2026-04-19 National Hex-Bolt Quick Release Tripod

I was wondering through a thrift shop on a day they offered 30 per cent off (for Seniors). I found a tripod in slightly “worse-for-wear” condition. How worse will fully reveal itself soon. I was interested in the tripod because it had a hex head Quick Release and one of my more recent tripods had the same style. That earlier tripod did not have the bolt used as a QR attachment. 

    This National branded tripod had its QR bolt (we will call it) and I had some hopes it might be a standard so I could use it in either tripod. In order to kill the suspense, the two bolts are not the same size.
    But back to the condition problems. Just for starters—starting with the legs—there were only two ends showing. I looked inside the missing leg end and could see a tube up inside. I removed the twist leg-lock and fished the missing leg segment out. Then I threaded the plastic jam lock onto the tube, capped it with the twist lock and screwed the leg back together.

    Now I had a three legged tripod—but all the legs lacked bottom “feet”. O well, at least I could solve that problem with anything from pencil erasers to pipe caps (the tubes were ½ inch which should be common enough)..

    You are probably hoping to hear what all this was going to cost me. It ended up costing $3.35 tax in.

    But back to further condition problems. 

    The next obvious drawback was the tripod’s paint finish. I have never removed a thrift store price sticker and found not only the paint under the sticker but large chips of the paint projecting from the sticker edges. WOW, this paint was really not holding onto the aluminum pipe. The legs were almost speckled with equal quantities of bare aluminum and black paint patterns.

    So I started to clean the dust off the tripod and in that process loosened the head. It fell off and left a dent in the tile floor. It turns out the head sits on a post and that post had a cap screw that was missing. It wasn’t that obvious as long as the head was tightened on by the pan thumb screw, but tell that to the wife who witnessed the impact on her floor.

    At the same time—picking the head off the floor—it seemed a large chip was missing from the tilt handle. This tripod purchase just keeps getting better and better, not having tried playing with the bolt yet.

I reattached the head and kept dusting.

Notice how clever the National tripod designers were? You can use the tilt handle to trap the column crank so it doesn’t flop around when the tripod is moving to its next job. 

    Then I returned to examining the bolt closer. In the side view you can see the groove seems to have been carved with something quite course, leaving parallel scratches.

    Looking at the end of the bolt it appears the QR was fabricated from a brass nut. 

    Yet the other end—the end attached to the camera— has the ¼” thread protruding. There aren’t any tell tale marks that would indicate welding of two parts together. Rather the QR bolt seems to have been cut on a lathe—protruding ¼” threads, interior threaded “nut” portion—, then the 6-sides cut off and the edges slightly chamfered. Then the groove was cut around the nut.
I slightly suspect the original mounting QR bolt would have been chrome plated. This brass bolt must have been created to make the tripod useful again. I’ll have to do my part and find a new fastener for the head and three feet tips.