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.

Small DIY Project. Door support jig.

This is a small jig I built to help when working on doors or large pieces of timber and boards. I was giving a friend of mine a lift replacing 12 internal doors. This involved planing to width and fitting hinges. Without this small jig it would have been a very difficult job holding the doors while doing the work, but with it, it was an easy one man task.
The jig is made by glueing together two pieces of scrap 1" plywood and cutting out with a jigsaw. One thing to be aware of, make sure the angle on the wedge and the angle on the main body are the same, otherwise you will not get a good square grip on the door.

A great woodworking blog ....

Just found this superb blog on the web ..... have a look and check out his videos on YouTube .... Brilliant!
I have made the Jewellery box that he made on his site. I'll be including that in a later post.
Woodworking For Mere Mortals