I glued up the blanks for the second reel this morning, hoping they would be ready to cut out this afternoon. They were. I used the first set as a router template, which worked pretty well. I also pushed everything through the planer to thin it down. The spool parts were a bit hefty for the frame.
Then I made what are called Brooxes Hangups. They use friction to keep the camera rig attached to the kite string. Keep in mind this is 100 pound test, so it’s not exactly your standard kite string. I made it out of Starboard, “marine lumber”. It works just like wood, only the sawdust isn’t biodegradable. It’s basically UHMWP (aka cutting board).
We’re still tweaking some design issues, but I think we’re moving right along. Next step is to fabricate the parallel linkage to keep the camera pointing down the string. That may make my hangups obsolete (wouldn’t that be nice), but at least I had something to do while I had some brightwork curing.
-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails
2 comments so far
Napaman
home | projects | blog
3482 posts in 969 days
posted 19 days ago
this is so cool…I went back to watch the video in the first part of this blog…sooo cool…I CAN SEE MYSELF OUT THERE!!!! LOL>....
SO is the string connected to a big kit and the kite has a camera??? you need a picture of the kite/camera…
-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...
CaptainSkully
home | projects | blog
468 posts in 450 days
posted 18 days ago
Yeah, the string is connected to either a rigid delta wing kite, or a self-inflated chute kite. Just in front of the kite, attached on the string is a mechanism to make the camera level, make the camera aim down the string, or both. We’re not doing the former (Picavet rig), just the latter (parallel linkage).
-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails