I was wondering if most people are putting together their own rails or just buying them?
I wonder if the sum of parts is more expensive then the ready-made ones...

You could put together a set of support rods for as little as ~$25 but its going to depend on the tools you have and your experience with them. If you need to buy tools its probably going to be more expensive.

Its really pretty simple, you can learn a lot from studying others designs or commercial products. All of the materials including aluminum rods can be found at Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware, ect... I prefer to use aluminum but I have seen others use wood.

Under $25, sound great to me. I see quite a few people buying the camera stage from b&h or the like, does this factor into your $25.00?

Just remember to get the standard 15mm rods so that you can use the standard gears out there, like a matte box or follow focus unit

did you know what is the standard distance between the two 15mm rods!?

centre to centre is 60cm

6cm, or 60mm he means.

sorry you are right 60mm or 6cm... hee hee

Must be really tired looking at the computer screen . Can't even spot my mistake I've made..

many thanks

Most metal or machine shops will let you order lengths of aluminum tube at most thickness and widths.

many old enlargers are collecting dust, as paper and chemical are so$$ and everyone moves to digital

i bought an eastern european enlarger for 100$, great feature is tilting on lens bd.

JY

The least expensive way would be to lash your camera to a couple of small tree limbs.

Why not save your money and get a real base plate and rail system that will not embarrass you on a shoot.

Once you get a universal set, you will be able to use them on any camera you might upgrade to in the future. And they will be compatible with all the other goodies that you will want to get for your camera, like a matte box and follow focus.

Can you suggest a quick release plate that might do the trick that won't break the bank?

Go to Cavision site. There you will find all you need.(BHphoto sells their stuff too) Try also Cinevate and Redrock. This guy is copycat but last resort. He ship very, very fast.
http://www.thecinecity.com/home.php?cat=269

Can you suggest a quick release plate that might do the trick that won't break the bank?

Quick relaese plate from Manfrotto. The universal one. You can use it with most of the manfrotto camera plates on it too.

http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?sku=462045&oext=1038A&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=462045

That is getting above the $25.00 dollar mark! :)
I am going to try and find a used quick release plate and go from there. I can't believe how expensive the rods are though...that seems crazy!

Question, How much are you worth an hour? With the time spend looking around for parts and building it. I think it is better off you buying a used rod system .

Those stuff are expencive because most of them are cnc machined, and belive me this is expencive. Rods are special story. 15mm rods are very rare in any material (pipes for heating from cupper are not of our interest). Aluminum 15mm rods if you found them at home depot are usualy with 1mm sides and this is good for about 10-15cm length with very light setup. Most common are Alu bars, but this is very heavy (smaller lengths you can drill with press drill, so you will then have rods). Inox is also very rare in 15mm, and carbon fiberglass are most rare and most expencive. So all those has to be machined from bars that are 16mm or bigger diameter, and this is expencive (and 15mm carbonfiber has to be made on order. Only one company in Australia have them as standard stock, but shipping them to rest of the world in small sizes are also expencive). They are all made in very small quantities so this make them cost even more. Manfrotto stuff, like small and big sliding plate are very cheap, actualy compared to what other companies making. I have two of those and this is exellent product.

I made a set of rods after my own personal disgust over the price of what is really just pipe. I mean, come on, it's pipe.

I got a length of 5/8" threaded rod and the nuts that fit them and rigged up a lathe of sorts in front of my grinding wheel, fixed the nuts in place and just fed it through. I know a grinding wheel isn't something everyone has on hand, but it made a nice solution for me. I rounded the ends and have some heavy rods that can have nuts on, so it seemed a bit more flexible than just straight pipe. After a nice polish, I would never feel embarrassed about using them on a shoot. Not that great for putting up on my jib (had to go buy another weight), but I can handle the weight on my shoulder and the tripod hasn't complained.

If you have a lathe at your disposal, I bet wood would be just fine for just a matte box, but beyond that, it'll probably flex.