Just Built a Dolly!

Alright! You guys gave me a lot of awesome ideas. I will try some of these tomorrow. I found this other way to do it. He said to get 2x4 wood and then put it under the tracks. Make groves on the wood to slip the poles in. And also, use bricks or something heavy on both sides of the tracks to hold it down, because right now, I have nothing holding it down. It's free. I will try tomorrow, do some film, and post the video if it is any different. Thanks guys! If you come up with anymore ideas, let me know.
 
hey, one big thing is to make spacers for either end of the track. Get 2 - 2x4's that are the width of your track and cut 4 small pieces of wood to put on 1 side of the wood, creating grooves for the PVC to go through, just make sure both pieces look exactly the same. Also, make sure your track and wheels are clean, a can of WD-40 wouldn't be a bad idea either.
 
Alright, thanks, but I don't understand what you mean. Do you have a picture of this? Do you put the 2x4 under the tracks? I don't understand the 4 small pieces of wood on 1 side of the wood part. Can you try to explain this more in depth or include a picture? Thanks!
 
Oh alright. Guys, I know exactly what's making the noise. I put heavy bricks at the end of the tracks. It worked a lot better. The noise reduced and it is a lot smoother. But what's wrong is, when the dolly moves, the PVC rolls to the right or left. It even make the bricks above move as well. I can put on more weight to stop it from going anywhere but I don't have anything else to put on top of it. Also, I don't want to put a whole pile of weight on them. It would be way to hard to transport and to heavy to carry. do you have have any idea what I can do to stop those freakin' pipes? I tried to tape it to the floor but it pulls the tape out. I guess the more way you put on the dolly, the more the PVC rolls. I'm just guessing. Maybe I should film the pipes moving and post it up. But meanwhile, tell me what you guys think I should do. Thanks!
 
your wheels are out of alignment. , or the track is bent . the first is more likely . thats what causes the track to roll to the side. yo need to be sure your wheel trucks are aligned straight with each other on the platform. then once they are aligned and the track is straight, they will roll down the track straight.
 
What is a good way to align it? I try to align it as best as possible by eyeballing it, but it still does it. Grrr...this is getting me so frustrated. But I thank you guys for responding.
 
wow, I put the pipes on my grass. my grass isn't cut, but it became reeeallly bumpy. This sucks. I spent $150 on this dolly and now it sucks. I don't know what to do anymore. I figured out what to do on pavement (sorta) but now on grass, I might as well use my monopod and use it as a steady cam. What do you think?
 
I was thinking...maybe my pipes are too flimsy. I want to go to home depot and buy a set of metal ones, thicker plastic ones, and a bunch of 2x4s. I think they should resolve the problem. I will also see if they have WD-40. Probably not but it's worth a try. Give me some hints of you guys have any more. Thanks!
 
use a straight eadge and align the sides of your trucks on one side to the same long straight edge. make sure the straight edge is in line with the platform and running parallel as well. you do this by having a straight edge on your platform, and measuring to make sure the line from your strauight edge is the same distance from the side at all points. then you do the same for the poopsite side.. if the other side is not a straight edge then measure all the way from the first straight edge side .. that way all of your trucks will be aligned straight on the platform.. mark your drilling holes by sticking a marker down through the mounting bolt hole on the trucks, and then drill and secure making sure they are aligned alont the stright lines perfect. then tighten them on..

for riding on grass. you need to have no grass on the track.. it will cause bumps.. yo cqan lay a little mat under the tracks or cut the grass more there.
 
I have no clue what you mean about trucks, but thanks for the reply anyway. I went to home depot today and bought 24 pieces of 2x4s 3 feet long. I put these under the track and it works soo awesome! All of the noise is gone. But....(i hate that word)...there are several bumps still. I moved the dolly slowly to see where it made the bumps and they are caused by scratches, connections, and slight indentions on the pipes (not all the way around though). I can always turn it around, but when I move the dolly, the pipes usually roll around and then there are always bumps. I was thinking of buying water hoes to cut in the middle and put it on top of the pipes. That would work perfectly, although I reeeaaally don't want to spend that much money. They are usually expensive. My track is 30 ft long (probably longer in the future) so I would need 60 ft of hoes. That can get quite expensive. Does anyone have an idea? This is the last element I need to fix. I already fixed the noise problem and it runs a lot smoother now, but now I need to fix several bumps that messes up the shot. Let me know. Thanks once again!
 
Ok guys. Here are my posts. How do you suggest I should take out these smalls bumps out? I already know about the water hoes, do you guys have any other suggestions or ideas?

I am including two pictures and a video of the result of putting the pieces of wood below the pipes.

Click here to see the dolly and the track

Click here to see below the dolly

Click here to watch the video
(This is not the greatest but it's the greatest I have so far. I know I can do better though. But I am just on a low budget.)
 
Try using angle-iron (it's cheap, but really heavy), or aluminum tubes (more expensive, but light) as the track. They won't flex or bend as the track runs over them.
 
pmark, the flexing and bending is fine because it rolls on the wood pieces. I don't think these jumps are from that. I think they are from scratches and defects from the pipes.

I couldn't buy iron because it would be impossible to put it inside a car for transportation. With PVC, it's easier because you can bend them out the back window.

And yes, those were my flip flops. Lol! I was going in and out of the pool.

Does anyone else have any suggestions? Do you think if I did that hose thing it would work? Any other ideas? I only have tomorrow until like 2:00 to try your ideas and then I shoot at 3:00! Ahh! My first scene in my feature film! lol!
 
Did you try my suggestion of putting the wheels opposite each other instead of staggered as you have them? The staggered configuration you have is probably making the pipes bend and twist and the cause of some (or all) of your problems. Unless the wheel configuration you have is what's called for in plans you are following, I would try that. It may mean getting a larger size of angle metal to accomodate doing this.
 
Well, I sorta can't do that because the wheels that are on there now are sorta permanently on there. Because the extra screw that was sticking out, my bro-in-law sawed it off and then hammered the rest out. that made a little edge at the end, so I can't take it out. Or else I would try that. But then I would have to make groves on the bottom of the platform so the wheels won't hit the wood, because it was doing that before. so we just dig groves on it so the wheels can pass through.

what should I do?
 
File the ends of the bolts down to where your past the deformation. Otherwise just cut the bolt with a hacksaw or grind the nut off, put the wheel opposite the other wheel and put in a new bolt in.
 
Hey guys! Today I had my first shooting day. It went great. But we took so long to do it. It took us more than one hour to get one minute of footage (true final footage that is). But it's all good. Before the actors came, me and my friend got WD-40 and that took away the sound of the dolly moving, but it is still a little bumpy. But now it's barely. I really wanted to use the dolly on this scene, so I decided to try to hold my camera, handheld, on a monopod, as I rode the dolly. That way, I can try to make it as still as possible while riding the dolly. It turned out ok, but I don't want to do this everytime, I want to be able to just mount it on a tripod and push. Lol! My handheld way isn't the best way, but I did it.

check out the rough cut of the scene. remember, it is a rough cut, but let me know what I can do to make it better. I learned a lot from this today. I learned to watch shadows and reflections. On some of the shots I saw my shadow and another I saw a shadow of the boom mic. And then this other time I saw myself filming because the actor's sun glasses were super shiny and it showed me filming. So, two things I must watch for now.

This one kid told me to mount the tripod on the platform. Cuz right now I just have it on top. Would this make a difference? I don't think it would because if the platform shakes, so would the tripod and camera, so it would be the same right? or not? Let me know.

Let me know if you guys have any suggestions on making no bumps.

About the metal pipes, I wouldn't be able to use it because first, it's expensive, and second, it's hard to transport in a car because it doesn't bend, and if it does bend, it's done.

Let me know...

Click here to watch the rough cut
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top