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Any cheaper or DIY alternatives for Aaton style grips?
  • Does anyone have any products similar to this style wooden hand grip? It seems like everything on the market now is crazy expensive, I guess because they're handmade or specialty wood or something. They look like great products but it seems like there would be a mass produced heavy duty plastic one out there by now.

    I saw someone make one out of Instamorph, but it requires a lot of little parts off amazon for just an experiment.

    I don't know if it'd be cheaper, but even a 3D model on Shapeways could possibly work.

  • 6 Replies sorted by
  • Aaton style grip

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  • DIY would be carving it out of wood yourself, yes? I don't know how popular this could be, but it does look like there is room in the market for cheap copies from India or China. Someone could probably find a wood working supplier in India to make these by hand for cheap and then sell the wood pieces in the U.S. and worldwide for $50-100 depending on wood and styling. Although I think there is some laws and wood treatment required before importing the wood into the U.S.

  • Instamorph or gorilla plastic (same thing) are great ideas for this. The tricky part is the mount to the rails. For that a rosette set is needed. I wouldn't think you need any more than that. The best ones fit your hand specifically, which is what the mouldable plastic is good at. Plus it's easier to embed a run/stop trigger in them than in the wood which you need to precisely drill, etc.

    At the very least make yourself a model out of the plastic and then send it off to be laser-scanned and CNC machined out of wood. That would be pretty sweet.

  • Well I ordered the necessary parts, so in a couple weeks we'll see if I can whip something up with the Instamorph and a rosette adapter

  • Well I did it. The tightening mechanism is a little janky, but it feels 100% sturdy. And it fits my hand perfectly. I had to dremel out the center of the rosette attached to the hand grip (as well as sanding down parts of the bolt) so that it moved freely along the bolt and tightened flush against the rod rosette.

    Anyone have any suggestions for something better than a wingnut?

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  • Good idea!

    You can use the aftermarket ebay arri rosettes. This $30USD piece should work

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/ARRI-Type-Rosette-Micro-Rod-Clamp-fr-15mm-Rod-Support-DSLR-Rig-Rail-System-HDV-/171432565195?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27ea2d59cb

    It is a rod and a clamp connected together with the rosette. If you were to mold the handle around the rod part that would work...

    Or you could use a bolt with a hex key part instead of the wing nut.