement structures holding each pipe together along the length. obviously though one side has to be left open for the boom arm to stick out from. and then you can have a central piece for attaching everything that moves. or in your case you already have the square base for the wheels. put a pipe or extrusion on each corner of that. so your frame is a cuboid, with one open side for the camera arm to stick out from. That'll be like a tank.. theres also the way radio masts are reinforced, use a bunch of cables from the top to the base, at least three of them, tension them, and they will help take out any wobble. though it may be tricky to have them not be in the way too much.

[@w2ed]

One thing I would suggest for future improvements, given your setup for filming, is to locate and study the tripod camera system used with the portable studios used by Lifetouch - a company I used to work for. The lights were all mounted on tripods, some with wheels to move, while the Camera had a tripod foldout base to allow for easy storage when transporting, multiple screwable parts for the base, and a camera mount designed to switch between portrait and landscape. The design makes it easier to tip than what you’ve done (likely due to it having to be portable,) but there was never a wobble you had to worry about, other than from the operator hanging onto it. I could almost always trust it to keep my shots steady - now if I could get better shots! If you can find one, you might be able to find some more ways to improve the wobble WITHOUT some of the extra you did - and you may find an idea to improve the camera mounting you have.

[@geneard639]

Rigid structures tend to vibrate. You could add a wide bowl of heavy oil at the top of the column for short frequency vibrations and/or a pendulum suspended from the top to the bottom for long vibrations. These are two ways buildings, which are rigid, transphase the mechanical energy into thermal energy. I think helicopters, which are notorious for making vibrations, use active vibration controls and, yeah mostly the older ones use mechanical tuned masses which work pretty well.

[@tyrelirwin]

love seeing the iterative design process

[@dubya13207]

I just saw you jam the wood into the extrusion, so you might have done this later…but I have an idea that’s a bit crazy and probably won’t work, but might be worth a shot One of the stabilizing mechanisms in a skyscraper is a pendulum. It attaches at the top, then runs all the way down through a shaft in the middle to the ground (or lower), where a heavy weight sits. It counter-balances the wobbles of the building, dampening any movement very effectively The thing I’m not sure of is if your shaft is too narrow…you may not be able to put much of a weight (even if it’s long) inside it. You could raise your attachment point to have a little pendulum box in the middle of your base though You know, just for fun

[@zombieregime]

You could try pretensioning the uprights before tightening them together (like grab the top and pull it towards the bracing bar, then tighten the begeezus out of it). That way the bowing force will act as a shock absorber on some level. Its trying to find its balance, effectively balancing all that weight against gravity on a thin little stick, but if you intentionally set it biased a bit it will trend towards that bias. Basically you want it in a rut that is hard to climb out of on its own. Itll still wobble when you hit it, but every time it rolls over the center of that bias force climbing out of it to continue swinging further sucks more and more energy out of the system. The issue is at the moment is vertical has equal toppling force in all directions, so itll just bounce around near vertical until it runs out of energy to springy sproing. I had a thought of also cutting the brace and adding a plate to the outside. My thought process is that the masses of the bar above and below will help dampen while the brace to the outside of the masses acts to oppose any bending moment. maybe add a turnbuckle like expanding jack screw it bias the bending force. Might have to just run guy wires or bracing rod (perhaps all thread to easily tension it) to the rear corners of the base, maybe not all the way to the top, but thatll definitely tensions the system, just gotta find a spot that is outside of any resonance envelope of the system as a whole, especially above the brace point if not bracing all the way to the time. Im sure there is some fancy primes or square root equation or rule of thumb based on one out there......IDK if any of thatll work, just my 2 cents off the cuff. Either way, still an awesome build though!😎👍

[@Sethjxl]

Another way to possibly address the wobble would be to add a volume of water in an enclosure at the top. Wouldn't need a lot, but the sloshing effect of water will naturally counter the resonant frequency of the current pole.

[@eithanschonberg1768]

17:08 Adding the giant battery makes the wobbeling worse. It make the amplitude of the wobble bigger and the frequency lower which take more time dampening.

[@MattSchneidergolo]

You could rotate the storage boxes by 90° and then add some diagonal braces from the outside edges of the base to a few feet up on the center post. That might help with the wobble side to side.

[@wayneswonderarium]

Another thing you can do after pulling the nut off is filing down those starting threads just a little - it'll have a huge impact when threading anothe nut on since the threads gradually get larger

[@hugboat]

I like seeing iterations on products and projects. I know you don't need another one, but I would watch a video of you making this again just to see how your final product stacks up in cost and functionality to something like a Studio Titan camera stand.

[@DimovKV]

How did sailboats hold mast for cheap and simple way? just add side stay (shrouds) from top to the base in 3 or 4 intersected planes. You do not even need strong connection of vertical beam at the bottom, just steel cables tightned enouth. And you can try it in current iteration of your stand for new and old model. Install ringbolts and connect steel cables and tightened by turnbuckle

[@mygamertag2010X]

Love the revisions. I think a quick way to upgrade it would be adding steel cables with turn buckles from the very top (at the back so it's not in the way of the trolley or the mounted camera) all the way down to the edges of the base. Tighten these up, and you've got an isosceles triangle, very very strong.

