Surface Dolly

Buddy Greenfield

Buddy Greenfield

I saw some “Budget” thing like this yesterday for $99.


TheWizard.jpg



I made this one with about $15 of stuff and a half hour of work.


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It might be cool to do it on 8 wheels, so it can be on a surface or rails.
(Or do it on 6 wheels with a bearing and single pivot in the center of each wheel truck, so it can go on curved rail.)

8wheeloption2.jpg



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I take it you mean the mini-jib. (Thank You)

It's just a piece of flat (Mending bracket, shelf bracket, flat stock, might be an angle piece) steel bent into a squared U shape that has a hole drilled at the bottom and tapped 1/4-20 for the tripod screw.

Bracket-1.jpg



But you might be able find something that is already in that shape if you look around, it just has to be thick enough to accept the thread, this makes the flat stock attractive. (By "Better" I mean if it is already in that shape it will look nicer and be better balanced and easier to drill straight.


BetterPivotBracket.jpg


Here is a piece I had that was already in the right shape, but obviously not threaded:



Head2.jpg


Head1.jpg


The fixed head part is made with two pieces of channel and a piece of angle iron, it bolts to the boom pipe obviously:


I really don't care for making them with the tripod in mind. A mini sure, but any bigger and it really has to be done right and balanced perfect (and used with a decent tripod) or it will likely tear the tripod head all up. and not be stable.


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I actually meant the dolly. I wanna attach my Tripod to a dolly and then a jib to the tripod. I wanna make a dolly that slides on PVC or something. But like you said, even a mini jib on my tripod would break it. Its cheap like $10 cheap and you can tell. I'm either going to build a tripod or buy a surveyors tripod. I found one on ebay for $30.
 
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Look around at the vintage tripods on ebay too. I don't know what kind of Craigslist scene you have up by you, but they are always worth a gander too. (Find a sweet old Quick-set or something dirt cheap and absurdly heavy duty.)

The surface dolly is just to mount the camera right to. The table top dolly with the mini jib (in one of the other threads) is cool for small scale.

You could also just build your jib on a flat based stand that sits on your dolly.
I keep an eye out for flat roof antenna mounts. You screw it to a piece of wood, then it has u-Bolts for a pipe, and done.

Here is a flat base with a part from a kitchen table I found:

LightdutyJib2Showingbase.jpg


(I made a dolly from the whole table top. (It was round and had fold down(up) sides. We used to call it the Bat Dolly. :lol: )


I made (Pictured below) "Drop-in quick mount" for a tripod or jib ON a little doorway dolly. It worked really well. (It's just a piece of beam (bolted to the dolly and dolly lip) that had a pipe flange bolted to it, and the pipe had a few supports that bolted to the dolly truck bolts. (Most of the connections were all threaded, so it was rock solid.

Drop-InJibAttachment.jpg


Drop-Intripodmount.jpg



This one is just to make you laugh. (A knife block and some garage door rollers and some conduit track.):

KnifeBlockdolly.jpg




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:lol: That thing was deadly! We called it the Square Cannon Ball because of the weight.

Not a B&H there, that's a 16mm Bolex Non-Reflex.
(I just sold my B&H with motor mag and pan cinor earlier today as a matter of fact, for only 3 hundo!)


Bolex:
PanandTilt1.jpg



Knife block and rollers:

Knifeblockandgaragedoorrollers1.jpg



Quick way to hold the track together while working on it:

PaintStickandconduit1.jpg



How the track is marked and drilled and held together (The above made that easier):

ConduitDollyTrack1.jpg



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Thank you as always Goob.

Some Bolex are expensive (I guess) to some people. That one really wasn't all that much. (Working with film can get expensive though.)

I sold my good Bolex Reflex kit a few weeks ago... it's been breaking my heart since the day it left.

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