KAP rigs - RC Carbon fibre tube

The Flickr KAP gear group is a fantastic resource for researching rig designs. There are many different styles of backyard and commercially made rigs but the one that really caught my eye was this one by Eric Kieboom.
Made for the Lumix LX3 using 4mm carbon fibre tube and various aluminium profiles it weighs almost 300g lighter than my first effort. As soon as I saw it I decided to ditch the heavy al rig and use carbon fibre tube. Back to the shed.

Lumix LX3 Carbon fibre tube RC rig - 600g

Here is my first version. The biggest challenge was finding the small aluminium extrusions. The square profile used on Erics corners and pan bolt support was not available in Australia. So I used 10mm tube which made accurate parallel drilling very difficult. Carbon fibre tube is available from Carbon Fiber Australia through their online store. 4mm x 1m tube A$5.95 each plus A$10.45 post.

Eric used CA glue (superglue) but I had some problems getting good adhesion so changed to epoxy.

I also bought a 4ch 2.7GHz radio from Hobbyking.com for A$28 (it works perfectly!) and added a mini servo for the shutter. The plastic mount for the shutter servo slots into the camera hotshoe and flexes when the servo pushes down. This prevents over stressing the servo.

This video shows it in action.

All up weight now 600g with 4 x AAA batteries. More weight could be saved by using mini servos.