sharing a little d.i.y project to make myself a cheap alternative to the wimberly plamp for macro photography work. the motivation for this project is purely to save $ as the wimberly plamp sells for $70 (or $125 for a pair), which i find very expensive for a relatively simple device.
i am not the 1st person to make a d.i.y plamp but i thought some of CSer may be looking for an alternative like i was so i'm posting this. i won't go through this step by step since its a very simple process.
After looking around d.i.y, hardware shops, art friend, etc. the basic components of this plamp are:
1) foam twist tube - $2 per pc, Daiso
2) mini heavy duty spring clamp - $2 for pack of 4, Daiso
3) wolfcraft heavy duty spring clamp - $6.90 for pack of 4, Homefix
the Daiso spring clamp (in orange) is smaller and its jaws will open up to 20mm wide. the larger clamp (in black) opens up to 30mm wide. everything is held together by cable ties.
i also fitted triangular pieces of soft scotch-brite sponge pad ($2 for 2 pcs, i used 1 corner, so about $0.25 per corner) on each side of the black clamp for grabbing delicate objects like plant stems, etc.
total cost of the D.I.Y Plamp, $2 + $0.5 + $1.73 + $0.25 = $4.48
pics of the plamp follows
1) D.I.Y Plamp V1
2) Spring Clamps
3) Larger clamp grabbing cable tie loop with sponge. (note that the sponge does not compress the loop)
i am not the 1st person to make a d.i.y plamp but i thought some of CSer may be looking for an alternative like i was so i'm posting this. i won't go through this step by step since its a very simple process.
After looking around d.i.y, hardware shops, art friend, etc. the basic components of this plamp are:
1) foam twist tube - $2 per pc, Daiso
2) mini heavy duty spring clamp - $2 for pack of 4, Daiso
3) wolfcraft heavy duty spring clamp - $6.90 for pack of 4, Homefix
the Daiso spring clamp (in orange) is smaller and its jaws will open up to 20mm wide. the larger clamp (in black) opens up to 30mm wide. everything is held together by cable ties.
i also fitted triangular pieces of soft scotch-brite sponge pad ($2 for 2 pcs, i used 1 corner, so about $0.25 per corner) on each side of the black clamp for grabbing delicate objects like plant stems, etc.
total cost of the D.I.Y Plamp, $2 + $0.5 + $1.73 + $0.25 = $4.48
pics of the plamp follows
1) D.I.Y Plamp V1
2) Spring Clamps
3) Larger clamp grabbing cable tie loop with sponge. (note that the sponge does not compress the loop)
:sweat: