Finished it today. Hopefully the photo shows up, if not you can see it here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/faust0matic/5135191425/
Guess I'm not allowed to post photos. It's hard to see, but that's a vertical grip in front of the camera and behind the microphone mount. This is my first one, so I'll be refining the design on the next one. I can't justify the cost of buying one, but I have a small mill/lathe combo so I figured I'd just make one. The goal was to keep the design as simple as possible to minimize time spent making upgrade/replacement parts. All the screws are 1/4-20 thread so there's no chance of cross-threading a hole by mistake and 1/4-20 is easy to find at any hardware store if you lose one while traveling. There are no quick release style knobs. I opted for set screws after trying some QR knobs and figured out that unless I want to spend $15 each for good ones that offer some decent leverage it would be easier to just carry a couple of Allen wrenches in my bag. It takes two wrenches, one for the set screws and one for the socket style cap screws. Honestly, I don't see it as a big problem. I can strip it completely down and reassemble it in about 5 minutes and making adjustments is fairly quick. I'm making a dovetailed camera mounting plate for it, but until I can order some of the specialized hardware for it I'm just using my cheap ball head from my tripod. It's relatively light to carry around and when you break it down, it takes up very little space so it will be easy to pack it for traveling.
Other than the tripod head, the only thing I didn't make was (obviously) the shoulder pad. I bought that from maxpedition.com. Since I used 1"x1/4" flat stock to make the shoulder rest, their 1" wide replacement pads for their bags fits perfect.
I need to order some tools, like a small wheel cutter and I'll be able to make a cold shoe to hold small items like the mic. Right now I have the cheap plastic shoe mount that came with it screwed on to a 1/4-20 post.
I'm open to suggestions or ideas, etc if anyone has any. The goal was a bare bones rig that would hold a camera and a mic. I think it turned out okay, but there's definitely room for improvement.
