Here's a simple servo-controlled very light GoPro mount for any UAV. I have machine tools to make this, but you might be able to do it with simple home tools. The real trick is a direct connection between the servo and the camera rotator, and to use a control link ball (left side in photo) so you don't need to hit any dimensions perfectly.
Remember, if you bend aircraft aluminum, you must heat it to 530C for 15 min, instantly dunk it in water, and then do the bends within a day or so, otherwise it will crack. If you warm it up to 150C for an hour later, then it will return to full hardness.
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Aw, shucks, Gary. Glad you enjoyed it. A lot of research metallurgists talk to me, and some of it sinks into my physicist brain. Wish I could do more on surface finishes as you describe.
Of course, all this stuff is great fun! And keeps me sane.
Yes, exactly!
Ok, so it seems like my question is basically answered.
The design is nice. But it's completely impractical for a DIYist to anneal the aluminum at home with tools that are even remotely "standard". You are not going to do this in your wife's oven.
It would be easier for me to cut a mitre joint and weld than it would be to bend that aluminum bracket.
Albert, I most definitely bow to your far more accurate description of annealing and hardening in aluminum alloys.
Most of my hardening and annealing experience comes from steel where grain size is more the issue.
I do machine and use high silicon 6061 T6 which is definitely very strong, hard, brittle, non-corrosive and not bendable at all unless not T6.
As you said, many other alloys are actually easy to bend and are certainly easier for most people to work with.
The fact that you can also generally provide considerable hardness by Alodyning them either cold dip or electric is a interesting way around having to heat treat them.
I have done this very successfully for hardened military grade transportable electronics chassis.
I am trying to develop a camera mount myself and yours is the cleanest, neatest and definitely most pro looking one I have seen yet, and I am certainly using it as a primary inspiration.
Wishing warmer weather to all us Northen pilots : )
Just a few comments. I thought about the design a lot before making it. Being somewhat lazy, I wanted it to be really simple. If you stare at it for a while, one sees that it could easily be made from hardwood.
I don't have either plans or the intent to sell it. sorry.
The skids came from Helicopter World, Part# HWC2008.
I do have some stunningly boring videos, but until I take a few more, interesting ones, I wait to post. Its really cold and snowing. And it took me a month to figure out the bullet connector Flamewheel twitch issue, so I really only just got it flying reliably last Sunday.
Interesting on the metallurgy. Jeweler hobbyists often have such furnaces. But let me expand a little. The solution heat treat aluminum alloys like 6061 are very strong (their strength before they break) but no stiffer (which is what affects vibration in a camera mount) than, say unalloyed 1100 aluminum, which can be bent without heat treating, as can some 3000 series as Josh notes. Here, obviously, strength is not an issue, so any alloy can work.
Also, they way the solution heat treat aluminum alloys work has nothing to do with grain size of the metal. But the rest of Gary's post is right. 6061-T6 aluminum is full hard. In that state, copper impurities are stuck at the grain boundaries, preventing them from moving and the aluminum from bending. Heating and quenching takes it down to T0. What has happened is that the copper has dissolved at high temperature, releasing the grain boundaries. But at room temperature copper is not soluble so over days or so, it precipitates out at the grain boundaries again, hardening the material.
Hope this helps.
Gary is definitely correct here.
It's possible to anneal work hardened aluminum by giving it a carbon coat with a rich oxy/acetylene flame and then heating with a normal flame until that carbon burns off, this works good enough for non life-critical stuff.
Or just use 3003
You are not going to hit 986 degrees Fahrenheit in the home oven.
If you go very much at all over that temperature you will have a puddle of aluminum.
You need to hold it pretty precisely at that temperature for 15 minutes to break up the large crystal structure of the alloy.
Then it is malleable for up to 24 hours.
Reheating it to 150 C for an hour allows the crystal structure to reform to full hardness.
You need a kiln with proper thermocouple based temperature control.
Otherwise just use a softer bendable grade of aluminum. 5054 or 5053 possibly.
You can also provide considerable hardness by anodizing or alodyning it.
The piece used in the article is way thicker than what would be needed with this grade of aluminum to hold a camera.
Probably adequate as a flange on a full sized hang glider.
That said it is a beautiful bracket, just total overkill.
Robert, A heat indicating crayon is pretty reliable.
That is really sharp! Do you have drawings if I want to strong arm my machinist friend to make me one? :)
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