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2026-11-07 Welt FL Safe-Lock Tripod

    This Welt Safe-Lock tripod is an excellent example of American engineering. Let’s explore all that engineering, as well as some design choices. The tripod’s legs have an outer tube and an inner tube. The inner tube has a flip lock on the top protected by being tight to the hub. “Flip” the lock and the outer tube is free to extend down the inner tube. This adjusts the overall leg length. 








    The flip lock has a note on one leg indicating which way the flip-lock moves to open and close. 















    Another leg has a caution to not force the levers.
















    A small sticker indicates the Model is a FL, is patented and has other patents pending.















    A final sticker reinforces the Flip-Lock name.











    Up on the head there is a plate proclaiming the tripod is made in the USA in Hialeah, Florida. See that huge Phillips screw head? That is your only adjustment to turn the platform sideways. 













    The cast camera head can tilt fore and aft and rotate, but both adjustments release and lock with the same handle. 














    The only other control is the lock for the center column. It is a large three-sided knob. There isn’t a fancy elevating crank or gearing to control the speed the camera could drop. 








    You just loosen the knob and pull the column up or let it slide down. Speed can be controlled by just how loose you release the knob.










    I am always amazed you can cut a slit in a casting and then open and close the gap with a threaded shaft. You would expect this to fatigue and crack over the years but it works as well as any other head lock.












    
    With the head pointed straight up you can see the clip that locks the head onto the machined top of the column. There are very few parts in the head, and each one is machined and extremely rugged.












    The camera attachment screw has a black screw so you can finger tight the screw into the camera. Then the larger aluminum collar can be tightened up to lock the camera on the head. Note how exact and yet relatively plain the edge knurling is.











    I have a suspicion that deep channel in the head would accept a small platform projector table key to make the union more robust. 
    Just a thought. 














    The deep recess doesn’t bother mounting most cameras I can think of.
    
    Here the tripod has all three legs fully expended, which places the camera’s eyepiece at almost 1.22 m (close to 4 feet). You can be in water almost half way up the legs without any problems.
    











  
    But by fully raising the center column you can have the camera over 1.5 m high (5 feet). Although purists are screaming the camera will not be rock steady, for anyone filming a family with a movie camera this design is rigid enough.
    Besides tripods, Welt made projection tables. I would be curious to see if the leg lock legs were used in the projection table too.

Welt Safe-Lock FL tripod

Weight         3 Kg 6.6 lb.
Folded size 69 cm 27 in
Leg diameter         2.5 cm 1 in
Height (Legs extended) 110 cm 43.5 in
Column height 43 cm 17 in
Column diameter 2.5 cm   1 in

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