My sub $40 slider

C

Conchchowder

New member
I've been reading about DIY camera sliders which seem as complicated as a Rube Goldberg drawing. I woke up one morning with a thought: A rain gutter. Well, at Loew's, I was looking at the gutters and found them to be too flimsy, so I went to the irrigation supply section. There I found the Spee-d drainage system. The troughs were in 4' and 10' sections and there were grates to cover the sections with. I grabbed a 4' section and a 2' grate...some 1/4" screws and washers and off I went. I tried a test video at the waterfalls at Inverrary, FL and edited half-speed with Magic Bullet Looks Green Pearl with a shift to blue, Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 12.

http://vimeo.com/6490834
 
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A couple notes:

1. It can be done even cheaper if ones needs it to be cheap. You can use wood or plastic board along with plastic wrap and vasoline...you can perhaps even skip the plastic wrap with certain kinds of plastic board(although cleanup wouldn't be as easy).

2. I would skip using the olive oil and such and use something that will be smoother and last longer, like DuPont Teflon multi-use lubricant.

3. A simple string, electric motor, rheostat, and power supply could be attached to provide repeatable constant slides
 
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I have a DIY "Zaza" style glider. It occured to me that there are cheaper ways, if you do not need the camera solidly mounted. You could mount the camera to a 4" piece of wood and glue felt to the bottom. Then you could get a 5' piece of wood shelving at Lowes or formica countertop. Nail two furring strips 4" apart on top as a guide, and there you have it. No lube of any kind needed, and extremely smooth.
 
There seems to be some confusion here...If anyone wants to see the slider, as well as how it's pieced together, etc. Then watch the Vimeo video in the first link. The video starts by showing a few slides, but then a couple minutes in Conchchowder shows you his receipt from the hardware store, shows you the parts, shows how they piece together, shows how to mount the camera.....so watch the video
 
ahhh, cool, this is an amazing idea, thanks so much for posting.

I think my gf just threw out a 10% off lowes coupon through. :(

She asked me if i needed it, and i was like, nah i dont need it

:(

FML
 
ahhh, cool, this is an amazing idea, thanks so much for posting.

I think my gf just threw out a 10% off lowes coupon through.

She asked me if i needed it, and i was like, nah i dont need it



FML
Click to expand...

time to go trash digging? :P
 
slinks said:
time to go trash digging? :P
Click to expand...

Just wanted to report that i did successfully find the coupon at lowes, bought the spee-d track and slider, and it works great!

Thanks for suggestiing this after my coupon the total for every thing was like $38.24 or something.

I cant wait to use this on a project

(got a short and a documentary to shoot in the comming weeks)
 
Now this is brilliant.

Im gonna try and build it on saturday and see if i can get it prep'd for a NorthGuard shoot on monday...

You just earned yourself a spot in the credits. :beer:
 
That's a seriously bottom dollar slider! If I was on a tighter budget I might look into this. At the moment I'm waiting for my Igus rail and carriage. In the long run I think I'll be happier with it even though it's 3 or 4 times the price.

Thanks for the idea.
 
I have an Igus. Love it! But I like the idea of a 10ft slider on the cheap.

I also noticed how long the carriage is. From that you could build up to get the camera off the rail and conceivably do some pushes/pulls without seeing the rail in the shot.
 
DNathan said:
I have an Igus. Love it! But I like the idea of a 10ft slider on the cheap.

I also noticed how long the carriage is. From that you could build up to get the camera off the rail and conceivably do some pushes/pulls without seeing the rail in the shot.
Click to expand...

And, if you needed a wider carriage, you could probably use two gutters.

The GutterSlider. Such a great idea, I think I may make me one of these.
 
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