New Cheap Dolly Track

Kevin Briggs

Kevin Briggs

Well-known member
I built a dolly track system on set in a couple spare hours that works like a charm!!! It's supports 2 people 16mm cam 100mm tripod using the Rowe Cine dolly 32 wheel setup, and the motion is smooooooooth. Best part is it's cheap! $60 for 20'. Bad part is the poles are 10' long. Here are some pictures from the set and a video with the dolly in action. Sorry about the quality, it's pretty bad:

http://media.putfile.com/Behind-the-Scenes-66

I'll post some more pictures of the track soon.

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100' of solid track would only be $300!!!

I used bit's and peices from 3 different designs I found on this site and others. For the track I used 1 1/4" (1.25") galvanized metal fence tops for $8.50 each at Home Depot. They slide into each other 3" like a sleeve and once built I just used a peice of gaffer tape on the underside out of the way of the wheels. We also used sand bags on the ends as a precaution when the dolly got to the end of the track, which may have helped keeping the pipes together. With 32 wheels the tiny trasition from pole to pole was invisible. I plan on rigging a more permanant solution to keep the pipes tight, but for now the tape works fine. Another option I read about was buying black sprinkler hose and slitting it from front to back and just sliding it over the poles which will hide all the seems for up to 100'. This will work with 1" diameter, but I've not tested it on 1.25" diameter pipe. The cool thing about the metal pipe is it can be bent into a radius and keep it's shape. This would mean I would have to design a dolly with rotating wheels, but it can be done. We tried PVC and it was a cluster F_CK. They are too light and wimpy to give good results. With the metal fence tops we were able to have around 350+ lbs on the track with 3' gaps between the track supports with no fluxuation in the poles. The rest is rather simple, but it requires me to take some pictures to help the visual. Used wood 2x4's cut to length and held the poles at the correct width using another metal pipe cut in half and screwed into the 2x4 as a saddle. The last step was putting some .5mm rubber tape in the saddle to cover the screw and make a no-slip surface for the poles to rest it. I cut the saddles on set with a diamond blade and used a skillsaw to cut multiple sized wedges to put under the 2x4's for uneven ground. The only reason you see 4-5 supports in the pictures above is because it was kinda swampy and we needed the dolly to be solid. On solid ground all you need is one on each end and one in the middle of the 10' section, so for 20' you need 5 since #3 supports the connection of the two peices.

I'll post more pics soon. I won't be able to get the 16mm camera footage, but you can see them using it in the short video. You can also see the dolly breaking in the alley when we were using PVC tracks. We used the metal tracks for the rest of the shoot w/o problems.

Later

-Kevin
 
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Kevin Briggs said:
the motion is smooooooooth.
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..so ..exactly how smooth is that? :)

wow though, i watched the footage and couldnt believe the actors waiving around the firearms at eachother in the end. crazy.
 
Reeeeeeaaaaaaaally Smooooooooooth. They transfered the dailies to mini dv so I'll try to get some footage, but I have my doubts.

The guns were sweet. They are exact replicas down to the weight, but the barrels come from the factory w/o a hole, and the guns shoot blanks that give off some nice smoke and fire. They are cheeper to buy than the real thing, and it's legal to carry them w/o a concealed weapons permit. Pull it out on a cop and your dead Fred. The only downside is they don't give off a recoil, so the actor has to fake that. No more Brian(I mean Brandon) Lee's need to die now.

-Kevin
 
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brandon lee. :) yeah though, thats what i was thinking.

do you have a link to those replica prop guns? id love to check them out. i could use some in a little while. your film looks interesting by the way, keep us posted on it if you could. hope it does well!
 
I was brought on as a PA and I helped on audio, gripping, behind the scenes, etc just for the chance to learn. It was a great experience overall. 10 days of my brain is reserved for the information I gained on the set. The grip guys wanted me to have the position of key grip after the sucess of the dolly track. Blows my mind. The set was my film school. I plan on trying to learn how to load a 16/35mm mag to make myself more useful on the next set i work on. I'll find you a link Neil.
 
Neil Rowe said:
brandon lee. :) yeah though, thats what i was thinking.

do you have a link to those replica prop guns? id love to check them out. i could use some in a little while. your film looks interesting by the way, keep us posted on it if you could. hope it does well!
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Here's a google link, I have ap38 I bought off ebay for about 89$. You just have to check all the sites to see what guns you like, and then find a price you like. I found the 8mm blanks cheapest at outdoorsuperstore.com but they appear to be on backorder right now. Product # is 293201 and they ran me 13.25 for box of 50, almost about 1/3 of any other place I could find them.
 
