Iphone camera video stabiliser. Diy project. 2013

This project grew out of my dissatisfaction with the results I was getting from videoing my other projects. I use an iPhone to film and I found that unless you have it mounted on a tripod the results are in the main unwatchable, and of course if you use a tripod then your movement is very restricted. I had seen steady cams online and on ebay but most were bulky and nearly all were expensive. I decided to make one that was small, easy to set up and cheap to make.

So was born the RetroSteady. It's handle is made from bakelite, all the fittings and gimble are stainless steel and the body is made from anodised aluminium. The iphone holder is a standard tripod mount available off ebay for a couple of pounds.

 I have a main site where I hope to sell them eventually .... www.retrosteady.com. I called them the retrosteady because I think the design and black and silver colouring looks very similar to the old film cameras of the 50's and 60's.

Check out the video on this page or search RetroSteady on YouTube for a look at how the stabilizer performs.

The screw knobs on the stabiliser as seen in these photos were all I could get hold of at first but since then I have found a company that supplies very neat thumb screws that will replace them and look less bulky.
 All in all the materials cost me about £20 ..... $30. I created a wooden form to bend the shape of the main support arm and since then have made about twenty of them.

I am currently selling this item on eBay for £39.00 in the uk. You can check it out here ....

RetroSteady on eBay     Just £39 !

How to make recycled pipework bedroom shelves. Salvaged timbers

This is a set of shelves in my sons bedroom made from recycled timber from a salvage yard and some industrial steel pipe work and fittings.

His bedroom was completely stripped ..... new plaster, new wooden flooring, completely redecorated.
The sourcing of the materials took far longer than the building of it as my son chose the rarer smaller size of 3/8 bsp for the framework.

If you would like the dimensions of the project, drop me an email and I will get them out to you.
All in all the material costs were about £130 ($200), not bad considering he now has a wardrobe, shoe rack, shelves and high level storage.

Admittedly the timber shelves do look very rough but it was the look he was aiming for and he is happy with it. The boards were power washed then left to dry for a couple of days. Then we sanded them down and finally added a coat of dark oak wax. The branch for the hangers was treated in much the same way.

New Shed Blog

Hi.
A brief introduction to my blog.........
I've made many projects over the years in my small (8x12) shed. I hope to show you some of these on these pages and maybe inspire you to get out in to your shed and create a few yourself.
I've a few videos of the stuff I've made and I'll also post links to these on YouTube.
Most of the projects are woodwork and carpentry but as a mechanical engineer there are going to be a few welding and steel construction jobs aswell.
You really dont need a fully equiped workshop to produce some good results, like I say, my shed is only 8x12 and at times it can be tight but with planning and clever use of space it can be very productive.
The shed itself was one of my first woodwork projects and I'll cover that in a later post but inside I've made collapsable jigs and fixtures that help to make maximum use of the limited space available.
So, if you have a shed and are keen to get a few projects built, follow my blog.
Thanks for looking in. Graeme