Post pics of your homemade dolly's
 

I'd like to see some pics of your homemade dolly's. I'm sure others would probably be interested in them too.

I'd like to see dolly's with tracks and dolly's without tracks.

I'd also like to hear the pro's and con's about your dolly setup.

Thanks,
Eric

http://sunens.uqac.ca/~jparchib/Albu...s/photo_4.html
http://sunens.uqac.ca/~jparchib/Albu...s/photo_8.html
http://sunens.uqac.ca/~jparchib/Albu.../photo_23.html
http://sunens.uqac.ca/~jparchib/Albu.../photo_41.html

Pros:
- Easy to build
- Easy to operate
- Very smooth
- cost less than 100$
- PVC pipes (track) are readilly available in any hardware store, so I can expand the tracks to any distance

Cons:
- One set of wheels on each corner is not enough to avoid little bump at the joint point. I sould add one more set.
- Hard to pan for more than 120 degrees. the plate dosen't allow the operator to turn with the camera.

Jean-Philippe,

Looks like a good setup... Do you have any closups of the wheels?

How did you build the wheel setup?

How do you keep the track straight so the dolly doesn't bind up in places?

Thanks
Eric

The track in that dolly is PVC conduit - much more rigid and less flexible than traditional pvc tubing. As long as the wheels are equidistant and aligned, you'll have no problems with binding.

Some closeups

http://sunens.uqac.ca/~jparchib/photos/wheel1.jpg
http://sunens.uqac.ca/~jparchib/photos/wheel2.jpg

Really simple. 3 steel plates welded together.

As Patrick said, the tracks are solid conduits. You drop it on the floor, and since the wheels are at equal distance, when you roll on it, the tracks adjust automatically to the right distance and stay here as long as the dolly is on it.

Jean-Philippe,

Thanks so much for posting some pictures of the wheels. I'll have to see if i can find some angle iron or go to a local welding shop and bring your pictures to them and have them build some for me.

Thanks again!

Eric

In my experience PVC pipe is not suitable outside on uneven ground. The dolly bucks and yaws about. Use steel pipe. Simple sleepers can be made to transverse lumps and bumps on the ground and keep the rig stable and level.

To solve the PVC problem, you can attach them to strips of lumber. The big advantage of PVC, is that you can connect them together without getting that tell-tale bump at each section! When attached to lumber, you can use apple boxes to raise them up a bit to keep your tracks out of the snow (damn, that looks cold!).

Dan Selakovich
www.DVcameraRigs.com

Dan,

Not too cold! These pictures was taken in march 2004, so in the last part of the winter... must be about -10 celcius. In January, temperature often drop to about -40 celcius here. That is REALLY cold.

Today, it is about 25 celcius, and the rest of summer is pretty warm, often close to 35.

-40 to +35 in only a few months :-) That's the good thing with a cold winter like this. You really appreciate the summer comming :)

Good Lord! When it gets down to 60 here in L.A., people are breaking out the parkas!

Dan

I've just built a dolly system (straight out of Dan Selakovich's book).

At first, just with PVC pipe was ok, then screwed it to wood, made two sleepers per length (one at each end) and made up a whole load of wedges for uneven ground. Also, each section is joined by slotting in wooden dowel which happens to be a perfect fit for the pvc pipe.

It's a really smooth rig, although I think I made the base plate a little small, only a tripod can be placed on it, but hey, what's a piece of ply ? Also, I used thinner ply than suggested, but doubled it up so that the top sheet has a series of large holes in to fit the tripod legs.

Declan,

so where are the pics? :)

Eric

So Eric,

You never heard of the famous Charles king's web site Home Built Stabilizers ?

It's THE internet source for pictures of homemade camera stuff!

Look at the dollies gallerie: http://www.homebuiltstabilizers.com/greydollies.htm

(By the way Charles, my full rig stabilizer isn't on your site anymore?!? :-) )

Jean-Philippe,

No, I haven't heard of that site but thanks for sharing! I browsed through it and it's very cool to see what other enthusiasts are doing!

Eric

You're welcome!