Mounting my tripod to my underwater camera housing?

[Perithead]

I have recently bought a new video camera to use underwater and when the weather is "wet". Its a pretty small handheld camera that I purchased an underwater housing for also. Only thing is, there is no tripod adapter (1/4 female threads) on the underwater housing and I need one there!

I am thinking epoxy will be the best way to fasten something to the hard plastic that the housing is made out of so I came to my fellow boating community to ask for a bit of advice.

As you can see in the photos I need a 1/4" female fitting attached to the bottom of the housing. I could do something as simply as epoxying a 1/4" nut to the bottom of the housing but I don't think that will be the strongest option.







The surface on the camera is fairly small, I was thinking of maybe epoxying a piece of wood to the housing and then recessing a 1/4" nut inside of it.

Do you have any ideas? I know more minds mean more and better possiblities!

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

[Capt.Don]

I wouldn't trust epoxy on plastic. I have used 2 part plastic weld epoxy on various repairs around the house and it seems to work well. I purchased from an auto parts store.

Perhaps a simpler solution would be to use a couple of straps, hose-clamps or velcro around the outside body securing the threaded adapter for the tripod. Might be a pain to assemble/disassemble, but wouldn't risk losing or ruining your camera/case.

Don

[Celestialsailor]

Are you sure it id 1/4-20 and not 6mm.?

[hellosailor]

No no, epoxy does not normally bond to plastics. Find out what the housing is made of, polycarbonate or acrylic. Then yes, you COULD use a special epoxy (West "G" series?) to bed a 1/4x20 or other stainless nut to the bottom of the case. However, you'd get a better bond by taking a piece of the same plastic, 3/8 thick and maybe an inch square, and having a machine shop tap the threads into the center of it. Then fusion bond that to the case, using whichever solvent matches that plastic.

Or take that piece of plastic yourself, drill a hole in it (neatly, drill press) and press a "nutsert" with the right threads into it. Cheaper than the machine shop, if you can find nutserts locally.

Better cheaper faster neater.

Conventional epoxies on clear plastics? Nuh-uh, one day months down the line, you get a nasty surprise.