Manfrotto plate problem (1 Viewer)

[Borjam]

Cheers, that's almost it, just gotta find ones that fit 👍👍

You didn't mention your tripod and head models I think.

Anyway that website makes it rather easy to find the proper spares.

 

[Tringa45]

As Steve pointed out above, the problem with the Manfrotto QR plates can be attributed to the rubber mating surface. This introduces compliance and allows shear (fatigue) loads on the plastic anti-rotation pin.
The anti-rotation pin should only be a positioning aid and neither it nor the fixing screw should be subjected to shear if the interfaces are metal. The gradient on the screw thread results in a high clamping load with applied torque, just as the friction between car wheel and hub transmits all tangential and radial loads. The only loads on the bolts or studs are in tension.

John

 

[Alexis Powell]

Yes, the 500AH and I did have to glue the rubber back down which seems to have done the trick. I wasn't that good at tapping and die work hence my reluctance to concur with your handiwork.
Cheers.

I don't like Manfrotto plates but I have some of the long sliding ones that I didn't want to go to waste (since they work with Manfrotto, some Gitzo, and some Sirui heads). My approach w/these plates (and similar Gitzo models) was to remove the rubber, then use a Dremel or similar tool to cut a shallow socket into one end of the top of each plate for the particular scope with which I committed to using it. Doing that gives me a plate with metal interface that doesn't rotate and doesn't loosen.

--AP

 

[Eugene Archer]

Thanks for all the replies everyone, defo some food for thought there 😊😊👍

I solved, more or less, the problem of my scope rotating or becoming loose on the QR plate (the one with the ribbed plastic surface) by cutting a 3x2 cm piece of rubber inner-tube, making a 5mm hole in the middle and then fitting it between the scope and the plastic QR plate. The extra tension / compression and grip provided by the rubber works pretty well . . . .and zero £ !

 

[wllmspd]

My heavier scopes and binoculars have multiple threads holes on the base, so I lock in several screws, the plate isn’t going anywhere. Of course I check them every now and then, just in case.

Peter