I needed an easier way to film lathe projects, and it turns out the solution I devised is useful not only at the lathe, but anywhere in the shop! In fact it nearly eliminates the need for my wooden tripod. The concept is simple: several wall mounts that can be screwed to the wall all around the shop, and a double-parallelogram linkage with a ball-head camera mount on the end. The parallelogram arm is lightweight and thus highly portable, much more portable than my bulky and somewhat heavy tripod. This means I can easily carry the camera & arm where I need to film something, drop the arm into the nearest wall bracket, and I’m ready to record. To see how I made it, please watch the video below:

If you would like to make one like this yourself, below is a download link for the sketchup model. This model doesn’t show every detail, but you can use it to find all the dimensions of the wooden parts. Update: This arm has since broken due to a minor design flaw. Please watch this video to see how I corrected this so you don’t end up with the same problem!

Download model: Wall mount camera arm.zip

Note: The .zip file above contains a Sketchup (.skp) file, so you will need to un-zip and extract the .skp file before opening it. You will need the latest version of Sketchup in order to view this model.

I do not ask for any payment in return for my Sketchup models. However, if you would like to help out, you can make a one-time donation using the PayPal donate button below, or support me on a monthly basis on my Patreon page.