pics

pics

Materials and tools: Metal coupler(below) 1.25" metal fence rails(not pictured) Rubber tape or similar no-slip solution, Dimond blade(below) or other metal cutting tool, 1.25" drywall screw, Drill w/ 3/16" metal drill bit, 2x4's.
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Cut the coupler into 4 peices taking out the middle groove leaving 4 saddle shaped halves. Drill one 3/16" hole in the center leaving the ability to pivot.
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After measuring the center points from the underside of your dolly mark your 2x4 and screw the saddle into the 2x4. Another way to do this is to connect one saddle then set you dolly and tracks on the 2x4 and scribe on the wood where the other saddle needs to be.
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I used rubber plywrap tape found in the electrical dept at Home Depot to both cover up the metal screw and also to provide a nice rubber no-slip surface for the track to ride in. My next design will include a thicker metal saddle with a submerged machined screw, and an aluminum base to replace the 2x4 with a channel for the saddle to slide in and I'll lock it down with a wingnut and lock washer. This model with work with any dolly up to 3.5' wide.
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This is not what was used for the track. The track is the 1.25" galvanized top rail metal fence at Home Depot. This picture is just to show how the rail would fit.
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SplitVision said:
that wasn't the set of Natural Possession was it?...
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It sure was. All the crew were great to work with. I learned a lot from everyone. It would have been nice to have a crane for some shots, but the cinematographers we pretty resourceful to get the shots they needed.

Split what relation do you have to the film, if you don't mind me asking?

-Kevin
 
i guess i'm still wondering why people are buying those rowecine dolly wheels when you can just buy skate board wheels for much cheaper.
 
Inoran said:
i guess i'm still wondering why people are buying those rowecine dolly wheels when you can just buy skate board wheels for much cheaper.
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Maybe because most people's time is worth more than what it would take for them to build a product of similar quality. Also most people don't have the array of tools needed to build their own. They might not be as handy as you or I. Just a guess.
 
I had a skateboard wheel version for two years before grabbing one of the Rowe versions. A world of difference. My skateboard wheels always flattened out and got bumpy after a few days of shooting on the dolly. Constant replacement was necessary.
 
Inoran said:
i guess i'm still wondering why people are buying those rowecine dolly wheels when you can just buy skate board wheels for much cheaper.
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well ...our kits are more than just the wheels, but hey, thats actually question #7 on our FAQ :) :

"Q7. Can’t I just make my own dolly using cheap skateboard wheels?
A7. Yes. You can also make your very own soul mate out of cardboard. The difference is about the same. Make no mistake. These are professional quality custom manufactured cinema dolly trucks. "


..but to really truely get a feel for the answer to that question you should try building your own , and then try out one of our kits. as mentioned above, by the time you put in all the the money and time and pure headache, youve probably more than payed for one of our kits. youd be suprised at how many people have purchased our kits that already owned a DYI dolly. Im a very DYI type guy. I like to invent and build stuff and i certainly built my own first dolly before the cine dolly was concieved. needless to say, i wasnt satisfied with what i ended up with, and i wasnt too thrilled about all the time it took me to build something that a corporate video client actually laughed at. seriously... lol ,that was a pretty painful and shameful experience. so, ..countless hours and dollars later, we can all have an affordable proffessional quality dolly kit with a simple click of a paypal button. Ive built DYI windscreens, mic poles, light fixtures, butterflys, reflectors, green/bluescreens, 35mm adaptor, ect.. and then later, i bought real ones.. (well all but the 35mm adaptor).. why? for the same reason everyone else does.

why does it have to be perfect? cause its our work.. its our passion, its our pride, its our livelyhood, and by all means neccessary, the shots better count.
why does it have to be pretty, cause it demands the repsect of cast crew and client, it says "im a proffessional, and i have the right tools for the job" , it inspires us and instills our passion for what we do, and yeah.. i guess if we were so inclined, wed have plenty of bragging rights. if youd like people to take you seriously, and in turn, the production seriously, and it comes to something as integral as a dolly, and the shots count, and all eyes are on you. the thing better perform like ..well .. like a professional dolly, and it helps to look good doing it. we take this stuff pretty seriously, but (as Levar Burton says) .. you dont have to take my word for it.

http://www.rowecine.com/feedback.html

although honestly we dont really see DYI dollies as competitors.. more of a newborn baby sister ...if that makes sense. if were going to go after someone, its going to be more along these lines:

http://www.matthewsgrip.com/mse.php?show=product&cat=422&products_ID=25414
 
I was thinking about building a versatile track base made from aluminum channel metal. It would have a groove in the center that a more beefy version of the saddle shown above could slide in and get locked down to fit almost any size dolly base(up to a reasonable width anyways). Also the saddle metal would be 1/4" thick so you just drill halfway though in order to submerge the bolt/screw head beneath the metal. Neil have you guys considered anything like this? Hire me I'll show how to build it...LOL

How do you suppose mathewsgrip are able to rotate the 8 wheels independently? Also do you think It would be feasible for me to bring the fence rail tubing into a machine shop with a bender and have them give me a radius? I'm guessing the metal might be a little too weak and instead of conforming to a new shape it would crimp or fold over on itself.

Thinking out load.
 
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