Tablet Tripod Mount

About two years ago, I thought I’d try to DIY Streetview the Lane campus. In order to make sure I was always shooting from the exact same placed, I needed to use a tripod, but I was missing a way to mount my tablet. Rather than buy something and wait two days for it to arrive, I put something together using scrap in my garage.

Back of my Nexus 7 in the stand: Back Nexus 7 mounted in my tablet stand.

Front (camera side) of my Nexus 7 in the stand: Front of Nexus 7 mounted in my tablet stand.

I used my table saw – new to me at the time – to cut tracks in a couple pieces of pine to slide the tablet in. View of the inside of the stand, showing tracks to slide the tablet down

This project also saw my first ever attempt at dove tails. The only saw I had was a Stanley purchased from a Walmart in college, which hasn’t been sharp in some time, and which is more than just a little bit too large. The first one didn’t come out so great. Terribly sloppy looking dovetail

But I either got better or got lucky by the end. Slightly better dovetail, with much smaller gaps

Just had to add a T-Nut, and I was ready to mount to our tripods. The holes at top left and right are due to that track I cut on my tablesaw to slide the tablet down - unfortunately, they ran right through my joint. Picture of the bottom of the tablet mount, showing a T-Nut to thread onto the tripod

Due to construction and surprising brevity of my battery, which meant I only photographed half of campus, my attempt at DIY Streetview never went live. But now that we’ve launched our new maps site we have much spiffier panoramic photos, taken with a much nicer camera, by a much better photographer.

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