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DIY motorized dolly

Peter Osinski

Peter Osinski

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hello,

I am in the process of building a dolly I will need for an upcoming music video. The only issue I have is that I need to create a repeatable motion on the dolly (speed that is) and I was thinking of using either a garage door opener or an electric winch. I will probably need about 30 feet of pulling distance which probably rules out the garage door motor.

The winch can pull up to 2000lbs but I only for a short while and I will need multiple pulls at about 20lbs.

if anyone has experience with this please let me know. I will be shooting mid march and need to get a jump on this
 
What kind of speed will you need? Will you need a smooth speed ramping up and down at each end? If you are shooting MOS you could use the power from an 18 or 20 volt cordless drill. They are a bit noisy though. You can clamp the drill into a mount which is attached to the dolly, insert a pulley with a shaft into the drill and run a line which is anchored at each end of the track. With one loop around the pulley there should be enough grip to move the dolly with good consistency as long as you keep the battery fresh. The larger the pulley the faster you move. For the pulley you could buy a v belt pulley at a hardware store. If it's a half inch drill you can buy pulleys with a half inch shaft hole and insert a half inch bolt about 3 inches long with a nut to tighten it down on the pulley.
Hope this helps.

Larry
 
Hi

I have built recently some cine dollies motor controlled for friends. If someone is interested to buy one of these, I'll be happy to build and sell. The cine slider is built in alluminium with a 75 Hi- Hat support. You can move with no problem a red camera with a big and heavy zoom such an angenieux or a cooke 25 - 250 with batteries and cables. The slider is 3,2 feet long . The motor is regulated by an electronic board powered by batteries or AC inside a little case (see picture). The speed may be regulated as you need, slow or fast. There is a remote control such those for the tv, small like a cigarette box. Due to the cost of materials and the time to build the cine slider, I fixed price at 2700$ + fedex shipping cost (from Europe). I uploaded a video at Vimeo here:

http://vimeo.com/37430724


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Kessler is very cheap alternative, and reliable. DIY is sometimes not fun on set in front of a client.
 
we build this few months ago for a project.
It's 120 feet long, but can be extended to whatever you wish.
The tracks can be bend/set to different angles.
Dolly can take 20lb and it can go up to 40 miles (never tested at that speed)
Dolly is remote controlled.
http://vimeo.com/32925345
 
albert rudnicki said:
we build this few months ago for a project.
It's 120 feet long, but can be extended to whatever you wish.
The tracks can be bend/set to different angles.
Dolly can take 20lb and it can go up to 40 miles (never tested at that speed)
Dolly is remote controlled.
http://vimeo.com/32925345
Click to expand...

That's pretty sweet
 
Thanks!
All credit goes to talent friend of mine John Dykyj from Dykortech, who build it in a week of time.
It had tilt and pan head installed, but the first high speed test send it in the air:) ...and no more tilt and pan
 
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