[@bartlester591]

If you wanna make your pole, a little more stable, what I would suggest is take input for support on the bottom around it angled into the pole as stabilizing agents

[@Scott924m]

I liked this video more than the original because you did a proof of concept in the first video and in this video you decided that it was awesome enough to endure the expense of improving it. I think the wobble issue could have been fixed by using a three-pole design one in the middle one on each side connected across the top .

[@Culpride]

Hello I Like To Make Stuff first time viewer; I think that you might be mislead by some of the tips against wobble that you have heard: It's true that CNC and 3D printers can profit from high mass in their base/frame but that's mainly because during operation they move around and put known forces on the structure. the more mass that structure has, the less movement a given force will cause. More mass = less movement per force. Good so far. Your camera doesn't move by design. Dampening is a whole different can of worms. In fact stiffening up a big heavy structure often causes vibrations and wobble to last way longer. Like you are building a big tuning fork that rings for a long time. Loose materials (and/or less springy material) can help transferring the movement into heat, like for example a dead blow hammer has loose shot or sand in it that sloshes once instead of bouncing like a solid hardened hammer would. additional wish/suggsetion: Build a ceiling mounted gantry like Marius Hornberger or Inheritance Machining and compare to the floor gantry that you made.

[@FlatLanderTech]

Great tip with the bolt cutting process that's really useful info! thank you

[@inkedupbigboy]

Another easy thing to try would be to put a piece of all thread down the center and bolt both ends with washers to put tension on the extrusion

[@DeeMacias]

Making structures in Inventor and building them was my past job in automation engineering. If you wanna stop wobbling all you have to do is connect the pole to some extensions that are then fixed in outer positions on the base.. possibly in all directions. Avoiding any of these reinforcements to be in the way of the carriages. An even better solution would be: solid base as you already did + a sheet metal folded as a large rectangle, folds in the base with holes to bolt it to the base. Onto 2 opposite faces, you bolt your aluminum extrusions on which carriages run up and down.

[@TheMrclean11]

Are you able to add some type of counterweight at the top of it? Like the Taipei building. It’d look pretty cool too.

[@Thomllama]

making the 2 extrusions into a truss instead of bolting together would help a lot, one as it would lower flex in general over being bolted together, but bolting to the base in two places farther apart will stiffen it a ton.

[@vkalvaitis]

I'd assume that making more solid connection at base would solve most of the wobble too, like pouring circle of concrete/resin placed on base and surrounding pole to have from all sides

[@fillupinchrist07]

Enjoyed it!!! So jealous of all the tools

[@koifish1le996]

Like James Norris said, you should add a method to compress the pole. His way seems like it would work just fine, but i think you could have an easier time using steel cable under tension. You would just have to design a mounting plate for one end, and a tensioning plate for the other. I think a simple relatively thick plate of steel or even aluminum with a threaded hole in the center bolted to the top with some sort of attachment to a bracket inside that holds a nut on the bolt threaded into the top plate. This way you loosen the bolt to tension the cable. If you can come up with a way to use a turnbuckle, that would probably be easier to tension. Also +1 to the comment about designing and printing a bracket for the bottom attachment point. Just a simple gusset/rib.

[@OddJobEntertainment]

Couple ideas that shouldn't require major modification: Adhesive between the two extrusions in addition to your bolts will increase the friction between them and make them operate more like a single piece. You want to keep your moving mass low. More mass up top is a larger force at the end of a level. Put it at the bottom to lower the center of gravity and reduce the leverage. Consider the epoxy filling. A major part of that is the rigidity and damping it imparts.

[@BLBlackDragon]

All great improvements, but you've completely missed the issue. You have a pole that is anchored at only one end. It's going to wobble no matter what. Adding more weight to the camera assembly will just make it wobble more. The solution is to anchor both ends. Think of a giant radio antenna. They have guy wires that keep the top of the antenna stable, even in high winds. I would put a steel plate with a couple of mounting holes at the top, sandwiched between the post and the pulley assembly. Run cable from there, down to the corners of the base, where you can put in a second plate to anchor the bottom, mounted on top of the wheel mounts. I would recommend using turnbuckles, so you can adjust the tension. A cable in all four corners would be best, but it might block the camera view, so I would only do the back two corners. It won't eliminate the wobble, since you're only half anchored, but it's better than no anchors.

[@WadeGlass]

Another possible solution would be adding in rubber grommets between the extrusion and mounting bracket to add some dampening.

[@rabbit5464]

Should connect like a ladder, parallel bars with cross connections. And would be easier with the t track that could connect them. That’s how the professional camera mounts like this are made.