PLYWOOD SKATER Finished

So enthralled was I after making tedybear's plywood skater that I decided to make a large one. Its still not quite done as the tripod needs to be repositioned, but it was working well enough to shoot some prelim footage which I thought I'd post. Theres a little jostle which is due to positioning the tripod legs on the struts and not the wheelwells and it needs to be weighted to reduce bounce. Anyway check it out. its not bad for a trial run. http://www.flyingdogfilms.com/Videos/spi.mp4
 
That's awesome! Great idea to make it bigger. On smooth surfaces you can get "perfect" circular shots, arcs, etc. Nice job- looks really great. Do you have a picture of the actual dolly? Did you use skateboard wheels on this or something more like an air-filled tire?
 
Its disassembled at the moment for sanding and painting but I should have it back together by tomorrow. I'm using wheelbarrow style wheels which greaatly helps in reducing bounce and jostle. Theres still a good amount of refining to be done but I'll hopefully have it all together in the next few days.
 
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here's the demo footage for the plywood skater dad and i built.
it has a fluid head bogen 700rc2 head ( i think) on it right now, currently i'm still practicing. This is my first evening playing with it, and bolts are dragging on the ground. Tweaks need to be made.

natural light, compression is bad, color temperature is bad, focus is bad... ..but as you might be able to tell, it was a fun night.

http://www.pablokorona.com/stuff/demoweb.mov
 
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pablokorona said:
here's the demo footage for the plywood skater dad and i built.
it has a fluid head bogen 700rc2 head ( i think) on it right now, currently i'm still practicing. This is my first evening playing with it, and bolts are dragging on the ground. Tweaks need to be made.

natural light, compression is bad, color temperature is bad, focus is bad... ..but as you might be able to tell, it was a fun night.

http://www.pablokorona.com/stuff/demoweb.mov
Click to expand...


Did you use the original plywood skater model or did you modify it?
 
my version

my version

Here is my version. I simplified it into and equilateral triangle. It works great.

The deck is 1/2" Russian birch and the wheel mounts are 1" Plastic board my friend had as scrap at his shop. I turned them on a lathe. Working in 1/1000 of an inch is pretty intense.

1178815934.jpg
 
Plywood Skater V2

Plywood Skater V2

Version 2 of the plywood skater is under construction. its lower in profile and sleeker looking. Will post pictures soon.
 
Ok so i think im going to finaly get this built, i already got all the parts cut but i dont like how they fit.

So i just put the rest of the parts in cad and will cut them on my CNC machine that i just built.

Ill post some photos when i get it together.
 
Somebody else posted a much simpler version of this that used fixed castors and wing nuts to adjust. I built it for about $40 and it works great, I haven't had any trouble getting the moves I want out of it and it's really smooth under the right conditions. It's not as pretty as teddy's though.
 
man i just finished reading the whole thing. im so inspired by so many of these. im making mine tomorrow. the only thing i dont really get is how to design the baseplate thingy. but badlaa's looks amazing i cant belive thats wood. i want mine to look like that!
 
I just finished mine and it works great.. took me about 5 hours to cut it out, drill everything, and assemble it.. cant believe that it was that easy.

good work guys.. another useful tool for making films.
 
My Ply-Skater

My Ply-Skater

Done.. and here are some pics of it. i have my canon camera with my diy mini 35 adapter on it based on snodard, melaniedegrood, and edweirdo's plans. will do some shooting with it tomorrow when i have some better light.

thanks guys for this. nicely done...
 

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Congratulations, trinitysj! Your job looks very neat.

Having taken just 5 hours to accomplish it sounds very interesting.

Some questions on how you did get there and what it will do:

1) What plans did you use? Or describe a bit of the stages you went through.

2) What tools did you use? If you need a router I am out, because I can't get one.

3) What movements can your plywood skater do?

4) Have you tried your tripod on it?
 
Thanks Carlos.

The plans are the ones from a few pages ago... i used
carbon paper from office depot ($2.90)

and from home depot, a piece of

1/2" - 2'X2' ($1.95),
1/4" - 2'X2' ($2.50) and a piece of
3/4" - 2'X2' ($3.95).

i traced them all out on the correct pieces of plywood and then cut them out with a regular jig-saw.

I used a round sandpaper attachment for a drill to straighten out the holes but regular sandpaper by hand would work fine.

hardware:
18 - 10/32 X 2" bolts with a #10 washer under the cap piece with nuts (approx $3.00)
3 - 1/4 20 X 3" bolts with a 1/4" washer for each and a nylon locking nut for the wheels (approx $1.00)
3 - 1/4 20 X 1" bolts with a wing nut and a piece of square metal cut to fit and drilled with a hole for the wheel stops.

and cut a hole in the middle for a 3/8 bolt to mount the bogen tri-pod head that i had lying around.

Wheels:
i had these lying around from and old pair of skates but found them new at sports authority ($9.00)

All total it took about 5 hours to cut drill and assemble it. still need to paint and put on the wheel markings but have tested it and it works great. can pan down to get close. if i put a 135mm lens on with macro i can get right in there.. all the wheel functions work as expected. and i have watched all of the videos from P.S. Technik on the skater dolly (actually downloaded them all). and have begun work on a short film that will use it... will try to get some of that footage up when i get done with it.
 
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