Note: Don't bother doing this if you're looking to save a few bucks over the original.

I wanted a heavy-duty Plamp-style clamp that could hold not only flowers but also free-standing subjects and fairly heavy reflectors. The ingredients:

3/4" Loc-Line tubing and connectors
2" A-clamps
Irwin Quick-Grip clamps
Nuts, bolts, washers
Elbow grease

Cool!

I've been wanting to make something like this ever since I figured out that that stuff was called Loc-Line! I've used the Irwin Quick-Grips for several other projects--aren't they great? And the fiber-reinforced plastic holds threads quite nicely. I have several with threaded 1/4-20 holes all aver the arms for different mounting positions on mini-tripods.

Sounds like those $12 pliers are worth the price, too, eh?

BTW--A few minutes with a brown Scotch-Brite pad will dull that glossy finish on the Loc-Line, which might be a problem when shooting reflective subjects.

PS: What's holding the flash?

The $12 pliers are quickly worth $40 once you try to put together 12 sections, four elbows, two female-female couplers, and four ends. Next time I do something like this, the pliers are going in the cart first.

The Irwin Quick Grips are great for everything except tubing, so I couldn't use the larger ones that I got for the project. The only other problem is the little yellow ends falling off.

The flash is on a Wimberley macro bracket. Great little device, although it makes a Plamp look inexpensive. Holds a 580 and Lumiquest softbox (which I used to think was goofy, but it's fantastic for macro) like it's nothing.

Here's the Luna bar:

Thanks for taking the time to post this, it's a lot more stable than the Plamp and about the same amount of $$.

No problem. Mine are still going strong.

My first thought when seeing the first image: "Spiderman"

Looks like "Doctor OCTO" to me.

Thanks for posting. I find DIY stuff like this fun to see and it gets the brain cells working.

Here's an image from wikimedia: