Big thanks to Mark H. for taking time out to make this video. Here Mark is showing us his DIY arm brace for his Flycam Nano stabilizer. The Flycam Nano is proving to be a very popular small stabilizer, but one thing to note is that even the handle comes in small. If you're not practicing some type of Shaolin Tiger Claw Death Grip (like myself), you might want to look into swapping the handle out with something a bit larger, or better yet work with an arm brace. If you don't know, the handle to the Flycam Nano is hollow and resembles the Glidecam stabilizers. With it's hollow designed handle, it can accept the same arm brace that is used with the Glidecam stabilizers. Of course that original brace (if you're lucky to find one) retails for about $150 dollars.
Mark takes a simple medical use wrist brace found in any local pharmacy and adds a custom DIY bracket to transfer most of the weight away from the wrist, allowing you to fly a bit longer, and possibly a bit steadier. For those with Steadicam Merlin's or Steadicam Jr's this idea will also work for transferring that weight over from your wrist. Mark also makes a good point to talk about how handy an arm brace is to have when you can't travel with a vest. As an owner of a vest myself, I can attest that it's a huge pain to travel with. It's also not very quick to get in an out of and is sometimes a bit dangerous when you're surrounded by fast moving kids. This would be the ideal situation in which you could take advantage of a solid arm brace.
[Thanks Mark]
For something like this, you'll probably want to go with the wrist braces that have a 'splint' like Mark's to attach a bracket.
Wrist Brace with Splint
Elliot
Wow, this is a good idea. How much hdid it cost you? I don't know where to buy the flycam nano from, I found it on ebay for like 180, and then on amazon for 180.
Then for 230, I found the wrist brace with it. Is the one made by flycam any good? I figure why not get it, it's only 40 bucks and it will help.
On the other hand, if i can make a splint design like thsi, it will work too.
Any other stores to get it from? I heard it was only 115 from someone on vimeo... 🙁
Emm
Post author@Cat - The wrist brace is not just move weight from your wrist, but it allows you to relieve the tight grip in your hand. When you have to squeeze and carry weight in your fist for a long period of time, you'll cramp up in your forearm. That's what I get the most..
Cat
Does the length of the arm brace matter? I know the splint has to connect from arm - flycam (or else you might as well just handhold)
Would a longer arm splint decrease fatigue or would it not matter as long as the splint is long enough to connect to your wrist area?
Emm
Post author@Stephen Webb - The hold for the Merlin is much smaller in diameter than the Flycam. You'd need to do some modifications to fit.
Stephen Webb
Hi Emm
Will the Flycam Nano arm brace work with the Steadicam Merlin?
Emm
Post author@Bob Orient - That's the same brace just renamed. This works with the Nano, which has a smaller Inside Diameter for the Handle than the Glidecam has. It should slide in, but will have extra space inside a Glidecam. I'm sure there's a way to fill the void with a little DIY. You can find those same braces here: Flycam Stabilizer Forearm Brace
Bob Orient
Has anyone used the Steadishot Flycam brace with a glidecam? It's half the price of the Glidecam brace and looks almost identical. I'm wondering if it will fit on the glidecam though...
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Paul
@ Mark, Will the wrist support be able to hold with my Glidecam HD2000?
vered
@ mark - Thanks for the info, I might try that if I can cut a hole in the handle of the Hague DMC.
I know what you mean about home depot, I just spent a few hours looking through EVERYTHING to find parts for my slider, will post it on my blog soon - I don't have a lot of tools so it's trickier to make stuff (apt in NYC).
vered
I have this brace, I'll give it a try 🙂
Mark
Hi Seth,
I would say that I am the king of "Make Due" in that I work with what ever little bits and pieces I have in my junk pile. The metal for the primary bracket is actually a piece of that aluminium that is used at the threshold of a door. Why you might ask, because that was the only piece of aluminium I could find at my particular local hardware store. I then bend that over at a 45 degree angle. This created essentially an "L" shape. I then took the small part of the "L" and bent it outward to form the little shelf that becomes the mounting point for the support peg.
I then bent the longer side of the metal "L" to form fit the metal piece that is inside of the wrist brace making sure that the little shelf is positioned such that when drilled for the actual support peg it is right in the middle of where your hand will comfortably grip the handle.
I then drilled a 1/4 inch hold in the middle of the little shelf piece and mounted a 1/4 20 bolt there that would form the support peg. Now I get a little messing using some odd pieces that act as spacers on the support peg but anything that gives you a reasonably snug fit for the handle would be fine.
In the step earlier I bent the large side of the "L" to form fit the metal within the brace. I then just looked at the best places to drill through both the external metal brace we made and the internal brace metal. A key thing is that I made sure that where ever I decided to position those holes that there was plenty of metal on both side of the holes top and bottom. Essentially try to make the mounting holes along the center of both braces as best as you can to ensure the most strength.
I then used some flush head 1/4 20 bolts to attach the external brace since I did not a bolt head inside rubbing against my arm. These flush head can be found at a good hardware store and yes they are even flatter than a carriage style bolt head.
I know that is still very hard to follow but you're talking to an adult ADD poster child so every thought I have is just rapid fire images to me. Thats why I go to the hardware store and design on the fly based on what I see. You should see the cool little table top dolly I made last night. It was conceived by looking at 30 bins of bolts and pieces at my hardware store in about 20 minutes. I went in with four roller blade wheels and came out with what I needed to make the dolly. Now ask me to write down the steps and I'm lost.
Hope this helps a little,
Mark
Seth
Would love some more details on how this came together. For example, exactly what kinds of materials were used.
Harlan
Mark did an awesome job here. Thanks so much. Great video.