Shooting Station- Amanda Bonaiuto

Hey ya'll,

I spent the entire weekend building a shooting station so I thought I would share. I had planned on making one originally but wasn't sure how to go about it. I was inspired by Lorelei's blog post about DIY shooting stations and decided to just try making one that suited my needs. I'm really excited about it and I think it was worth every second of work and time I put into it. It was also really inexpensive and now I can animate freely all day and night.

I tried to make it as durable as possible, using cherry plywood for the base, then stabilizing that with a pine frame, which I got for free because it was being used as scrap in my friends garage. The bars are just black steel pipes from home depot. I constructed them so that the bottom set was slightly larger than the top set, giving them the ability to fit into one another, which then allows them to be adjustable. I marked six levels with a hack saw on each vertical pole, allowing six inches of adjustability. In order to make sure the pipes stay in place,I had to make my own thread in the pipe by first drilling a hole into the nipple and then utilizing a tap to thread the hole to allow myself to add thumbscrews for the adjustable feature. The camera mount is also adjustable from side to side. I mounted it with U-bolts, so I can simply loosen them and shift it towards either side. The hardest part was probably making sure everything was level and in the right place. I finished by applying three coats of polyurethane to the cherry base to protect it. It's mighty

durable and I'm going to be able to use it for a very long time.

Here are some more photos--

List of Materials--

-two 1-1/4" x 8" nipples

-two 1-1/4" flanges

-two 1"x30" black steel pipes

-one 1"x24" black steel pipe

-two 1" 90 degree elbows

-eight 1-1/2" bolts (1/4x20)

-eight nuts

-eight 1/4" washers/lock washers

-two 1" u bolts

-one 1/4x20 thumbscrew for camera

-scrap piece of plywood

-scrap pine cut for frame

-scrap piece of 3/4" plywood for camera mouth

-scrap leather and chair pad material(to pad camera mount)

Tools Used--

-drill press

-pipe wrench

-tap

-metal blade hacksaw

-leather punch

-orbital sander

-u knife

-table saw

-AMANDA