Create ultra light camera tripod w/ mini tripod and 3 tent poles?

I have several suggestions of how you could do this.

If you are going to use rope I would use 3 pieces of thinner rope 2/3mm paracord should be more than strong enough. I would then tie a shear lashing (see picture) on each leg. You want to try and use a significant length of the pole or possible even tie to lashings per pole to reduce the amount of twisting you get.

However, using rope takes relatively long to setup and is relatively hard to do if you are not experienced, so I would probably use a different method.

Another alternative would be to use bungee You would need 2 pieces of thinnish bungee per leg, probably no more than 20-30cm for your thickness of pole. Tie each bungee into a loop using a large knot such as a figure of eight, although a simple overhand knot would probably do. Then wrap the loop several times around the two poles until it is extended and reasonably tight. To tie it off just loop the remaining end of bungee through the knot in the other end. To make this more secure you can wrap knot under all the wrapping of bungee. You can also get hooks you can hook onto rather than looping through the knot which can be a bot unsecure if you're not careful. This is a very fast and easy way to attach the poles but is not the most secure and can slip a bit if left for a long time. Its also better suited to slightly thicker poles you may have difficulty getting the elastic tight enough on these poles.

A third suggestion you be to use cable ties or jubilee clips. You would probably need two of these per leg. Cable ties are plastic, much lighter and easy to attach, but generally have to be cut off and so are one use only. Which may be an issue depending on how often you use the tripod. Also you need to dispose of the old clips sensibly, easily in an outdoors environment. Jubilee clips can be a bit of a pain to attach and generally require a screwdriver to tighten or remove. This could be an issue for outdoors use.

My final suggestion would be to make a connector to attach the poles to the end of the the legs. From your picture I cannot tell but this would work best if the tent poles are not attached together, but it might work anyway. There are many ways you could make such a thing but my suggestion would be for each leg use a short piece of PVC pipe, just slightly larger internal diameter than the poles so that they can slide inside. Drill a hole right through the middle of the pipe and put a bolt through it. If you want to make it more secure and have the right tools you could but a threaded hole on each side and put a bolt in to act as a tighter. This method requires the most work beforehand but would probably result in very easy assembly in the field.

posted about 10 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

nivag‭

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Using a hanger worked great. The clips I made replaced the slider legs of the mini-tripod, and the other end engaged the tent pole sleeves. I bent up a pressure clip so they would not slide out. I can even move my ultra-light tripod around and it stays together.

See pictures below.

Set Up

Close Up

How Mounted

Bottom View

Notice the pressure clip ends are for different diameter tubes. The hole in the leg of the tripod is smaller than the hole in the tent pole sleeve. When put together (about 20 seconds), the tripod can be moved around roughly and still stay together.

Thank you everyone for contributing. Especially Nivag; it was their insight regarding a mechanical connection that inspired my hanger solution.

James Dunn

posted about 10 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

no interest anymore here‭

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