2009.10.30 - Front Bumper Camera Mount
- Finished fabrication of front bumper camera mount
I've been tinkering with various camera mount setups for a while and yesterday I started on a revised bracket to attach my camera mount to the front bumper. I took some scrap steel (purchased up from Angleton Steel Supply for $0.58), welded two pieces together, drilled a few holes, and painted it black. I was able to bolt it to the bumper support where the old license plate bracket had attached. Unfortunately, the bumper support core itself flexed too much which made the camera mount very shaky.
To stabilize the bracket, I made some support arms from 3/8" brake tubing. I cut the tubing to length, pounded the ends flat, and drilled a hole in each end to bolt them to the car and the bracket. After a test run with the camera, this seems to have done a good enough job that the mount will work pretty well as long as the camera is zoomed all the way out. It still gets too shaky if you zoom in at all, unfortunately, but this is hard to avoid when hard mounting a camera to a car (especially one with a firm/stiff suspension).
$0.58 - Scrap steel
$4.28 - Brake line
I've been tinkering with various camera mount setups for a while and yesterday I started on a revised bracket to attach my camera mount to the front bumper. I took some scrap steel (purchased up from Angleton Steel Supply for $0.58), welded two pieces together, drilled a few holes, and painted it black. I was able to bolt it to the bumper support where the old license plate bracket had attached. Unfortunately, the bumper support core itself flexed too much which made the camera mount very shaky.
To stabilize the bracket, I made some support arms from 3/8" brake tubing. I cut the tubing to length, pounded the ends flat, and drilled a hole in each end to bolt them to the car and the bracket. After a test run with the camera, this seems to have done a good enough job that the mount will work pretty well as long as the camera is zoomed all the way out. It still gets too shaky if you zoom in at all, unfortunately, but this is hard to avoid when hard mounting a camera to a car (especially one with a firm/stiff suspension).
$0.58 - Scrap steel
$4.28 - Brake line