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Spent 4 hours fighting a tripod mount that just would not lock
Ngl I almost threw my camera bag into a ditch last night. I was out near the old quarry trying to get a clean shot of the Andromeda galaxy and my tripod head kept slipping like a full centimeter every time I tightened it down. I figured it was my fault for not tightening enough so I kept adjusting but after like 45 minutes of that I started checking the actual locking mechanism. Turns out the rubber grip on the tightening knob had worn down so smooth I could barely get any torque on it. I wasted another hour trying to rig something with a rubber band from my glovebox which obviously failed. Then I drove into town to grab some pliers from my buddy's garage but his wife had borrowed them. By the time I got back the moon was rising and the sky was washing out. Honestly I gave up and just packed it in after 4 total hours of messing around. Has anyone else had a tripod part just go bad on you out of nowhere like that?
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kevin_flores1mo ago
Wait, did you try heating the knob with a lighter or hair dryer before it crumbled? I've seen guys do that to soften old plastic before torquing it down and it keeps the whole thing from shattering mid-turn. But if the rubber grip wore down that smooth, you're probably better off just replacing the whole head assembly anyway. Those budget tripod knobs are usually made of the cheapest ABS plastic they could find, and after enough cold nights where the plastic contracts and expands, it gets micro cracks you can't even see until it gives out completely. I ended up just swapping to a metal knob from an old flashlight tripod I had laying around, drilled a hole and threaded it myself. Took an afternoon but it's never slipped since.
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Not quite "out of nowhere" though. Those rubber grips wear down over time from UV and sweat from your hands, its a known thing on budget tripods especially. I had a Velbon one where the knob literally crumbled into pieces after two years of night shooting. You might be able to swap just the knob part if its threaded, some of those are standard sizes. Or just wrap a layer of hockey tape around the grip, that fixed mine way better than a rubber band ever could.
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julia_fisher281mo ago
Honestly, "hockey tape" is such a simple fix I'm mad I didn't think of it myself. But wait, your knob actually crumbled into pieces? That's wild. Was it like a sudden snap mid-shot or had it been cracking for a while? I'm wondering if the plastic just gets brittle after enough cold nights.
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