Premium Members David Berryman Posted January 23 Premium Members Report Share Posted January 23 howdy y’all, clean from cleanscamerasupport.com here. its come to my attention that there has been some discussion on the forum about the safety of aluminum gimbal posts. as y’all may know, we make posts in 1/2”, 5/8” & 3/4” as well as reducer posts for all of the above combos. the posts are $10/inch & the reducer posts are $20/inch. we can start making them in stainless steel if the community so desires but at a 25% cost increase. as a camera assistant, i have no idea what y’all think is the best but am prepared to satisfy my customers. i’d really appreciate some feedback here. is the cost worth it? is the additional weight worth it? please discuss! thanks. cheers, clean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Lawrence Karman Posted January 26 Premium Members Report Share Posted January 26 Yo Clean! If you speak of the post that goes in the arm and gimbal handle I have never experienced any issues with Aluminum. So no need for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Tom Wills Posted January 26 Premium Members Report Share Posted January 26 I think I can speak to the aluminum versus stainless debate, as I was the one who was selling stainless steel arm posts a couple of years ago. I have had several issues with aluminum arm posts over the years of using my PRO arm. For most people, I think the aluminum posts probably suit them fine. But, for people like me who tend to push their gear to the limit, I have found that every single hollow aluminum arm post I ever had eventually bent or cracked. Quite simply, with a long gimbal handle like an Ergo handle, or regularly flying 60+ pound sleds in low mode with an F bracket on longer arm posts (I spend a lot of time in high low mode with a 12" arm post), a 6061 aluminum arm post with 1/8" wall thickness won't hold up. I first noticed a bend in my 12", then upon checking I found that the 8" was even more bent and was beginning to crack at the bend, and after a couple more years I found that even the 6" arm post I was using had some stress cracks in the anodizing where the post met the shaft collar. I eventually switched to making my own arm posts out of 7075 solid stock, turning them to the correct size (several arm posts I purchased varied wildly in size - not good!), but I eventually decided to move to 304 stainless steel for my own arm posts. The thing I like about steel is that it doesn't tend to crack and fail spectacularly like Aluminum does, but it bends. I have put a 60+ pound sled on an 18" stainless arm post (304 with 1/8" walls) and while you can see the post bend, I am not worried that it will spontaneously crack if it is bent like an aluminum post does. For my stainless arm posts, I had a local aerospace grinding shop do a run of stainless tubing centerless ground to .621" diameter, +/- .0005" (they laughed and said that to them that was a mile wide tolerance!). I found that to be the sweet spot amongst all of my arm posts I had purchased over the years - measuring and averaging them seemed to come to that number. Some were as small as .615", some were as large as .623". Honestly, the stainless was probably overkill, but for me, it was an insurance policy against catastrophic failure, and that for me was worth it. You probably could offer solid arm posts that would do the same, or 7075 aluminum, but I know I liked the feeling of security I got from the stainless. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members David Berryman Posted January 27 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted January 27 22 hours ago, Lawrence Karman said: Yo Clean! If you speak of the post that goes in the arm and gimbal handle I have never experienced any issues with Aluminum. So no need for me. thanks doc! noted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members David Berryman Posted January 27 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted January 27 8 hours ago, Tom Wills said: I think I can speak to the aluminum versus stainless debate, as I was the one who was selling stainless steel arm posts a couple of years ago. I have had several issues with aluminum arm posts over the years of using my PRO arm... howdy tom, thanks for all the info! i'm just a camera asst so i am not as intimately connected to the machines y'all fly but i have always wondered why my customers wanted hollow posts. i know it makes hanging the arm on the dock easy but i'd rather have the strength & security but that's just me. so i started offering both solid or hollow posts a while back. now i've got guys telling me the posts have to be stainless steel. fair enough. i'm here to serve. i just wanted to get some feedback from the rest of the community that actually flies these things. it does seem like an option worth pursuing for those who are willing to trade the weight for the durability. much appreciated man. and funny story about the aerospace tolerances. guess its all relative. cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Tom Wills Posted January 27 Premium Members Report Share Posted January 27 (edited) 14 hours ago, David Berryman said: howdy tom, thanks for all the info! i'm just a camera asst so i am not as intimately connected to the machines y'all fly but i have always wondered why my customers wanted hollow posts. i know it makes hanging the arm on the dock easy but i'd rather have the strength & security but that's just me. so i started offering both solid or hollow posts a while back. now i've got guys telling me the posts have to be stainless steel. fair enough. i'm here to serve. i just wanted to get some feedback from the rest of the community that actually flies these things. it does seem like an option worth pursuing for those who are willing to trade the weight for the durability. much appreciated man. and funny story about the aerospace tolerances. guess its all relative. cheers! If you do solid arm posts, which I think are a great option, I would absolutely drill out the end of them that goes “down” in the arm maybe 1-1.5” deep (I can get you a measurement off of the Hill dock at some point) so they can still be mounted on the arm hanger of a dock. None of my posts have ever bent on the bottom end where they go into the arm, it’s always either a general bend throughout the arm post or a bend right where the shaft collar is that prevents the arm post falling through the arm. Without a hole in the bottom of the arm post, especially on a PRO arm, it’d be an incredible pain to hang the arm up and likely open up the arm to damage as it swings around from whatever hacked way you’d have to hang the arm. Edited January 27 by Tom Wills 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordan Sadler Posted January 29 Report Share Posted January 29 Hey Clean, I bought a 12” solid post from you a while back and drilled out about an inch deep in the bottom to hang the arm - if that was a default config for the solid arm posts I’m sure people would appreciate that convenience! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members David Berryman Posted January 29 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted January 29 15 hours ago, Jordan Sadler said: Hey Clean, I bought a 12” solid post from you a while back and drilled out about an inch deep in the bottom to hang the arm - if that was a default config for the solid arm posts I’m sure people would appreciate that convenience! roger that. thanks for the tip. i'll reach out to my machinist. i think this would only work on the 5/8" & 3/4" posts. it doesn't seem like there is enough meat on the 1/2" post esp since i do not have the specs on that hill dock pin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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