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Rack mount frame for Blackmagic Smartview duo monitors


indiefilm

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17 minutes ago, Nate C said:

 

The Rosettes didn't come with the cart. I sourced them from smallrig.com. Sorry I don't recall the part no's. Went with smaller rosettes that are about 1inch diameter instead of larger ones. There was a reasoning for this which eludes me at the moment. In hind sight larger Rosettes like the Arri would of been better as there are more options in handles available. The 1 inch Rosette handles have been on two different carts over the last few years and I've single handedly lugged them up many steps without any issues. Alas I live in a fourth floor walk up apartment with no elevator. 

Good to know since I may not be able to get larger ones. I think the ones I have are Arri and they can’t be much more than an inch in diameter. Funny, the OCD in me is designing this cart to be single handedly amenable to going up a flight of stairs fully loaded. Maybe even multiple flights, depending on your stamina. Wasn’t sure if there was a need but apparently there is.

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6 minutes ago, indiefilm said:

 Funny, the OCD in me is designing this cart to be single handedly amenable to going up a flight of stairs fully loaded. Maybe even multiple flights, depending on your stamina. Wasn’t sure if there was a need but apparently there is.

 

Besides large wheels I've found the height of the cart and having handles up higher are the biggest factors in making stairs easier. My current cart is about half a foot shorter then my previous cart and my back feels it. For everything else I prefer it being a bit shorter.

 

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"Disadvantage to this type of monitor mounting solution seems to me to be you can’t easily change the height location."

 

True but the monitors are easily tilted to a comfortable viewing angle.

 

 "I don’t plan on getting my own CNC machine and besides, for cost and environmental reasons, I am trying to avoid turning 40-50% of the 6061 aluminum I just purchased for 5-10$ US per pound into shavings worth 10-30 cents per pound..."

 

Remarkably, Chinhda never used a CNC machine. He didn't have one and didn't have the money to buy one. We discussed farming out some of the work to another, better equipped, shop but Chinhda kept innovating and modifying the designs so nothing was ever locked down long enough to go that route. Everything he made was crafted on a Bridgeport milling machine. The Bridgeport is really a large drill press; the only factor that separates it from that simpler tool is a base plate to hold the work that could be moved against the cutting tool with wheels similar to what one finds on a gear head. Everything, and I do mean everything, that Chinhda made was hand crafted. He would load five or six sheets of metal onto the base platen, clamp them together and move them against the cutting edge, judging each cut by eye. (With measured marks to assist, of course.)

 

I'm going to share a couple of additional photos that show how Chinhda used ordinary aluminum tubes to slide in the grooves of the 80/20 extruded rails to make lightweight drawer glides. For the mixer drawers, he usually used regular, pre-made drawer glides but for shelves that would be opened infrequently, these simple sliding rails functioned well and kept weight down.

 

(These images show recorder shelves but the stowable video monitor rack used the same mechanism to deploy.)

 

David 

 

 RecorderShelf650.jpgP3085988.jpg

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On 2/16/2020 at 5:07 PM, David Waelder said:

"Disadvantage to this type of monitor mounting solution seems to me to be you can’t easily change the height location."

 

True but the monitors are easily tilted to a comfortable viewing angle.

 

 "I don’t plan on getting my own CNC machine and besides, for cost and environmental reasons, I am trying to avoid turning 40-50% of the 6061 aluminum I just purchased for 5-10$ US per pound into shavings worth 10-30 cents per pound..."

 

Remarkably, Chinhda never used a CNC machine. He didn't have one and didn't have the money to buy one. We discussed farming out some of the work to another, better equipped, shop but Chinhda kept innovating and modifying the designs so nothing was ever locked down long enough to go that route. Everything he made was crafted on a Bridgeport milling machine. The Bridgeport is really a large drill press; the only factor that separates it from that simpler tool is a base plate to hold the work that could be moved against the cutting tool with wheels similar to what one finds on a gear head. Everything, and I do mean everything, that Chinhda made was hand crafted. He would load five or six sheets of metal onto the base platen, clamp them together and move them against the cutting edge, judging each cut by eye. (With measured marks to assist, of course.)

 

I'm going to share a couple of additional photos that show how Chinhda used ordinary aluminum tubes to slide in the grooves of the 80/20 extruded rails to make lightweight drawer glides. For the mixer drawers, he usually used regular, pre-made drawer glides but for shelves that would be opened infrequently, these simple sliding rails functioned well and kept weight down.

 

(These images show recorder shelves but the stowable video monitor rack used the same mechanism to deploy.)

 

David 

 

 RecorderShelf650.jpgP3085988.jpg

 

On 2/16/2020 at 5:07 PM, David Waelder said:

"Disadvantage to this type of monitor mounting solution seems to me to be you can’t easily change the height location."

 

True but the monitors are easily tilted to a comfortable viewing angle.

 

 "I don’t plan on getting my own CNC machine and besides, for cost and environmental reasons, I am trying to avoid turning 40-50% of the 6061 aluminum I just purchased for 5-10$ US per pound into shavings worth 10-30 cents per pound..."

 

Remarkably, Chinhda never used a CNC machine. He didn't have one and didn't have the money to buy one. We discussed farming out some of the work to another, better equipped, shop but Chinhda kept innovating and modifying the designs so nothing was ever locked down long enough to go that route. Everything he made was crafted on a Bridgeport milling machine. The Bridgeport is really a large drill press; the only factor that separates it from that simpler tool is a base plate to hold the work that could be moved against the cutting tool with wheels similar to what one finds on a gear head. Everything, and I do mean everything, that Chinhda made was hand crafted. He would load five or six sheets of metal onto the base platen, clamp them together and move them against the cutting edge, judging each cut by eye. (With measured marks to assist, of course.)

 

I'm going to share a couple of additional photos that show how Chinhda used ordinary aluminum tubes to slide in the grooves of the 80/20 extruded rails to make lightweight drawer glides. For the mixer drawers, he usually used regular, pre-made drawer glides but for shelves that would be opened infrequently, these simple sliding rails functioned well and kept weight down.

 

(These images show recorder shelves but the stowable video monitor rack used the same mechanism to deploy.)

 

David 

 

 RecorderShelf650.jpgP3085988.jpg

Thx David for the closeups. I think I know what’s happening. Looks like rectangular or square bar in the t-slot for drawer glide. I am doing something kinda similar in places. Steel drawer glides are heavy, for sure, so using very few of them. What did he charge, roughly, for carts like this and how many could he make in a year?

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On 2/16/2020 at 3:13 PM, Nate C said:

 

Besides large wheels I've found the height of the cart and having handles up higher are the biggest factors in making stairs easier. My current cart is about half a foot shorter then my previous cart and my back feels it. For everything else I prefer it being a bit shorter.

 

Yes, that’s what I anticipated from having moved refrigerator sized furniture up/down stairs with too short a dolly vs with tall dolly. I plan on having best of both worlds.

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We sold the large cart, not pictured here, for about $12,000.

 

The pictures I posted are from the Medium cart. He made that as a more economical choice for people working smaller features or TV shows or in circumstances where the equipment package was smaller. If you were working with a Cantar and the big Sonosax SX-ST, you would probably favor the Big Cart. With a Sound Devices recorder and a CL-9, or similar, the Medium Cart was a good choice. The price depended somewhat on features selected but would typically be about $6000.

 

"Looks like rectangular or square bar in the t-slot for drawer glide."

 

Sometimes. He was moving away from rectangular bars that he would have to craft himself and toward tubular fittings he could just buy and attach. If you look at the upper of the two pictures, you'll see a tubular fitting. It is sliding in a T-slot channel although the frame rail is largely obscured by the blue anodized fitting at the leading edge.

 

"... how many could he make in a year?

 

I don't exactly remember; it varied over the years. My best guess would be more than six and fewer than ten. The limit, by the way. was his output, not demand.

 

I don't know how much you can take advantage of his thinking on these challenges. A good part of my reason for posting is that he was my good friend and I miss him. He was difficult to work with in recent years but he was my friend nonetheless.

 

David 

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