Mini Tripod From Mounting Board

When it comes to recording using camera or phone, tripod is one of the essential tools to help you to position and place your camera. In this instructable, I will show you how to build a mini sized tripod stand that can be potentially used for mounting phone and camera, (almost) completely out of mounting board.

Background (previously failed attempts and why I made this)

A few years ago, a tripod stand was something I always wanted. Since I am a speedcuber, I often want to record my own solves, so tripod is essential. As a hobbyist that like to make stuff from scratch, of course I tried to make it. Here is the very first version I ever made:

https://youtu.be/4H-ZDOD4GYQ

The first thing I made is basically just toilet roll with grooves that I can insert my phone into that is glued on a MDF. A big problem with this is I cannot adjust the pitch of the camera. So next try (It is a good idea to watch this at 2x speed (if you want to)):

https://youtu.be/affsI7m4E0c

Now things are better. By using a clip now I can adjust the pitch, but as you might have guessed, this whole thing doesn't last long because of all the hot glue joints. Short story time, I brought (another build similar to) this to a speedcubing competition. The judge was surprised that I made my own tripod, and guess what, it broke just right after that, how embarrassing!

Luckily after that, I received a tripod as a birthday gift, and this project basically died, until recently..... I need a stand for my microphone, but I can't use the one I got because that will be used for my camera, so building time!

1. Mounting board
2. White glue/ any school glue
3. Hot glue
4. Used up pen with cap
5. Some nail/ Metal wire (as axis)
6. A lot of patience

If you saw my previous 2 attempts, you will notice that they are technically not a tripod stand, since there are no legs. In this design, it will actually be a "real tripod". Unlike all my previous project, this time I actually planned everything before starting making it, and I have to say it is really important and can drastically speed things up. Since I modelled the whole thing in FreeCAD, There will be an attachment of the project file that you can download and see the whole thing in it.

First let's look at how a tripod stand looks like: (refer to the first image)

So these are the main parts in a tripod:

1. Legs
2. Support beams
3. Hinges for support beams
4. Centre rod
5. Sliding cylinder

All of them will be made using mounting board except the sliding cylinder and centre rod. The centre rod will be substituted with a used up pen, while the sliding cylinder will be the cap of the pen that is cut off.

Why not corrugated cardboard

I had been a fan of corrugated cardboard before, until I discovered mounting board. In term of strength, mounting board is significantly stronger than corrugated cardboard, plus it also have nice finish on it. Although mounting boards are not intended to be used like this, hey it works so I guess I will continue to use it.

Why not wood/other stronger material

The reason is simple: I cannot process anything harder than paper, since the only tool I have is razor blade. That being said, no one will stop you from building it from other material. In fact I recommend you to use stronger material if possible so that your product will last longer. You may have to modify the design a little bit though.

Can I ... put my phone/camera on it?

Yes, you can, however in this instructable, I only cover how to make the tripod itself (and optional mount). To mount a phone, you need a holder that hold your phone (commercial design has a nut at the bottom that mount to the tripod, but since the mount in this instructable is a little bit different, you will need to either change the mount to standard one, or make an adapter that convert to commercial mount), which you would either need to make one, or buy one. For mounting camera, you may want to modify the mount a bit. This is where you can get creative. For my own design, I want it to be as universal as possible. Even though the purpose of this build (for myself) is as a microphone stand, it can also be used as stand for lighting, and basically anything that need a stand. The possibility is endless.

Note: The pictures in this instructable is taken when I was making the prototype of this project, so you will notice that the support beams are connected in slightly different way. I do recommend you to make the finalised one, but I also included the FreeCAD file for the prototype.

Google Drive link to 3D model

Also there will be .stl file you can preview below.

As I said before, this will be made with used up pen. The pen I'm using here has diameter of 7mm and length of 127mm. As the pen cap will need to slide over the pen, it is (almost, who know if you have a pen with weird design?) guaranteed that it will pass through the pen.

Remove the nib of the pen (or the ink cartridge if you have normal pen) so that it doesn't hurt anyone. Then cut the cap in half so that it can pass through the pen. When doing this, take note of any notches that prevent the cap from going down. You want to cut before the notches so it doesn't block the cap from going down.

