Ries knuckle saver

I really love my Ries, but the forward/backward adjustment knob likes to mess with my fingers. When you have a lot of bellows out you have to tighten that sucker up good and it hurts my fingers when I loosen it. A little leverage was what I needed so after a few nights out in my shop I came up with this key. It works really well and makes working with gloves on a lot easier too.

PIC 1
Here it is on the offending knob. Notice the knob is a little chewed from being encased in resin to make my first block of resin that would later become my master.

PIC 2
Front view.

PIC 3
A shot of my mold. The white piece is how it looks when it comes out of the mold. At this stage it still needs to have the flashing cleaned off and some minor sanding. A lanyard hole also needs to be milled or drilled out. The black version is a cleaned up piece with 4 coats of a rubber tool dip applied which gave it a good finish.

Prety cool idea. If I can ever afford a reis that will be on the list. When they gonna be on e-bay?

It would be great to see step by step instructions and pics. Did you degass the liquid for the mold? What material did you use for the final piece?

Looks like you did a nice job.


Gary

Have you given any thought about making these for sale now that you have the mold made?

Thankfully, I have one of the old original Ries Tripods of a different style, but I think your little invention is a good idea!

reis knuckle saver

Interesting. I took the Smith/Chamlee workshop in sept, and they don't lock the legs of their reis tripods!

They leave the knobs a bit loose, use the points on the feet, and swing the legs with their knees almost like a dance to adjust to the terrain.

I had a lot of trouble with a reis a few years back, some of the knuckle buster issues, and particularly the godforsaken tilt head lever, and sold it. I have since got some legs from reis and use my arca b1 ball head, and don't tighten the legs hardly ever.

Michael Smith says he never tightens the legs on his tripods, which are the A model, heavier than the J models. Howza bout that?

I think that making your own plastic resin molds is pretty cool! Neat!