i have some smith victor light stands and i want to know if anyone has any links to any do it yourself pages on building your own c-clamp?

If you're referring to a standard adjustable "C" clamp, try any home improvement store and you'll find a hugh variety of sizes and price ranges. You'd really be better off doing that unless it's a speciality clamp of some sort and even then you'll probably be able to find something that will work for you.
Don

kinda of curious if you meant c-stand?

i'm talking about the ones used for holding bounce cards and reflectors to stands. can you use the ones at hardware stores for this? i may be better off buying the real thing just for versatility.

i'm sorry i did mean c-clamp. i really need to start proofreading my posts.

Hi Patrick,

In terms of a C-clamp, I'm kinda curious why you'd want to build one instead of just buying one -- C-clamps are cheap and readily available at just about any hardware store, home improvement center or discount mart. As Don says above, you'll find a huge variety of sizes and price ranges. You can get a four-pack of "made in China" C-clamps for a couple of bucks at just about any place that sells tools. As for myself, I like the alligator-jaw-type spring loaded clamps, found a variety of tough plastic ones in different sizes at a Wally-World discount mart for under $10. However I wouldn't use plastic around hot light sources though.

C-stands on the other hand are usually in the neighborhood of $80 to $100 apiece. I wouldn't mind seeing a do-it-yourself project for a C-stand, but these days for me, I'd rather buy something than build it, because in my own twisted life, time is more valuable than money. But it would be cool to see someone's home-built C-stand. Hope this helps,

Yeah, Metal spring clamps are sold at home improvement stores and are very inexpesive. I use them for many things around the house,office,keep a couple in my tool kit with my gear (along with my sewing kit)- I've used them to hold a mic in place on a drummers cymbol stand- I needed a quick mic stand and it worked fine.
Don

i meant c-stand, but for some reason i keep posting c-clamp.

Ahhh, Ok, well forget everything I wrote. :-)
Don

Searching for the terms "C-stand" and variations of make/build your own, etc. haven't turned up anything for me, so it sounds like this project is ripe for development, if anyone wants to take a shot at doing it.

A c-stand is going to run about $150 - $175 each. If you look at a stand the "Knuckles" that are the key parts are sandcast aluminum. Unless you have a backyard casting operation, you will need to machine the parts from billet aircraft aluminum( 6061T6 is standard.) At roughly $65 per hour for machinist shop time and at least 2 hours to make the first prototype and probably 1.5 hours for each one after that (multiple set-ups on the machines) you can see the price is starting to add up. For the stand you are looking at steel tubing that has welded nuts on the tubing for the locking bolts, legs that have been bent on a tubing(conduit) bender so they don't kink, etc. Just the materials for this project will cost you $60 minimum.

If the interest is there, I will generate a set of CAD drawings that you could take to any fabrication house or do it yourself
if you want to. As a welder, machinist, mechanical designer, Motion Picture Special Effects Guy, and all around builder of weird stuff and cool things, I don't even build stuff like this and I have a full shop at my disposal.

This might help it's cheap and I do mean cheap.

http://dv.com/features/features_item.jhtml?category=Archive&LookupId=/xml/feature/2001/bjohnson0401

Patrick
Are you trying to accesorize your Smith Victor stands? As some of the other folks have said there are lots of cheap clamps out there. one thing you may want to look at for stuff that really needs to be secure is the Manfrotto Super Clamp. if your stands are a little tipsy you can always use a few sandbags to steady them.

Bruce's DIY article is a little scary, in my opinion anyway. He doesn't use that stuff himself.

i didn't know that it would be that complicated to alter my smith victor stands. i may have to save up and get the real thing. thanks everyone.