Micro-Dolly and Micro-Jib

Jake,

Go to Home Depot and fine some wheels. The way a tracked dolly works is two sets of wheels on one track and the other on single track.
then all you would need is some PVC pipe. Heck you could even use one inch underground water PVC.to make a circle.

I just put my tripod on the dolly - it's not secured or anything, but this does give me the freedom of putting any tripod on it.
I used some roller skate wheels on it, they are soft and go smoothly.

I know the dolly with just wheels under it too, worked with it lately, but you need a super-smooth surface to roll them, any small irregularity will make the whole thing shake, and they're a bit too expensive for what you get (for me).

I'm going to sell my dolly, and make some new ones which I can sell too. The only thing I need to improve is something so you can fold it up.
And for the PVC pipes - they are rubbish. The first time they work well, but they will bent, which will leave you with crooked tracks. So I think of making them shorter (like 2m per part) and think of a genius system to link them. It'll be easier to take them somewhere then.

Cheers,
JiP

I knew I had a video on something of this nature on my favorites at U-Tube.

Making a Track Dolly - This vid is from a guy that used simple angle aluminum and rollerblade wheels. Roller blade wheels are great for this. (Very smooth running) - I saw a couple of pretty innovative ideas at the NAB show this year as well, but they were pricey.

I finished mine. Works great.
The base was one of those folding tripod dollies. I removed the wheels and installed the rollerblade wheels with aluminum angle.
The thing I like is it's still foldable and I can easily take it with me on trips if I need it.
http://www.jakehellbachphoto.com/dolly/

Jake

Jake, How did you attach the dolly to the wheel assembly? From your photos it looks like their glued on. Commercially they use cross supports on both ends and want $2000.00 for the dolly and track.

Glue??? Man, what do you take me for?? LOL

I removed the original wheels from the dolly and drilled a hole through my aluminum angle with the rollerblade wheels attached and bolted it back on to the same threaded hole in the dolly assy.
Actually, I can remove my track wheels and bolt on the original wheels if I need to.

Well, mine cost about $50 for the entire thing and is pretty steady.
This is the same as the one I bought, but I didn't buy from this seller, you can see the original wheels.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Folding-Tripod-Dolly-New_W0QQitemZ350089335201QQihZ022QQcategoryZ30097QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I used mine on these:
https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/141182

https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/139892

Jake

Jake, how do you join the pipes together for the tracks?

I use one inch PVC. the thick wall stuff, I think its SCH 40 but you can see the difference between the two types of PVC pipe.
Anyway, a one inch wooden dowel fits snuggly inside the thickwall PVC pipe.
Just use the factory ends to join or if you use cut ends make sure the ends are flat with no burrs.

Also, I leave the dowel about 2 feet long so as the dolly travels over it there isn't any downward play at the joint.

Jake

Hey all - I found a new guy on eBay that sells the foldable micro dolly that Jake used and modified - http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/assiamounts_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ - this guy also has lots of other goodies as well. I jsut ordered my dolly today and will most likely modify it as Jake did. Perhaps Jake we can pretend to be in parallel universes and run our dollies in harmony? - That way we would be shooting in stereo. :)

You may have to define which dolly you'd like to be in harmony with as he has two.