Topic: Steel 5/8" double-ended pins/studs - cheap; top quality!

[voltronic]

I just bought this 3-pack of solid steel 5/8" pins. They are solid steel, which I haven't seen anywhere else. Quality is equal to the best I've seen. The machining is every bit as good as the brass Manfrotto pins, and you get 3 of these steel pins for the same price as one of the brass ones.

https://a.co/d/d0PkWnV

[SMsound]

I have no idea why people adopted brass in the A/V business. It's known for being pretty, heavy, and weak. Everything should either be steel (when you care about absolute strength) or aluminum (when you care about strength/weight ratio). I often think that the companies that set the standards for machining in A/V don't know much about machining ("hey let's have people attach all the parts that aren't supposed to twist using threads and baby pins").

Nice find by the way--can't have too many adapters. I carry a big ziplock of Manfrotto adapters of every flavor when I open-tape. The last time I bought off-brand, I had to take them to the machine shop and run threadsavers over all of the threads. I wonder if the other Neewer adapter types are good too.

FWIW, B H photo sells the manfrotto adapters (actually everything manfrotto) with a significant education discount (if you can get a university email address).

[voltronic]

I had no idea about the academic discounts at B&H. I'm a teacher, so I should start taking advantage!