The feet are attached in the same way. These are pre-drilled to take bolts but as I was standardizing on quarter inch whitworth bolts I found I had to drill these again to enlarge them. The uprights were also drilled a few inches from the top to take the bolts for the lighting bar.
The base is a piece of plastic faced chipboard 24 inches by 15 inches. Holes are drilled to take bolts for the feet. Drill the underside of the holes slightly larger to take the Whit T nuts. These are hammered into place on the underneath of the base and the bolts go through from the top. Add four rubber feet to the base.
The light bar has a round alloy rod about two inches long, pushed into each end. This is held in place with a thin bolt. A Photax light fitting can be attached here. It is worth mentioning that Photax do two types of fitting. The one that is most commonly found in camera shops has a plastic bulb holder. They also do one that has a metal bulb holder and this is the one to go for. I use Photoleta bulbs which last for 100 hours. This compares with 8 hours for a photo-flood bulb which is more over-run. They come in various wattages.
I show two ways of mounting the camera. Method A has a length of Speedframe bolted across the top arms. A plate of thin steel is bolted to this. This has a hole to take a bolt for the camera tripod bush. Most Super 8 cameras have a quarter-inch Whitworth bush.
The camera holder shown in method B is made using two corner joints. One of the two push in pieces is sawn off. Drill a hole in the forward facing side and tap this with a thread to take a bolt. You need a tool to tap a quarter inch whitworth thread in the metal block. (Once I had this tool I found other uses for it such as in a way of locking down the sliders for the platen, but more about that in a later article.) A metal plate about two inches wide is bolted to these blocks. This has a hole in the middle for the tripod bush bolt. Glue a strip of rubber of felt to the side that takes the camera.
I will tell you how I made a sliding base to add to this basic stand in the next issue.
Dexion Speedframe information from:
https://www.dexion.com/product_29.aspx
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Printed in Animator Issue 14 (Winter 1985)