We see a lot of comments on shaky video asking why that person didn’t use a tripod. [Aatif Sumar] wants to use one when taking pictures and video with his phone but the threaded mounting hole you’d find in most cameras doesn’t come as a feature on smart phones. That didn’t deter him, he used an old cassette case for this phone tripod. The build started with a cheap flexible camera tripod. [Aatif] used a soldering iron to melt a hole in a plastic cassette case. We’re apprehensive about relying on the plastic’s ability to hold threads so we’re recommend epoxy to reinforce the joint. A bit more melting with the iron and he had a cradle on legs with a hole for the camera lens. It’s nothing fancy, but it also cost him next-to-nothing.
What’s this ‘cassette case’ you speak of?
Do people really need instructions on how to melt plastic with soldering iron?
I dunno why people use soldering irons as generic “melt shit” tools. I hate picking gooey bits of plastic off my iron when I accidentally melt some insulation. Instead of melting, there’s this innovative new tool called a “drill”, which can cut circular holes of multiple sizes in all sorts of material…
Cheap and chearful and it works, what more could you want.
@macw You use the cheapest soldering iron you can find to melt plastic, not one you’ed actually solder with.
Nice repurposing off a cassette. @VaBeachKevin. It’s an audio cassette case. The perfect piece of plastic but increasingly rare. Maybe a DVD case would work too with some cutting
@macw what do I have to sacrifice to be bestowed one of these ‘drill’ devices? They sound magical.
Simple and cheap I like it. I would agree that heating up a nail while holding with some vise grips or applying a piece of duct tape and carefully drilling a hole would probably would be a better than gunking up the soldering iron though sure one of those moments of needing to make a hole and seeing the already hot soldering iron on the desk…
there must be some sort of shake when you hit the shutter right?
it is not secured enough in my eyes to prevent shake
clean the marmite out for under your nails. barf.
I 99.9% agree with macw, however anyone who has ever owned a cassette (or CD) knows how brittle those cases can be. Drilling a hole would likely result in a big crack, either while drilling or later during use.
Nothing is as weak and breakable as the old cassette case, and any strength it has it gets from being folded around a cassette, and it’s obviously only available if your family has some old stuff in the attic.
So this is stupid, it’s hard to think of anything that’s not more appropriate, want an example? An empty mouthwash bottle, that’s also a fair size and is much stronger, and you can melt it too and it will look silly also. Want another? A 20 cent plastic drinkingglass from the dollar store where you buy 6 for a buck, cut off one side and put the screw in the bottom.
As I said, most anything is better.
it uses the plastic protective case that the cassette comes in. now i understand.
what i would like to see is someone building an MP3 player INTO an audio cassette casing, where the sound outputs to the read heads just like the 3.5mm jack to cassette adapter, except no external wires and maybe even the ability to generate its power from the play/fastforward gear motion
@jeditalian
they do exists, (thanks largely to china prob.)
often they have a SD card slot but ‘work’ the same way as a normal cassette.
works well in old cars where you are trying to keep them in an original state
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Car-MP3-Player-Tape-Cassette-Adapter-SD-MMC-Reader-/110539069269
http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/cassette-mp3-player-stand-alone-or-car-cassette-player/
Using a dremel would have made the job just as quick, yet alot cleaner and nicer, just my 2 cents..
Fragile as candy glass for sure. If packed in a case still good to use for video or timed shots.
I use a Weller gun. I modulate the trigger to do even surface mount touch up’s, as well as melt without charring, plastic build ups and mends. Wipe with cotton or linen while hot, it’s ready to solder. Fan in background.
I think it’s brilliant.
Simple and very usefull.
Sometimes i wished i had one for my phone.
One time i ended up with a freaky constuction made out of a “helping hand” and a lot of junk at all sides for stability.
I do have exactly that tripod that [Aatif] used but never figuered out a way to mount it to my phone.
There must be a cassette case somewhere around here too…..
@echodelta Good description that: candy glass
Oh man I should send in the one I found that uses Radio Shack price tag holders to make a very nice cell phone/small device holder for watching videos!
For v2.0 he should simply hot glue a 1/4-20 nylon nut to the bottom, or even a metal one. It would be much sturdier than drilling or melting. The nylon nuts are generally wider and thicker than the metal nuts, so better suited to this.
Nylon nuts are also good for protecting the threads on your monopod or tripod screw during transport.