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Originally Posted by brimmy
Okay... please don't take this any way but positive as I'm just trying to give some feedback (I'm just in a grumpy mood from crappy sales people which didn't make this process easier). I'm sorry if some of that comes across here.
Now that I have said that...
After reading the page and watching the tutorial, I went out to find the materials to make my own photo box.
Since IKEA is opposite end of the city from me, I was loathe to drive all the way over there. I figured, how hard can a translucent white bowl be to find? Apparently, very much so.
I started at Walmart because I had to stop by there anyways. Closest I found was a Rubbermaid salad bowl with thin stripes of translucent with most of the bowl being clear.
From there I went to the two dollar stores next door which had nothing close, then down to Home Outfitters. The closest they had were wooden bowls and solid white glass ones.
In the same mall, there was a Rafters and a Winners. Nadda at either of those at all.
The moral of the story. Just bite the bullet and drive across town and buy the IKEA bowls. It will save you a headache.
From there I went to Home Depot. I am on a personal boycott of Revy, so I avoided them. There, I found mostly all the pieces I needed. The clerk had no idea what a nylon wing nut was and we searched throughout the hardware section and couldn't find it. I did come up with an alternative that I think will work well.
I bought a 1/4 - 2" brass slot head bolt with a brass wing nut to match. I also bought two 1/4 rubber washers. I am going to put a rubber washer on each side of the friction lid support. This should give some padding so that the camera base does not get scratched, as well as some friction so that you don't have to tighten it insanely to keep it from sliding.
When I got everything home, I quickly ran into a problem. DO NOT buy the Stanley brand of friction lid supports (the only brand that Home Depot carries). The centre slot is too narrow to allow the 1/4 bolt through. I brought it back to Home Depot and the sales clerk's suggestion was for me to grind down the steel to make it fit. Instead, I called around and found that Totem Building supplies carries the National Hardware brand. More driving around (again, across the city) and I finally have all the pieces.
I have to say though, this is not a $5.00 photo box, though still very reasonable. These prices are in Canadian dollars.
IKEA Bowls ~ $4.00
HOME DEPOT Hardware bits ~ $2.50
TOTEM Friction Lid Support ~ $4.50
Total ~ $11.00
Also, here are the prices of the other bits.
HOME DEPOT Daylight Bulbs (3) ~ $15.00
HOME DEPOT Clip on Lamp ~ $10.00
In all, with all my bits and lighting, not including about six hours of my time and gas money, I spent about $50 on this photo box.
When I am finished catching up on emails, I will attempt to put it all together.
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I'm sorry that you had so many difficulties in getting all the materials together! I did specify the National friction lid support (and there is a link to a store in the instructions above the video on our web page to an online hardware store that has them for $1.75) Perhaps I just got luck with that one since I saw it first in a True Value hardware store here and it just seemed to fit.
As far as bowls go, I've made a couple of these now in different sizes for specialty use. I like the little Ikea ones (they are cheap!) and small, just right for beads. But I also made one from a cake platter storage unit. This is nice because it has a snap on bottom so you can store your backgrounds and styrofoam, etc... inside the unit when your not using it (found this little gem at the container store.)
Also I would be concerned you may destabilize the camera and put more stress on it by spacing it further away from bracket with a washer. A better alternative if you're concerned might be to cover the bracket with something like contact paper and cut the slot out with an xacto knife.
I hope your photo studio turns out well and you don't loose any fingers! Drop a picture here of your finished product! I'd love to see how you make out.
Evan