Jackson Masters

Spider

A shipping company approached us about making a low-cost inspection array for identifying unstackable pallets. We used their service to ship our prototype rigging to their facility in Bergamo, Italy. Upon arriving, we found that our shipment had been lost, that they had no idea when it would be found, and that they insisted the installation proceed on schedule.

Several hours of playing telephone with my Italian colleagues in California and hauling two-meter long pieces of aluminum in the back of a tiny Fiat later, we began to mull over making a version of our rig from locally sourceable electrical conduit and a small box of connectors to prevent this from happening again.

Luckily for us, aluminum extrusions are available almost everywhere, and after a couple of scavenging trips to the local Bricoman, we were able to assemble this temporary rig.

When we returned, we worked with a local welding shop to design a cheap set of fittings that would allow us to assembly our camera support rigs using both metric and imperial electrical conduit.

This scheme would allow us to fly anywhere in the world with a small suitcase of cameras, fittings, and a pipe cutter and assemble one of our stations after a short trip to the nearest hardware store.