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The plates are always somewhat soft, typically being made from 6061 aluminium or similar. You want a tough, hard wearing material? You would be wanting something like steel……HEAVY……or a lightweight exotic like titanium….EXPENSIVE.
Impressive undertaking though what is the load rating of the epoxy which is now the stress point?
What do you use for your teather?
From what I've seen with the reported failures, it appears the inserts distort or deform. That makes a lot of sense intuitively based on the size, loading, and design.
It depends on the foot/plate design and all of them represent a compromise. For example, the Hejnar foot on my 800 offers a second QD socket so, I simply use a second QD connector to the strap. Obviously, there are several potential points of failure including the strap, the connector, foot, sling, etc., though it offers a secondary fail safe. For my lenses or bodies where there isn't a secondary QD connector, I run a strap to the camera lug (this is for the L bracket QD where I am employing smaller lenses on the body) or alternatively a second strap around the foot or lens itself. There are a lot of methods and materials to do this, and typically, my tether is a paracord or other similar material with a sufficient load rating for the intended purpose.
The insert is screwed to the aluminum with the USA made screw that came with the insert. I tapped the bottom of the hole so I didn't have a screw and nut on the backside. Belt And suspenders. lol The epoxy is for lateral support. A Magpul socket kit is about $15. Magpul invented the system for rifles which often have optics as expensive as cameras.
Aha! Thanks for the clarification and it wasn't clear to me that you had tapped the original hole and screwed the apparatus together rather than relying on epoxy. Did you get a "sense" of the strength properties of the collar's metal when you were tapping it?
I do the opposite and use plates rather than replacement feet (Kirk or RRS, no experience with other manufacturers) on my Z 100-400 and 600 and 800 PF lenses. When balancing on the fluid head that I use for a gimbal I found the Arca-Swiss clamp usually gripped only a part of the replacement foot’s length when the lens was attached to my Z8 or Z9--how much differed with the body/lens combination, but sometimes much less than half the foot’s length.
This subject was discussed extensively in another thread. The surface of anodized aluminum is actually harder/more resistant to wear than stainless steel. In fact the test used to quantify material hardness involves pressing a ball bearing or sharp point into the material. Much like the effect of the load caused by the QD connector in the socket.
As noted in another reply…generally I think replacement feet re better than plates…but machined or insert for the QD hole I’ve never really considered. More important than that I think is material choice and monitoring it for when it’s wearing and needs replacement…aluminum is softer than steel but I’ve not had any issues with mine and the cost savings of Hejnar over Kirk are substantial. Its been a long time since college…but while anodized aluminum is harder than non anodized…it is generally as I recall still softer than steel but it really depends on what kind of steel it is, stainless or not as well as other properties, heat treatment, etc. I have several Hejnar that are 3 years old that show no wear…and the price has always biased me against Kirk, RSS, Gitzo, and the other high priced spreads. I’m happy to pay more if it is worth it…but name and cachet are relatively unimportant to me.As I consider going with a QD system, I see that there are plates with a metal liner in the QD hole aka Kirk and without like Hejnar. For those of you with experience is one more secure than the other?
4.00 Inch Plate with Ridge and 2 QD sockets
www.hejnarphotostore.com
Yes, I milled the hole as well as tapping for the screw and the aluminum (Nikon) is very high quality. I Had no problems torquing the screw, I used Loctite as well. My original idea was just to wet the mating surfaces with epoxy but I had enough mixed and filled it. It will never come apart now! This could be done clamped on a drill press, I didn't use any of the mill's X-Y movements after set up and didn't remove much metal.
Plates, feet, etc. are all made of aluminum which is softer than steel.
