.
The same role can be played by a fence plank. Or a tree branch.
For some purposes an expedient camera mount has to be improvised. It can be as simple
as a wooden pole, a [link?:walking stick] or a [link?:trekking pole], which then acts as a monopod.
The same role can be played by a fence plank. Or a tree branch.
Several dowel screws of two diameters, with metric thread
on one end and a wood thread on the other, were obtained. The longer ones were slightly shortened
on the metric side to limit the protrusion after mounting. This removed the star-shaped hole in the
head, however these had a hexagon on the shaft that could be used for screwing it in.
A short section of the metric end was machined to the 1/4" diameter. A shoulder and relief groove were machined at the end of this section. A 1/4"-20 Whitworth thread was then machined to this section.
The larger-diameter bolts (1 and 2 in the photo section) are machined flat on the camera side. This allows direct tightening to the camera's bottom.
The smaller bolts are machined with a taper. This may make tightening a little troublesome (especially with the bolt with longer thread section, which is deeper than the commonly available hole in the camera).
The camera azimuth can be precisely adjusted with a help of a metric nut. The nut can be screwed onto the metric section of the bolt, the camera attached to the Whitworth top, aimed in the desired direction, then the nut tightened against the camera and acting as a locknut.
Some of the bolts got the Whitworth end machined a bit too short or bit too thin. The fit, after tightened, is however always satisfactory.
 Dowel screws, unmodified |  Dowel screws, unmodified, ends |  Dowel screws, original and shortened |  Chucked, before machining |
 Bolt 1, machined |  Bolt 1, machined |  Finished bolt 1 |  Original and machined bolt, comparison |
 Bolt 2, chucked, before machining |  Bolt 2, roughly machined |  Bolt 2, chucked, machined |  Finished bolts |
 Finished bolts |  Finished bolts |  Finished bolts |