DIY Dolly on Track

[Alturo Nguyen]

i had a bookmark file just for this stuff, but can't find it.... remember one site was red and black and had links to tons of sites with pictures any1 got these links...

[Spencer Houck]

I believe you're talkin about www.homebuiltstabilizers.com. A good dolly tutorial can be found here, but its French, so you'll have to run it through babel fish or something similar. http://www.shadowgirlproject.com/dolly01.asp

Good luck, I just finished building my skateboard dolly, and am currently building a jib, with an optional homemade steadicam rig in the back of my mind. I'm stockin' up on neat stuff before school starts again.

Hope thats what you're looking for,
Spencer Houck

[Alturo Nguyen]

right on the money, black and red just like i remember:) ... thanks a ton shadowgirl is great, that's actually the first one i saw

[Corey Sturmer]

This is my first attempt at creating a dolly, it turned out very well so I think it will be a long while before I try anything else. The pictures are posted below. I used hardwood for the top surfaces, and hardwood slats for the sides. I used I guess standard deck screws to put the thing together, and angle irons for the wheels, with two inch bolts for them to spin on. I had to custom drill the holes in the angle irons and also drill out the holes for the 2 inch bolts to go through because they weren't big enough to begin with.

http://www.joecam.net/Dolly

[Bryan McCullough]

Looks pretty good Corey.

When do we get to see some action shots?

[Corey Sturmer]

heh, I kind of ran out of funds (btw this only cost about 60 bucks, which is more than it could be because I bought some expensive wood), and I have yet to purchase tracks. However, I plan to do so soon and I will post some action shots ASAP.

[Aaron Koolen]

Corey, hope you'll be as surprised as I was when I built my dolly. Looks a lot like your version and it ran real smooth.

Good luck and can't wait to see some action shots
Aaron

[Corey Sturmer]

I was very happy with the turn out, I can't wait to see it in action...Do you have any shots we can look at?
Thanks.

[Matthew Cherry]

I have read a number of posts on this site regarding building a skateboard dolly, but nothing on building regular dollies. First, I'm wondering why there is such a preference for these dollies. Do they work that much better?

Has anyone here attempted to build a DIY version of this: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/cinemasupplies/dodo20d.html

I'm looking at wheels that ride in angle track like these: http://theonlinecatalog.com/castersofoklahoma/view_product.cgi?product_id=249

Is this a bad idea?

Also, where could I find a camera pedestal instead of using a tripod?

Best,

Matt

[Yang Wen]

I would thinkg those wheels you posted will derail easily if the track is not layed down correctly. Also I think the skateboard design spreads the pressure out to a larger surface area than just using a single concave wheel. This would afford you the option to use softer material as track.

On another note, is there anything special about those professional doorway dollys, as far as the wheels and suspension goes? Looks like a glorified garden cart to me.

[Matthew Cherry]

<<<-- Originally posted by Yang Wen : On another note, is there anything special about those professional doorway dollys, as far as the wheels and suspension goes? Looks like a glorified garden cart to me. -->>>

:) Exactly, what I've been thinking.... This leads me to wonder why I couldn't make one.

I guess I can understand using a skateboard dolly to just move the camera. But what if you also want to have your DP sitting, or standing, on the dolly operating the camera while a dolly grip handles movement. Do you think a skateboard dolly would suffice?

I will probably build a small skateboard dolly first no matter what, just to play with it and experiment, but it seems I should be able to fabricate a regular dolly for FAR less than what they go for, even used.

[Dan Selakovich]

Hi Matthew,

The reason the skateboard types are prefered is because they are easy to haul to the shoot, they are easily raised off the ground if need be (the "garden type" needs a lot of rigging to get them higher), and they are much cheaper to build or buy for the same effect. The dolly in my book is designed so you can take off the wheels and move them to different sized platforms (VERY HANDY! There's a dolly shot going through the back seat of a car on my web site on a 12" square platform. Hard to do with the garden dolly). My design also allows you to hang the dolly up-side-down on the track. We did a shot in downtown L.A. running track from one roof top to another, had the camera hanging underneath, and pulled the dolly across with a rope. Again, hard to do with a large platform and big wheels.

Dan
www.DVcameraRigs.com

[Matthew Cherry]

This is why I am but a lowly grasshopper...

Thanks!!!

[Mike Rehmus]

One of the problems that has been reported with skateboard dollies is that the bearings are designed for a load 90 degrees to the axle. When the wheels are loaded at a 45 degree angle to the axle, the bearings tend to rapidly wear, especially if one places the camera operator on the dolly..

I've noticed some dollies that use skateboard wheels actually use three wheels per station. Two at 45 degrees to guide and one mounted upright to carry the majority of the load.

Probably, somewhere, there are skateboard wheels with side thrust bearings but I've not found them.

I've often thought that the wheels that are used for the non-inline skates, those that have some width to their tread, might be better as the main load-bearing wheel and used in conjunction with the skateboard wheels for guiding.

[Vitaly Bokser]

Hey All,

Built a new dolly... this is version 1.0 with many enhancements soon to come.
I'm also writing a tutorial and have many pics of how I built it for those interested (which will be available shortly on my site).

Here is the Dolly vid.