A 3D printed Camera Slider for $10 worth of Alluminum

If you are willing to put the motor aside on your slider, this is probably as frugal as you can get. Dan Colvin (previously here and here) made this small and cool little slider which only needs some nuts and bolts and two aluminum pipes to build. I was kinda skeptic about how well the slider will perform being based on friction but the demo reel completely got me

Here is Dan’s breakdown on the unit:

The aluminum cost about $10, the printed parts amount to roughly $5, and the hardware can be purchased for $5-$10. Once you have all of the parts, assembly is a breeze; no drilling or cutting, just bolt it all together. For roughly $20 and a little bit of work, you have a smooth slider with adjustable legs and adjustable friction

The bill of material (mostly bolts) can be found here and the 3D parts for printing can be found here.

There is a clever little mechanism that allows you to fine tune the position of the legs:

And it locks with a small ratchet device:

But where Dan see’s frugality, I see mobility, these are just the kind of units you can carry around in your bag and pop into the nearest Home Depot to turn them into a slider.

[3D Printed Camera Slider | Dan Colvin]

P.S. wanna add a motor option? we published a frugal slider motor add on yesterday.