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Posted by DeathLens in Untagged
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The following is a Do It Yourself for a video camera dolly.
Supplies you will need to build the dolly featured:
-PVC 1inch piping
• Depending on your set up that you want, the piping size may vary in both diameter and length. The piping pictured is 1’’ PVC conduit piping from Home Depot (about $6.00 each, 3 are used)
-Plywood
• Once again, the size of the ply wood will depend on how large you want the dolly to be. In this situation, the ply wood pictured is 28.5’’ by 24.8’’
-PVC connectors
• These you can get in many different forms, the ones pictured are 90degree elbow connectors for outdoor conduit piping due to sizing problems, any 90degree elbows will work fine though
-Computer chair/table wheels
• At least four of these are mandatory, more can be used to ensure stability. Your wheels may be threaded at one end or may be snap in (in this case, snap in). If you acquire wheels that are threaded refer to your local hardware store for proper bolt sizes
-Cotter pins
• In this case, four are used for the snap on wheels. Make sure the pins you purchase snap firmly to the wheels
-Flat washers
• Depending on the sizing of the plywood you may require these. Eight flat washers are used in this case
-Tripod
• For this dolly to be effective you will require some sort of camera tripod
-Bungee cords
• These cords will hook from your tripod to the bottom of the plywood to ensure stability when the dolly is in motion
Building the dolly (the easy part!)
You are going to want to start by figuring out how large/wide you will want your dolly to be (this will be determined by how much you want your tripod to extend). Before cutting keep in mind your intended use for the dolly.
Map out your tripod at the extension you desire on the piece of plywood
You can than proceed to marking and cutting the plywood to your desired dimensions
Next up, mark out where you will be putting your wheels. *Remember, in order for the dolly to work to it’s full potential all wheels will need to be place within the exact same measurements, so measure carefully and don’t drill until you are sure.
Once the holes are drilled, push the wheels through. Once they are through drop 2 flat washers on top of the plywood followed by the cotter pin. *While doing this ensure that wheel movement is minimal (add or subtract washers if needed)
Once all four wheels have been snapped in place on the ply wood, you can proceed onto the piping
Get two of the three pieces of PVC, and cut the edges (if necessary). Cut the PVC to the desired length. These two cut pieces will be the “length” of the tracking where the dolly will slide alone
You can than proceed to install the elbows at all four ends of the “length” piping.
Once this is done, place your assembled dolly on top of the “length” piping. From this you will be able to see how long each “width” piping will need to be. Measure out the pieces, cut them carefully and ensure both are the exact same length(leave them a bit long at first if needed), than attach them to the elbows
Reposition your dolly on the tracks again and make sure all four wheels line up. Once everything is lined up and straight, you can proceed to positioning your tripod on top of the ply wood and adding the bungee cords for stability.
And that’s all you need to have professional creative shots for around $50.00.
