I was looking at a lot of tac tables and camera "cheese plates" for mounting on my tripod, and was amazed at how much was being charged for something with no moving parts and very little construction. I don't mind paying for good gear, but there's times where you just have to scratch your head. So, with that being said, I present a decent alternative for 1/4 the price of a lot of what I saw on the market:
I went to TAP Plastics and got a cut-to-order piece of 3/4" Starboard (it's the same type of plastic they use on boats, highly resistant to weather, chemicals, etc. etc., and easily milled or drilled). I drilled and inserted some metal EZ-Lok threaded inserts for plastic, used them to hold some M4 screws to attach a 150mm ARCA plate underneath, and added four more EZ-Loks on top that I threaded some shock absorbing mounts on top of to keep the bag from sliding off if the plate is at an angle (the advantage of attaching them that way is that they'll unscrew if I ever want the plate completely flat). All in, I've spent less than $40 and absolutely thrilled with how it works. Hope someone else finds this helpful!
I went to TAP Plastics and got a cut-to-order piece of 3/4" Starboard (it's the same type of plastic they use on boats, highly resistant to weather, chemicals, etc. etc., and easily milled or drilled). I drilled and inserted some metal EZ-Lok threaded inserts for plastic, used them to hold some M4 screws to attach a 150mm ARCA plate underneath, and added four more EZ-Loks on top that I threaded some shock absorbing mounts on top of to keep the bag from sliding off if the plate is at an angle (the advantage of attaching them that way is that they'll unscrew if I ever want the plate completely flat). All in, I've spent less than $40 and absolutely thrilled with how it works. Hope someone else finds this helpful!
