The OMCC Stand - One More Camera Copy Stand

The OMCC Camera Copy Stand for photographing documents and small items

This stand was designed in Google sketchup and then made from scrap pieces of wood that I had lying around. It has turned out to be more functional than I had expected so thought would share the plans and the construction with you guys.
The stand can be easily adjusted for camera height, camera angle, distance from back pane. Lights and accessories can also be attached quite easily.
The best aspect of this design is that it is easy to construct. I used a hand saw, a plastic miter box, glue, clamps, screws and a screw driver.

To get a slightly different version as a PDF, please click this link.

The design contained a vertical column attached to a base board, a collar that would slide up and down the column. The collar would hold a horizontal sliding arm that would have a camera support at it’s end.

The wood column I had was a “2 inches x 2 inches”, actually about 1.5 inches x 1.5 inches and 25 inches long. I also had pieces of wood that were 1.5 inches x 0.75 inches wide and pieces of oak flats that were about 1.5 inches wide and about 0.25 inches thick. I decided to make the collar first as this would be the most complicated piece. For the collar I cut a three pieces from the 1.5”x0.75” wood. The cuts were 1.55” apart giving me three squares. Made sure that the final pieces are slightly wider than the width of the column.

First I assembled the box that would slide on the column. The front and back of the box were the cut from the oak slats (A). To make all the cuts I used a plastic miter box and a handsaw. I pre-drilled holes with a Dremel, wet the surfaces to be glued with water, then applied a foaming polyurethane glue (Gorilla glue or similar brands) and clamped the pieces by using small screws.

I assembled the box directly on the column with a piece of business card as a gap to make sure that the dimesions were correct. You can see the wet glue in the picture. After the box was assembled I removed it from the column to make sure that it did not glue itself to the column. Once the glue was dry (about 6 hrs) I removed the screws. The glue is strong enough to not need screws.

I then assembled the left box, the one that will hold the sliding arm, by attaching the two oak slats to the 1.5”x0.75”x1.55” square piece (B). I used the sliding arm to make sure that the arm could slide easily and then used a C clamp to hold these, removed the arm and let the glue dry.

Checked for fit by sliding the collar onto the column and the sliding arm.

The next piece to assemble is the camera holder. This is also made from the oak slats. The Sketchup concept and the assembled piece are shown. Assembly was by clamps and glue.

Holes were drilled in the collar for bolts as clamps. A hole was drilled in the sliding arm and the arm was shaped in a rough semi-circular shape. A hole was also drilled in the camera holder so that it could pivot around the sliding arm. The wood color looks different in this picture as I had tried to stain it.
Carriage bolts were glued into the small pieces of the oak slats. These are used as handles for the screw clamps. Small pieces of dowel were used as cushions to protect the column and the sliding arm from being gouged by the bolt.

Holes were drilled into the camera holder so that a bolt can be used to attach the camera to the holder.
Collar was slid onto the column. The sliding arm was placed into the collar and the two clamps on the collar were hand-tightened. The camera holder was placed over the sliding arm and a long machine bolt was slid into the holes in the right hand side of the camera holder into the sliding arm and out from the left hand side of the camera holder. A nut was tightened to hold the camera holder in place.

The back board was attached to the base board with glue and clamps and by making sure that the backboard and baseboard form a 90 degree angle.

Once the glue has dried, the column is attached with glue and screws. I used two screws from the backboard into the column and one screw from the bottom of the baseboard into the base of the column. I used right angled squares to make sure that the column is at right angles to the base before using the screws.

The camera was now attached with a camera bolt. The camera bolt was found in my box of screws and nuts so did not purchase this.

The camera stand is now ready to use.

THINGS TO STILL DO

i) Might brace the column by adding wooden cubes to the side of the column and the back board and the baseboard.
ii) Will need to prepare another collar that goes on the column to hold lights, possibly a circular fluorescent lamp that will go around and below the lens.
iii) Need side lights.
iv) Need to make a 7.2V power pack for the camera.
v) Need to install CHDK camera hack software so that I can operate the camera through a computer and to use a USB remote.