The photo above shows the template used to make the Pan-Head for the VSC “North Star” Field Tripod. The template is made from a sheet of smooth manila cardstock, typically used for making business cards. Since each sheet of cardstock was 17” x 8.5”, it was not wide enough to make a full size template. To makeup for this shortfall, I overlapped two sheets of the cardstock by about five inches and carefully taped them together to form a larger single sheet. I was now able to create the template.

To formulate the dimensions of the Pan-Head onto the cardstock, I used a compass with a sharp pencil, a 180° half circle protractor, and a rule. First, I made a dot with a pencil in the center of the sheet of cardstock. Using a compass set to a radius to 3” inches from the pencil mark I made, I drew a circle 6” inches in diameter. Next, I drew the first of three lines radiating from the center pencil mark out to the edge of the sheet. Then, I centered a 180° half circle protractor over the pencil mark and at the same time spinning it around until the first line I drew lined up with the 0° degree indicator along the straight edge. Going forward, a pencil mark was placed at the 120° indicator at the outer edge of the protractor onto the cardstock. Next, a new line was drawn from the center pencil mark outward through the mark I made at the 120° indicator to the edge of the sheet. To make the third and final line, (which is another 120° from the center), I repeated the process. Basically, all I did was divided a circle into three equal parts (360° divided by 3, equals 120°), which formed the three centerlines for the Pan-Head fingers. Now it is just a matter of establishing the width of each finger for the Pan-Head and transferring this measurement to each finger on the template. The finger width can be found simply by measuring the gap between the “main leg supports” of one of your tripod legs.

Once the Pan-Head fingers and outer perimeter curves of the template were drawn, it was time to draw the center hole on the template to match the bottom of Gary’s CG-5 Equatorial head’s latitude adjustment base. After that step, the template was cutout from the cardstock with as much precision as possible. So use a very sharp pair of scissors, or X-ACTO Knife to insure a crisp edge.