Connecting pieces of PVC together for the PVC track dolly

D

DoubleIt

Well-known member
I have made the PVC track dolly and its great, but how do you connect the PVC togetehr so you can have more than one piece?
 
So find some wooden dowels that fit snugley in there and they just cut them to size? That seems like itd work... thanks. Of to home depot!
 
Try this. Get some thin wall PVC thats a little larger diameter than your track pipe. Cut an 8" piece or so. Slit it the long way and remove a strip of material (lengthwise) sufficient to be able to collapse it enough to slip into the end of your track piece. You want 4-6" sticking out. Now, drill one or two holes near the end of the track piece and through your "connector". Countersink the holes slightly and secure with pop-rivets. (One end of every track section will have a permanent connector).

You'll notice that the connector tends to flair out/expand on its own. Squeeze the connector and slip it into your next track section. You'll be surprised at how well it holds the sections together. I've had them grip so well it took two people to get the track sections apart.
 
Preston-
Can you post a pic of this? I'm not getting it, but then, I'm not fully awake yet. Not sure I would grasp the process of tying my shoe right now. ;)
 
Thartley--

To visualise this
Try his suggestions with the cardboard tube from inside a roll of paper towels.

brian wells
 
easier was. Get those grey pvc stubby pieces in the home depot. they are smaller short connectors that will fit in pvc pipe snugly.
 
Here are a couple of pics. Sounds like Walter has a good idea but I guess I'm not familiar with internal PVC pipe connectors, only external.

Anyway, in the top photo you can see how the "connector" naturally wants to expand. That's what helps hold the sections together. In the lower pic you can see the countersunk pop rivet that holds the connector securely to one end of the pipe section. It's on the opposite side of the slit.

pipe01.jpg

pipe02.jpg
 
Very good, thanks guys! The pics/plans helped a lot. I still have all my supplies sitting in my livingroom. Hopefully, I can do something with them this weekend.
 
i can't find the link but i wound up getting those pvc connectors from willies widgets.

they are really big dowels split in half with an allen bolt that expands the split sections. there are also O rings to give a nice solid fit.

they make for a nice quick setup and never give way until you undo the allen bolt.

matthew
 
I did a lot of experimenting on this for my book "Killer Camera Rigs That You Can Build". The best solution I've come up with is to get the thick wall PVC, 3/4". Take a 1/2" plumbing nipple (the short ones that have threads the entire length) and screw the nipple in the pvc. It's very tough at first, because the nipple is making threads in the PVC as you screw it in. Leave the nibble half-way out and screw on the other pvc. This makes a very tight seal and you don't get the bump at the joined section.

Dan
www.DVcameraRigs.com
 
Hi Vjbrennan,

I'm working on Volume 2! Hopefully it will be ready for press by the end of summer. But it has to go through the beta builders first, and sometimes that can take a while. Volume 2 will have a motorized pan and tilt head, a full steadicam rig, a big dolly that uses tires, boom pole/with shock mount, and some other cool stuff. Thanks for the kind words about volume 1!

Dan
www.DVcameraRigs.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top