Sunday 20 March 2016

DIY GoPro kayak camera boom

It’s been busy weekend on the domestic front, bought a car, built garden furniture and caught up on some choirs around the home.

I also had an idea to build a camera boom for my kayak last week. So a trip to the in-laws for lunch today provided an opportunity to access some tools I don’t possess, namely a dremel and a vice. Game on and another job to be done when I was in the mood.

Buying a boom seemed pricey and I reckoned l could make one using some of the bits and bobs I had in my garage.
Components


Scotty 280 mount,M6 fine thread bolt, wingnuts/bolts, GoPro mount,
1 metre of 15mm aluminium square bar and shrink tube.

I took the dremel to the Scotty mount and took off the part that holds the rod leaving a flush surface. I drilled three holes and fitted bolts and wingnuts to hold the bar in place. The bar was shrink tubed before I started. The rod holder slots into the Scotty 438 gear head track adaptor on the GT175 rails on the yak. I’ll fit end caps when I source them to provide a tidy finish. I'm not 100% sure about the wingnuts as I can see loose braid catching on them. I will probably change them out for nuts.

This set up will provide some good angles and a great range of movement based on the flexibility of the Scotty mount/gear head adaptor.
I also wasn't completely  happy with the bite on a coarse thread M6 bolt to the GP mount so I sourced a fine thread in Phil’s garage.I cut this to the correct length and fitted this through the bar to hold the GoPro mount in place. I now just need to source the end caps and put my hand in my pocket for a remote.
 

 

2 comments:

Luremaniac! said...

Nice work! Looking forward to seeing some cool videos...
Good luck with the new car as well.

Martin said...

Cheers Dimitrios, I'll get you some big Perch action on the DS soon hopefully.