dolly stuff

OK Im kind of a n00b when it comes to dollys.

I bought a crate from goodwill and it has wheels on the bottom. I can put the tripod on it and it works. I also have an old train set from my grandfather that allows me to put the tripod on "tracks"

I notice with all dollys or anything else like it, the camera still has" Vibrating" shakiness. If I put the tripod on a pillow the pillow absorbs some of this shock like a mattress or a shock absorber.

How do you all prevent too much vibrating shakiness? Maybe Jakes dolly is just made better lol.

I don't know about better made, but I think you need to have the type that I and a few others have built where you use inline skate wheels at a 45 degree angle to each other running on pvc pipe.
http://www.jakehellbachphoto.com/dolly/
I can push (or pull) my dolly and it dosen't shake at all. I guess its because of the smooth bearings in the skate wheels.

You still need to move it very slowly, which I guess it the correct way to use a dolly anyway.

Using a crane is worse for shaky video.
I find I have to put one hand on the boom in front of the pivot point to dampen any movements.
There is a lot of inertia going on at the end of that thing so moving slowly and not stopping the movement to quickly is key.

The key to stability is mass. Keep the barycentre as low as you can. With a crate on hweels and tripod with camera on it, the barycentre will be quite high. There's a reason pro dollys tend to be extremely heavy...

The other part is good wheels that will run smoothly with heavy weight. The wheels from inline scates are made to carry full grown men at quite some speed without the slightest bump - ideal for a dolly.

"barycentre" yeah, like I didn't have to look that up LOL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_of_mass

ahh I see maybe there is something to that design with the two smooth bearing wheels on the track

Here is an expensive dolly system that has that same sort of design:
http://i44.tinypic.com/1z3xzdu.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/29gnyfn.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/ioexpf.jpg
It took them a while to set that up though.

I guess when the wheels are on the ground it hits all the bumps, but the pvc pole (or track) is completely smooth.

ahh I posted that before I saw varius response, but yeah inertia should help too. I guess thats why the weighted monopods work.

I guess that's what you get for using a dictionary specialized on physical terms... ;-)

http://vimeo.com/1767351
Here is the dolly I made. 8 roller blade wheels. Works out well, don't use it as much as I should.

When I use my special tri wheel pivot all super duper swivel dolly, I put a sandbag in the cross braces of the tripod for additional weight or to increase the barycenter stabilization mechanics. Man that sounds so technical.. you can see some close up pics in this http://blog.vadervideo.com/2008/12/stock-footage-opportunities-are.html of how the wheels look. Of course you have to watch the whole vid just because I made it too. :)