One of my planning-stage projects is a UL tripod for a SLR w/300mm lens. In designing the head, I'm wondering what I'd have to do to put the leg supports on. I might be able to have a block milled by a machinist, but it seems like a heckuva lot of waste. Thoughts?

Technoweld will braze aluminum but it's gonna take real skill to use it well.

Frankly I'd plan to use simple rivets and/or adhesive - it's cheap, light and easy to do.

Make the head out off wood and use threaded T-nuts into the wood to receive threaded legs.

> I might be able to have a block milled by a machinist, but it seems like a heckuva lot of waste.
For a one-off? Hardly: it's a very small block of Al to start with.
Let us know how this goes - I have often speculated about it myself.

Ahhh- I forgot the vital "ingredient" and question under the question. I was going to make it out of titanium. But for something like this (0.25" thick, 2.25" diameter, plus leg supports) how much weight savings would I find between Ti and Al? Would it be an ounce or less? Thanks!

The density of Ti is 4.5 g/cc. Al is 2.7 g/cc

So....Ti is 1.666 denser/heavier than Al.

An Ti isn't particularly easy to machine.

Save weight and $$ with Al.

Have you considered wood? If that seems impractical, aluminum is easy to work with home shop hand tools.