Hey Guys,

I recently completed a dolly and decided a crane would be a good next addition. So far I have constructed the arm (relatively easy) but I can not for the life of me figure out how to mount the arm to my tripod. I know there are plenty of people who have made these types of things before. How did you go about this task?

On a side note, did anyone use a specific method to ensure that the metal joints move smoothly? That's really my only other concern.

Any help would be most appreciated!

Aaron,
Think Al "U" shape. two smaller (roller blade brs ?) for the sides.
A shaft going through the arm and bearings will ensure the smooth op and support to the "U" part.Bottom of the "U" has the 1/4" threaded hole (to mount it on the tripod)
If you have built a dolly, you should not have any problems with the jib.

Thanks Dan. That's what I was thinking, but I really don't have a tap die set to make a 1/4" thread into a u bracket :(. I had a similar idea in mind actually - I was thinking of drilling through and using a nut to hold the bracket to the tripod. The problem with my setup was that the screw is too short. It just seemed to weak to me.

I used a large castor assembly with the wheel removed and modified to reduce play. The details are in this post:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=45488

With a bit of cutting, drilling and tapping, it's the perfect crane mount. It's sports a nipple (grease that is), and has two thrust type bearings. Hey, nipple and thrust in the same sentence..oops. The castor was $38 CAN.

I used 2 flanged bearings (about $2 CAN each) at every joint. The bolt that holds the arm to the castor has four bearings on it due to the link arms' need to rotate freely. Overkill, maybe, but it's super smooth and quiet.

Thanks Dennis :)

Just a word of warning: If you're going to put a crane on a dolly, make damn sure that the dolly run is perfectly level! And make sure you sandbag the pajeezus out of the tripod legs. You didn't mention how long your crane is. Usually for something on a dolly (especially in the DIY world) the boom shouldn't be too long. There are 3 crane designs in my book "Killer Camera Rigs", one of them being a short jib designed to go on a dolly to mimic the shots Hollywood gets with a fisher dolly with a short boom attached. I almost never use my tripod any more! Once you have your dolly and boom, I'd highly recommend Per Holme's DVD series: Hollywood Camera Work

http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/index.html

You can read a review of it on my site at:

http://dvcamerarigs.com/links.html

Just scroll down to "Book I Like". It's an amazing series and worth every penny!

Dan
www.DVcameraRigs.com