A timelapse ( just 2x, really ) of my evening commute home. It was a test run for a magnetic camera mount I made using found objects.

I often want to mount a camera to structures to get time lapse shots. Suction cup devices just don't seem too reliable for hours / days, and those bendy things are fine for short term usage with small cameras.

Having a pile of identical hard drive magnets, epoxy, and the castoff cheapy plastic webcam mount I made contraption seen in the video. The hard drive magnets are ideal since they have a strong field on one side only, so its safe to mount a camcorder on top of the stalk without fear of magentizing the innards. The magnets are incrediblly strong. And they attract bits of grit and rust. Thats where the thin white plastic sheet ( a castoff from a broken LCD monitor ) comes in. It protects the paint, and allows the apparatus to be repositioned.

I have applied at least 30 LB load at the tip of the mount and it still holds tight. To give you an idea, for a 2Lb camera, thats 15G's. Good enough unless you plan on attaching it to a fighter jet. When the mount DOES slide, it tends to hop a few millimeters rather than catastrophically failing.

I attached my Fuji F45 camera in VGA movie mode and drove around. As you can see there is very little wobble, and high frequency vibration is almost nonexistent. Stuck to a flatter portion of the roof over the door frame, where the sheet metal is rather stiff, the camera effectively becomes "one with the car" and produces acceptable video. Its not steadycam shot, but for $0 its OK.

I'm interested in time lapse, so I sped up the boring 5 minute ride home. Eventually I will get the guts to attach my HV20.

How To Make This:

To fabricate the mount I took the wood disk and skim coated with 5-minute epoxy on both sides. This allows the epoxy to penetrate with wood and give a tacky surface to attach the magnets. The magnets were harvested from hard drives, you get 2 per drive. Of course you can buy them off the Internet if you don't have a pile of IT junk heading for the recycler.

The magnets are usually attached to a metal back. These normally have 2 screw holes in them. By driving a screw into these holes, and slowly torqing them up evenly, you can pop off the magnet. You could just leave the metal back on them if you wanted. The problem with rare earth magnets is that they oxidize if the nickel coating is broken - which happens easily. I normally peel off the coating and coat with epoxy to seal them.

This is important: either use pristine magnets, or remove the damaged / bubbled nickel clad and seal them. Otherwise the nickel will peel off and the magnet could separate from the mount once glued on - very bad.

Oh, I assume they call these "rare earth" magnets because they contain all manner of oddball elements no normal human being should ever be exposed to. Perhaps you should take precuations not to touch the exposed rare earth ceramic material, not to inhale the dust, lick them, nor use them to stir you mojitos...

So.... you have magnets, great! Blah, blah, blah. So guess what you do next: glue them to the wood in a convenient pattern. I use a 5 minute epoxy to stick them to the wood. Then after that sets, uh like 5 minutes later.... I used a 2-hour epoxy to thinly coat the whole mess to coat it with a nice layer of plastic. This ensures the magnets will not come off - keeps them from oxidizing - and so on. You don't want a thick coating, less than 1mm thick will do. Epoxy is amazing stuff, and in the era of instant gratification super glue, its much under appreciated. But this stuff is tuff and durable. Let this set overnight and then ensure the epoxy has set properly.

OK, so now you have a wood disk with magnets on it. Hooray! So I took a cheapy webcam mount, which is VERY flimsy, hollow, and will TWANG! like a ruler on a table edge, causing a high frequency vibration of your camera. Not a good thing. So I filled up the hollow space with epoxy fiber glass filler ( aka, Bondo ). When properly prepared, it sets up like concrete and is also very adhesive. I packed the cheesy mount with this stuff, overfilling slightly, and screwed to the other side of the wood disk. The bondo squeezed out all the way around.

Remember that epoxy is toxic stuff - so don't do the work in your baby's bedroom - or in your house at all - outside in open air is best. Oh, if you have asthma, etc... watch out. It will take a day for the bondo to cure as its enclosed in a layer of plastic. Curing epoxy releases a LOT of heat - especially large blobs of it. It also outgasses monomer and amines - so it stinky - leave the thing outside for a day. Also don't throw rags into combustible filled waste cans - the heat of curing epoxy can start a fire.

In other words, don't be a dope. Follow manufacturer's directions. And if you live in California, be aware that everything causes cancer - including butterflies, puppy dogs, unicorns and rainbows.

Once complete, be sure to use a sheet of plastic between the magnets and your car. Oh, yeah, you may cause dents, and certain cars are so cheaply made that the steel is too thin to hold the mount firmly. Would I put this on my brand new minivan? Not if I valued my marriage.

And no, I would not put my expensive camera on this unless you have a LOT of confidence and experience with it or a really good insurance policy, and even then don't do it. The above video was done with a $100 camera - so that should give you an idea of my level of trust.