DIY crane - advice on the panning bearing

[Marko Hocevar]

I'm planning on building a DIY crane and currently I'm investigating what to use as the bearing mount for panning the crane.
I will not use a video head for that purpose. So far I have found three options.


1. Pre-made crane bearing that can be found in two places:
https://www.bargain-camera.com/store...75&page=1&js=n

Euro Camera Cranes

It is the same bearing mount. Has anyone tried to use this bearing and what is your opinion on it?
I'm not sure if this mount will be stable enough to prevent side tilting while panning.

2. Caster frames
Seems like a nice solution but this one worries me the most regarding the side tilting problem whille panning, since caster frames
for trollies were never designed for such stability. Here is one example of a great DIY modular crane with caster frame as panning bearing option:
YouTube - Custom Built Modular Jib / Crane / Boom Arm

In the video it can be seen that the caster frame bearing is tilting slightly.

3. Higher quality bearing (at least I think so)
The idea came from here: Do It Yourself Video Gear - the camera crane part on the page
This is the picture of the bearing: http://abracadabravideos.com/DIY/Web/029.jpg
The bearing has a flange and a hole to accept a round bar. Flange makes it easy to connect to a tripod plate and I will try to find a nicer
way to connect the round bar with the "C" steal frame used to connect with the crane (and not as shown on the abracadabra site).
I would also aim for a better bearing from Timken found at: 1-1/2" Type-E Four Bolt Flange Bearing

Any opinions/advice on the options listed. Which one would you recommend? Have any other solutions you would like to recommend?

I personally don't mind the extra cost in the option 3 if it is worth for better stability.

[Brian Murphy]

If you are going heavier weight and using a pro tripod you could look for a used Kessler fluid swivel head. They no longer sell them but they are super and heavy duty.