Wind Up Music Box Powered Kite Aerial Photography Rig

At the end of this instruction guide you will be the proud owner of a skybound picture taking contraption. Most of the materials are things you can find for free or around your house. This is a kite photography rig with which you can take pictures as never seen before at 360 degrees. Happy building!

Tool List

hack saw
wood saw
pliers
spanner
stanley knife
scissors
drill

Materials List

4 metres of string
1 fruit box
ruler
metal ring
music box
nuts bolts and washers
bike chain
small screws
ball for weight

Chop the ruler into 5 cm sections, drill a hole in centre at 2.5cm (from end) and 7.5cm, fold in half at right angles.

Dismantle fruit box and cut side panels, sandwich together with superglue two thick as if making plywood. Make at least 8 strong pieces of wood

Cut 4 strips 2.5cm wide at lengths of  30cm, 15cm, 10cm and 10cm. Cut 4 strips 1.5cm wide at lengths of 15. Take the corner triangular wedges and cut slivers as if cheese or doorstops 1.5 thick. Drill holes at either end of each and on one of the 10cm pieces drill hole relevant to where the tripod screw fitting on your camera is (see * on diagram). This is a quarter of an inch so anything just over will do.

Take the bike chain apart, removing 4 separate links which will act as the pulleys for suspending the rig.

Dismantle music box and insert long nut into the barrel, this is the drive shaft. Put the barrel back into the hook clips and mount to rectangle of wood leaving enough space for a bracket at the side of the motor.

Screw doorstop pieces onto the top extremity of each end of the cross and screw bike chain pulleys on all doorstops facing the same way as per diagram.

Assemble G frame with brackets, nuts and bolts. 

Insert bolt on end of previously made cross piece through pictured place on G frame and secure with two bolts that lock against each other creating an axis for the top of the G frame to move freely. Next thing to go onto the bolt is a bracket that has been previously bolted onto the music engine. the other side of this bracket goes around the cross piece through bolt and is secured tight with two bolts, this sandwiches the bracket

Find 1/4 inch bolt and saw down to relative size to fit through G frame and secure camera to rig.

String up cross bar with picavet pulley system, information can be found here. http://www.kaper.us/basics/BASICS_picavet.html

After stringing up, find a weight that can counter balance the camera and attach however you see fit onto the G frames outer leg to stabilise the structure.

Get Flying!