Great save, Lloyd. I always find it to be very gratifying work to repair an
apparatus that was made well.

Quality tripods are very expensive, and from what I've seen, the old ones
are best because they can be repaired, and they're actually worth repairing.
There aren't a lot of options for repairing a section of graphite (or other)
reinforced tubing. Epoxy may rejoin the break, but won't restore the full
strength.

Many of the supporting structures on the newest gear is some high-tech
material molded into a channel, not even tubular. Channel sections are
fairly delicate no matter what they're made of.

--
WB
..........
metalworking projects
www.kwagmire.com/metal_proj.html


"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote in message
. 3.70...
Actually, Sponenburgh & Sons.

Recently, a friend traded a "good, but slightly worn" Bogen 3300
tripod with an Italian pistol-grip pan&tilt head to me in return for
some minor machine work.

Poor thing: It looked like it had been dropped off the bed of a semi
with a broadcast-sized camera attached. On leg wouldn't extend any
more; the elevation crank was snapped off; the entire mounting shoe
and screw assembly was snapped right off the aluminum casting ....

It was also too good to scrap. I'd just gotten my son a new mid-range
digital camera, so we decided to make a Saturday afternoon project of
it.

Un-dimpled the dented leg, so the telescoping sections would slide.
Fabricated a new crank, complete.
Fabricated a new mount shoe with a cone-lock arrangement, and surfaced
the old casting to accept it.

Hell... it's better than any tripod he could actually afford to buy!

Pix at http://www.pyrobin.com/files/tripod%...ures%20006.jpg
and http://www.pyrobin.com/files/tripod%...ures%20004.jpg

LLoyd