Cutting the odd triangle shape of the top plate directly may not be very convenience, so you may want to start off by cutting an equilateral triangle with side length of 50mm. Then print the cut out from step 1 at full scale. Now you can trim the shape out then trace it on your triangle. Do the same for the top surface. Make sure to drill the hole for the centre rod before proceeding to glue any support material. Otherwise it will be very hard to do so without breaking the glued support material.

Next, prepare the support material. Hollow mounting board shape is a big no, the support material fill in the gap and prevent the shape from being compressed. This consist of:

1. Outer support: 38mm x 13mm
2. Inner support: 12mm x 10mm
3. Perpendicular support: 6mm x 10mm

Start out by placing the top plate on a flat surface with the finished face facing down. Then lay down the outer support at the edge of the top plate. Apply hot glue at the seam and fold the outer support up. Repeat for all 3 edges.

Then you can proceed to gluing the inner support. Put hot glue at the edge of the inner support and press it down to the correct place on the top plate. Do the same for other inner support and perpendicular support.

Finally, insert the centre rod and apply generous amount of glue. Do not close the top surface first because we still need to access the inside of the platform for putting the legs.

Me while writing this: Oh wow I regret for not taking more picture when building this. It is so hard to explain the process with words. I hope you can understand how I did it, otherwise you can also use your common sense to glue it.

Be prepared to do a lot of cutting! The legs are consist of 4 layers of mounting board stacked together. The dimensions are the following:

1. Leg - 150mm x 15mm - 4x3=12 pieces
2. Support beam - 38mm x 13mm - 4x3=12 pieces

When everything are cut, round the corners with scissor. Doesn't necessarily need to be a perfect semicircle, but if you want precision, you can draw a semicircle with radius of 7.5mm with compass. You may also use the cutout in first step.

Then, glue them layer by layer. Apply moderate amount of glue then stack another piece on top until all 4 are glued. Make sure the finished sides are facing outward. Apply pressure on the glued pieces with weight (such as books etc.). Wait until the glue is dry.

After that, drill a hole through the legs at one of the ends. The position of the hole will be the mid point of the semicircle. For the support beams, drill at both ends. Insert a nail of appropriate length into the hole at the legs. Place the legs into the top platform and apply hot glue (refer to picture). Repeat for all legs. After that, you may close the top platform with the top surface.

Leave the support beams aside first.

Sorry, no picture for this step, but I will explain with the 3D model.

Let's prepare the pieces first:

1. On the legs - 25mm x 30mm - 2x3=6 pieces
2. On the cylinder - 28mm x 12mm - 3 pieces

Drill holes and score at where needed (refer picture).

For the one on legs, glue the piece 55mm from the end with the side with hole facing inward with white glue. Repeat the same for the other side and other legs.

For the one on the cylinder, fold the pieces at the line scored. Then glue the pieces 120 degree from each other.

Now slide the sliding cylinder into the centre rod. Insert the support beams made in previous step into place and line up the hole. Then insert nail of appropriate size into the hole and glue it in place.

This is the way I made my mount. You may want to use a different design depends on your use case. The advantage of this mount is you can adjust the pitch of the object mounted on the tripod. The possible drawback would be it may not be very strong. Since I'm just using it for microphone, it doesn't have to be very strong anyway so it works for me. You can get creative and design your own mount. If you want to make it as how I made it, then follow this step.

Prepare the following pieces:

1. 20mm x 15mm - 2x2 (+3, for the object you want to mount, in my case, the microphone mount) =4 (7) pieces
2. 20mm x 5mm - 2x2 + 3 = 7 pieces

For pieces no. 1, round the corner with semicircle with radius of 7.5mm at one end. Then glue them together with 2 pieces each with white glue. After that, drill hole with suitable size according to your screw at the mid point of the semicircle.

For pieces no. 2, you will need to glue them into three pieces: 2 of them are 2 layers, and another will be 3 layers.

Then combine pieces no. 1 and 2 in the following order:

2 (2 layers) --> 1 --> 2 (3 layers) --> 1 --> 2 (2 layers)

After the glue is set, hot glue the whole piece onto the top platform.

Done! The end product turns out to be way sturdier than I thought it would be. Also it got an unintended snapping feel when I close the tripod which feels very nice. To open or close the tripod, push or pull the sliding cylinder.

You can now use your mini tripod. What do you think about this project? Have any improvement and suggestion? Comment down below!