slow crawl with a dolly
 

I heard many mention trying to acheive a slow crawl with a dolly, and some people talked about hooking up some sort of slow turing motor to do this smoothly. Well, I have an idea and want to hear what you all think. What if you mounted a fishing reel (just the reel) to a 2 foot long 1"X6" board, stood on each end of it with the reel between your feet, and literally reeled the dolly towards you. With some heavy fishing line and a low gear ratio reel, you could keep the speed consistant. What do you all think?

That sounds like a reel great idea!

Fishing reels usually have a rather fast retrieve: They're geared that way to get the line in quickly. Some have two speed settings to deal with heavy loads (something we all wish for) or for a fast retrieve in case the fish makes a run toward the boat.

If you want to use a motor, there are geared low-speed motors that run film processors, etc, which might be available at surplus outlets. There was a place here in Honolulu that sold stuff like that but they went out of business.

Or you might want to create a simple hand-cranked, spool-type device. Use a long handle with a small spool and you'll get a slow retrieve.

Yeah
 

Yeah after I posted this, I played with some of my fishing reels, and they are kind of fast at the retrieve. That's when, like you said, I realized some type of big handle/little spool type device would work best. I just figured it would be a lot cheaper than a motor, and its speed could be variable as well.

How about a boat trailer winch. They have a nice thick strap, and a low gear ratio. Just need to hold or remove the ratchet mechanism.

Just something to think about.

-gb-

Or a garage door opener. You can even operate it with a remote control. :)

reviving this as I want to do this so i can do timelapse dolly shots...

something like this ?

http://www.trevswork.com/mo/

You can use a motor from a rotating disco ball. You can find them here: http://www.sciplus.com/singleItem.cfm/terms/12254

5 rpm and runs between 6-12 V DC, (very easy to keep it portable). You can attach a larger pulley wheel to the motor to collect the string attached to your dolly.

Even better...........
 

And with a bit of luck, even free!

A surplus/ trashed battery powered drill. See 'em turfed out every day (usually 'cos the NiCad's have died).

The motors/ gearboxes have more grunt than you'd give them credit for and have speed control built in, the chuck allows you to afix just about any type of spindle/ reel system you can devise and most will work off a 12 volt lead acid battery no matter what their stated voltages are.

Worth a try.


CS

it needs to be REALLY slow though

Make it a union job? ;)

Hello Philip,

How slow is slow?

1 meter/second? 10 cm/second? 1cm/second?

Slow speeds does not necessarily mean small motor... For a decent move with no vibrations you will need a strong motor with a big rotation-reducer. In combination with a small pulley you have the power and reduce the speed.
A slow rotating motor will always have its vibrations: So you will need to let your motor run at max speed and reduce speed with gearboxes and pulleys..

A source could be an electrical step?

Onno Perdijk
Key Grip / Manufacturer
Netherlands
www.solidgripsystems.eu

btw:

a 2000 rpm motor with a 1/30 reductor and a pulley of 6cm will give you a max speed of 21 cm/second....

This combi can pull a 50kg straight-line. So the dolly-weight on smooth running track can be over 200kg... (just finished math-school, :-) )

Onno

can you make me one?