Dolly Woes

Logan LeBlanc

Logan LeBlanc

Well-known member
So I'm about to start writing out the plans for my dolly and, well, I need a few opinions on they best way to go. Here are my questions.

1. Should I try to build one that's small enough to fit through doorways?
2. Due to some extra wheels I have, should I make separate ones (one manned, one un-manned, and one for curved tracking) or one do-it-all dolly?
 
I imagine passing through a doorway would be such a rare situation, and so cramped, I wouldn't worry about it.
Curved track is also tricky- unless you know you can get it to work, I wouldn't bother with that either.
But I would build it strong enough to hold a person. That way you'll have a simple, versatile, easy to use dolly.
Keep the weight in mind too. And collapsibility.
 
For curved, you would have to mount your wheels on a spinning block or pivot point to facilitate the curve. A little more trickier. Plus the ones I've used have always had just 4 wheels per corner. Alot of the homebrew dollies on here have 6,8 or more.
For all your homebrew needs: Grainger. They have so many neat toys, hehe. HAve Fun
 
>1. Should I try to build one that's small enough to fit through doorways?

yes, that is why they are called "doorway dollies"

>I imagine passing through a doorway would be such a rare situation, and so >cramped, I wouldn't worry about it.

I disagree vehemently. I dolly thru doorways all the time. Picture dollying thru a doorway to reveal inside a bedroom, or dollying thru a doorway to get the "going thru a wall" effect as you go from one room to the next. At the very least, if you were filming inside a cramped 10' x12' bedroom, think of how nice it would be to stick that track out the doorway into the hall and be able to back up an extra 3 feet.

>2. Due to some extra wheels I have, should I make separate ones (one manned, >one un-manned, and one for curved tracking) or one do-it-all dolly?

Build your fist dolly as a ride-along style dolly, and use your extra wheels for smaller, specialty dollies later. (how many extra wheels do you have?) I would also build the fist dolly as a straight track only version, and is muchy easier to build. The curved version would require a lot of engineering to deal with the curve (search out older threads on this...) Also, do you own curved track?

-j
 
This has been covered extensively. You might want to check out the Rowe Cinedolly available on this website.
 
Slimothy said:
This has been covered extensively. You might want to check out the Rowe Cinedolly available on this website.
Click to expand...
A really interesting discussion would be a DIY underwater dolly :happy:. (is there even such a thing?)

If you make it much wider than a door, it's gonna be a pain to transport. And, if you suddenly get this great shot in mind, you don't want to have remind yourself that the dolly won't fit through the door.
 
We built our dolly too large for a door....and believe it, the added bulk is deffinetly a pain. If I ever get around to building my own, it's deffinetly going to be a doorway dolly.
 
Iskandar said:
Check my latest dolly!
It's the easier and cheaper optimized version I have ever build!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doeitaoistmovies/sets/436722/

Nothing special but it works fine and can carry one operator on a small seat or even the crane!
Click to expand...

I must say you are quite the genius! haha, thats definitely a diffrent design, but in my mind it seems much better than how most dollys are constructed. Do you have any pictures of the underside of it? I've been having troubles with my dolly fitting just my skinny skinny self and in no way shape or form does it support me. This seems like quite the solution, a much cheaper one at that.
 
The dolly I am building is similar to the Rowe dolly kit in the fact that it will be the skateboard wheel on angle iron type of wheel mount.

Instead of having one long piece of angle iron on each side, I am having one short "wheel module" per corner. Each wheel module will have 4 staggered wheels. When it's finished I'm planning on it being able to hold 500+ pounds.

Each wheel module will be snap-in-place. This calls for a very compact, fairly light, and very strong system that will be able to be mounted on any sized platform for versatility.

Each wheel module will be mounted with a lazy suzan type of pivoting mount allowing it to be used on curved tracks.

I plan on using 1.5" PVC as my main track material. I will use 1.25" PVC cut into 10" sections as the internal PVC connectors. Each connector will have a slot cut lengthwise down the tube and will be made into a roll pin - (http://www.prop-shop.com/g/a/asc7665.jpg). Squeeze the 1.25" PVC rollpin into the 1.5" PVC track material. It will expand inside and make for a nice and tight seamless track. I don't plan on using any horizontal track spacing bars. The 45 degree skateboard wheels will pull the track between the wheels nicely without any worry of derailing.

If anyone else has any tips they'd like to share with me I'd love to hear them! This is the first track I've built so I'm definitely open to suggestions. Thanks guys!

-Jeff
 
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