Oconnor and Vinten customer service

valvashon

Member
After the latest round of Vitec buck passing, I was forced to take matters into my own hands:


Initial machining with a Forstner bit. I spend $10 on this hoping that this meant-for-woodworking bit would work on aluminum, and it did just fine.




O' Connor Leg Lock, my Leg Lock and block of aluminum I used to make this (thanks, onlinemetals.com!). I purchased three of these blocks for under $5.


View of the backside of the Leg Lock. This curved part is what is clamped against the leg.


Another look at the original, copy and raw materials.


Here it is installed. The tripod is currently setup with a couple of sandbags on top to see if it holds.

So that's the final chapter on this. Again, if they had just told me a year ago that this part was no longer available, I could have made this then and been using this tripod since then. The fact that they strung me along for so long is what really upsets me. I filed, cut and drilled this part partly because I needed to fix this tripod, and partly out of spite.

Val
 
Sometimes it can yield a better result too. I have been thinking about doing something similar to this for a friend who has a mic mount on his hpx 200 that keeps cracking.
 

prosheditor

Well-known member
I saw this Plastex stuff mentioned for repairing plastics for all kinds of unique tabs, brackets, flanges, knobs, stripped thread wells, etc. It actually re-creates an exact duplicate of a broken part, much like that plastic tripod part. They said it bonds at a molecular level, unlike topical glues, so it's as good as the original. I don't think I'd trust it for high stress points though. If you don't have a machining tool, CNC or 3D printer, this looks like a great fix for speacialty fittings that are no longer made or too expensive to justify replacing.

www.plastex.net

Demo Video
http://www.plastex.net/How_To_Videos.php

(7:38) Repairing Stripped Thread Wells

(15:40) Repairing Custom Tabs, Brackets & Flanges
 

valvashon

Member
I thought about something like that, 3D printing or JB weld but I just didn't think it would be strong enough since this is a relatively high stress part considering the clamping action involved. I sent a picture of the part to my "contact" at Vinten, just as an inline attachment with no other text. Not surprisingly I haven't heard back from them.

Val
 
Top