Fastening dolly track together

Beeblebrox

Beeblebrox

Well-known member
Alright, I put together my skateboard dolly. It's basically a 2x4 piece of laminated plywood with four sets of two skateboard wheels attached.

Now, I'm shopping around for a PVC solution. PVC is easy enough to find, but I want to be able to cut it down to 4' lengths and fasten them back together in whatever configuration I need. Spacing is not a problem, since the skateboards wheels space them automatically, but fastening the PVC sections together is the real trick. I've thought about dowels, but I don't see that working as well as an actual fastener, like the ones used on real dolly track.

Any ideas?
 
Re: Fastening dolly track together

Not sure what the legions of SKATEBOARD DOLLY users are doing but I would think in order to join 4' sections cleany you would need to use what is called a 'PVC Barbed Insert Fitting'.

IM thinking outloud here.
 
Re: Fastening dolly track together

Yes. In fact, in order to permanently secure them you have to use metal fasteners. They can be a pain in tight fits though :-/

Check out this link. I know its not in the budget but......

With some guerilla ingenuity and finding the right wholesaler.....

http://www.porta-jib.com/flex-trak.htm
 
Re: Fastening dolly track together

Well, here's what I did several years ago: Used thick wall white schedule 40 (3" diameter?). Left them in 8-10' lengths so that I could do longer runs with fewer joints.  At the time they fit in my minivan up through the middle.

Took thinner wall pipe, cut it in 8" lengths or so. The OD of this material is greater than the ID of the schedule 40. I slit these pieces the long way and removed enough material so that you could push them into the "track" sections about half way. Drilled a couple of countersunk holes through the schedule 40 and the connector near the ends and secured with large pop rivets. The connectors won't come out of the track sections now.

To connect sections together, squeeze the connector tight until it slips into the next track section. They stay together remarkebly well. I was doing 25' or so runs. Sandbags on the ends of the tracks keep them in place. I'll be pulling them out again next month for a film project.

I'm also in the process (finally) of fabbing a telescoping column to be mounted on the doorway dolly that I posted pictures of a few months ago.
 
Re: Fastening dolly track together

These are great solutions. I'm leaning toward the insert fittings, which I think accomplishes pretty much the same thing as what PH is describing.

What's funny about that flex-trak is that I was wondering why someone didn't invent track that just rolled up into a coil like a hose for easy storage. Ask and ye shall receive.
 
Re: Fastening dolly track together

The only drawback I see with the flex track or similar is that on soft surfaces you'd get a lot of unwanted flex (especially if you're riding the dolly) as you roll over it causing unwanted camera movement.
 
Re: Fastening dolly track together

Okay, it turns out the barbed fasteners don't work with plastic PVC (at least according to the doofus who works at Lowes). And Preston's method seemed a little complicated for me.

So here's what I did and it seems to work remarkably well.

I bought the wide guage PVC for my main track. I then got another guage, just narrow enough to slip inside the main track, and cut it into short lengths, about 10 inches or so.

I then wrapped a single layer of gaffers tape around the middle of the short PVC, slid one end inside one half of my track, and then joined the other one to it. The gaffers tape provides just enough friction to keep them together, but you can easily pull them apart for storage. No tools. No work. No muss. No fuss.
 
Re: Fastening dolly track together

Great! I do think the doofoos at Lowes is wrong though :-/ We used to use them on the boats.

Your solution sounds simpler though; thanks for the report!
 
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