Tag Archives: DIY skater

DIY Motorized Pico Flex Table Dolly • 18 Comments

Emm • November 23, 2011

Great job from Vimeo member Oliver for this DIY motorized Pico Flex Table Dolly. It's a direct friction based drive wheel, which doesn't require much torque. The dolly rolls very easily with little effort from a motor. I was testing out something similar several weeks ago using a pulley wheel to a continuous rotating servo found (here). I used the same basic battery box, continuos rotating servo, and speed controllers as in the DIY motorized JuicedLink slider project. You can find a list of those parts (here). I can see that Oliver is using a servo tester, which is a much cheaper solution than the servo controller I was using. [Thanks Oliver]

If i'm correct, that servo tester is just the basic ones found over at eBay (click here).

servo-tester
Servo Tester

Pico Flex Dolly on Rails • 29 Comments

Emm • October 1, 2011

Disclaimer:: The Pico Flex Dolly was not designed to work in this manner. Use in this manner at your own risk.

The Pico Flex Dolly has already been motorized with lasers, so what else can we expect? Here's something quite odd. This is just something I happened upon and although it's not perfect, maybe it will spark some creative ideas for you DIY'ers out there. After removing the sets of wheels, and keeping the two bearings on the axles, there's enough gap to ride on a set of rails. If you need to track a straight line on some 'unforgiving surface', a set of rails will give smooth performance. For a quieter experience, cheap plastic rods would work better. I'm not sure what rail width would be optimal use for something like this and again, this is not what the Pico Flex Dolly was designed for.

Oh and for a solution while keeping the standard skate wheels on the little table dolly, there will be a specially designed roll out mat available soon. Still in the works...

Pico Flex Dolly Update • 28 Comments

Emm • September 6, 2011

A quick update about the Pico Flex Dolly. The first batch of pre-orders have already been completely purchased and should begin shipping (estimated) September 12th. The website is still taking orders for the next batch that should ship about 5-7 days after the first batch.

Here's some important information. The wheels might be a bottleneck for production until the supplier can catch up. We were able to make another small volume batch order very quickly before they ran out. So as of now, there is a limited quantity of complete Pico Flex Dollies available in the second batch. They are moving pretty quickly, so consider getting an order in while it's there. We are also hoping to make International Orders available this week. Found at https://photographyandcinema.com.

PicoPico (1 of 19) PicoPico (11 of 19) pico-dolly-loaded
Pico Flex Table Dolly - PhotographyandCinema.com

DIY Angle Aluminum Dolly Track • 4 Comments

Emm • September 30, 2010

Vimeo member Fred Norquist used a bit of Angled Aluminum and old skateboard trucks to get this DIY dolly result. Looks like a pretty low budget DIY for those who want to add some movement to your camera shots and not spend a ton of cash. Although pretty effective, just by looking at it, there's a lot of variables with how the rails are positioned that can cause some irregular movements. So if you attempt this, make sure you got things lined up well. The old measure 10 times and drill once routine (I have to measure more than twice). Simple and effective for a DIY project i'm sure most people can tackle.

[Thanks Fred]

DIY SpiderTrax Video Dolly • 11 Comments

Emm • July 28, 2010

Wow, very cool examples of what type of footage you can achieve with the SpiderTrax Dolly design. Here's another simple build video of how parts from a normal skateboard, Cheese Plate, and Quick release adapter were put together for those slider and rotational shots.

Here's a link to the cheese plate that was used.

Two months ago, the video above also used Skateboard trucks and looks like a wooden base. This is definitely becoming a main stream tool for many DIY'ers.

Isn't it weird how I share these videos and information openly, while at the same time it's something that I need to sell? It's all good with me, because my main goal was always to share these ideas and inspire more creative footage. For those who weren't able to DIY and wanted something, I worked with a team to have parts professionally manufactured with solid aluminum, cut with Computer Aided Design, and special Anodized coating (not spray paint). You can find the SpiderTrax Dolly available at PhotographyandCinema.com

Big thanks to Jarrod and Think Gines for taking time to put this video together and sharing ideas for others to make.

SpiderTrax Dolly gone Viral

Emm • April 21, 2010

Well it's been only a short time since I finally released my version of a DIY Rotational Skater Video Dolly. There's already talks in forums and other homebrews of this simple design on YouTube and on Vimeo. In fact there's even a guy on YouTube (i'm not going to drop links for sake of web traffic), who's setup a website selling it off as his original design. Absolutely no credits back to where he grabbed the idea from. I say don't support this guys sales...his parts look pretty hokey too. Hahaha.

Check out the video above for some example footage of the SpiderTrax Dolly design in use. Pretty cool!! Thanks Irakli !! Awesome job on making your DIY version.

A team of guys over at SpiderTraxDolly.com has taken the design into fancy computer renderings and precision manufacturing with black anodized aluminum and other good stuff. So if you're interested in getting some really professional looking gear, on the super dirt cheap, check out more information at SpiderTraxDolly.com

If you've got some really good skills, there are many DIY versions of the P+S Technik 3 wheeled Mini Skater. Here's a super awesome example of a DIY Skater Dolly based on the P+S Tehnik design master hand crafted by kasokeys (video below).