How to make a Tripod out of 2×4?

In this article, we will learn how to make a tripod out of 2×4? You can do it properly if you follow our instructions.

How to make a tripod out of 2×4?

The first thing I need to do is rip down the 2×4. So that they’re an inch wide and because the corners are kind of rounded and I want them to square it off.

I’m going to do it at one cut at an inch and a quarter and then the next cut at an inch on the opposite side rip is made. Now I’m going to rip the width down to one inch on the 2×4 is one inch wide.

Time to cut strips of one inch out of it now I’m gonna rip down a couple of half-inch wide sticks and one more to go. I’ve cut six of the half-inch boards at 30 inches long. And now I’m going to cut the one-inch board on the miter saw. I went ahead and also cut the one by one and I cut these at about 31 inches long.

2nd step

And now I’m going to get started on making the base plate. I’ve got my try piece made and I need to make one more of these from the center these each of these arms is about two inches long from there.

So I’ve gotten both of my wide pieces made and I marked on each of the ones where to drill the center hole for my legs.

I’ve gone ahead and marked a hole at the top and a hole about six inches down the line is that six inches are drawing that with my speed square an easy way to find the center.

And I’ve got a 7/16 dowel rod I’ve got a 7/16 paddle bit in my drill I’m gonna go ahead and draw out all these holes well. Now I’ve gotten all of these holes drilled and I need to take this piece over to the bandsaw.

3rd step

I’ve also gone ahead and drilled the center hole on the top of this four-bolt washer lock nut lock washer and a nut. So that’ll be how you’ve attached the camera or swivel head to the tripod. I’ve got the lower Y shape cut out I did that on the bandsaw.

Then I made them a little small so I could come back with a file and fine-tune them. And I cut three random pieces. These are going to be the stretchers that go from this to the leg.

And there’s gonna be a dowel fits in there this will be able to move and I cut these just randomly because I wanted to go ahead and drill the one hole. I need to figure out how long those are gonna be when it’s finished which is why I cut them kind of randomly in length.

So now I’m gonna go over to the sander and round over a whole bunch of these edges. And here we are I’ve sanded all the pieces and I’ve put one radius on one side on each of these two pieces.

This is gonna be the top and it’s only gonna probably open up that much if any. So I don’t need a whole lot of honestly I don’t even need it rounded it just looks nicer.

4th step

I’m gonna get started on putting these legs together from the 7/16 dowel rod I cut nine pieces and they’re over length.

So I can trim them off and then I cut nine about two inches long little over lengths again half-inch pieces of extra stuff. I had and these are gonna be blocks at the bottom of the half pieces and then one at the inch squared piece.

And that’ll on the inch squared piece will be at the top before I symbol anything. I went ahead and cut three of these pieces down to size and I use the paddle bit to drill a countersink. And then drill bit to drill a hole all the way through for this T nut that I’m gonna put in there.

So I can use a thumbscrew to tighten down pressure against the legs for when they’re at the height the desired height.

I’ve got these little rubber plugs that I’m gonna put into the holes well. Now I’ve got not two out of the three blocks on each leg. Now I’ve got the bottom block which this one is gonna go on the other side this is the underside.

I’ve got the stop block to make sure the leg doesn’t slide out on there. So I’m gonna flip these over and put these last three blocks on.

5th step

Now I’ve glued all the blocks and put some Brad’s in to clamp it together so that glue can really take hold some go ahead and flip these over but the last block in since all three legs were finished.

Pegged all the three legs to the top piece and instead of gluing. I just shot a little Brad in there to pin the dowel rod in place on both sides. So now I just need to trim those down and sand them flush well.

I’ve set the tripod up and I put the middle piece about lined up with where the holes are and then I took the full-length pieces and kind of eyeballed it.

How far I wanted them to stick out and I came up with this length. I’ve marked the center to drill holes and I’m gonna go ahead and drill these holes round it off. And then I’ll go ahead and pin the pieces inside with the dowel rod.

6th step

So I’ve got this piece installed I’ve got the dowel rods through here. I enlarged the hole here so would work a little nicer. And I pinned the dowel rods and the legs here again with Brad’s from my nail gun and on it works pretty well well here.

It is this is max hi that’s about five feet or so it works pretty well. I was going to put some spacers between this little piece and keep it centered in that space. But that’s not really a problem it’s not giving me an issue yet certain if I did it again.

I’d probably do a few things differently mainly this middle piece the strength in the socket there. I’ve already had a little bit of a cracking issue on one of them.

So I would try I feel like I want to find a better way to make that piece four out of wood but at this point. It’s good how it is it’s holding up. I put some glue on there and it looks like that’s holding together pretty well but if you enjoyed it.

Conclusion

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