Steel wire overhead dolly

[Aleksander Steffen]

Hey guys!
I made a overhead dolly which runs on a steel wire. I did not test it while making it, but I and some friends tested it yesterday, and we was surprised by the stability. Still, there is much to do.

As you may see, two rollerblade wheels rolls on the steel wire. I have to adjust the space between the two wheels a little so that it doesn't fall off so easy. I'm thinking about putting four wheels, each "outside" the whole thing instead of on the inside (check the pictures), and use two steel wires. Maybe the whole thing will be redesigned, we'll se how it goes next time. In that case, I'll just make an aluminium frame with four pulleys instead of rollerblade wheels. I think that'll be much more stable, though I was looking for that little shaky feeling, like someone flyes or something. Looks so cool! Like the monster in Lost, if anyone is watching that.

Now on to the results of the testing: We tested it by dragging it with a thin rope, and some pictures were really smooth! Unfortunately, there were no tape in my camera while testing. I'm sorry for that. I'm going to record some clips next time I'm testing the dolly, I promise!

Planning to add motors, at first only to move the dolly and maybe pan and tilt motors later. I'm going to need some ideas here, as I don't know anything about motors and gears and all that stuff. Don't have too much money either. Wireless control is preferably, of course

http://www.loud.no/Media/Kreativ%20Sone/Bilder/Rigger/IMG_4341.JPG
http://www.loud.no/Media/Kreativ%20Sone/Bilder/Rigger/IMG_4343.JPG
http://www.loud.no/Media/Kreativ%20Sone/Bilder/Rigger/IMG_4350.JPG
http://www.loud.no/Media/Kreativ%20Sone/Bilder/Rigger/IMG_4357.JPG
http://www.loud.no/Media/Kreativ%20Sone/Bilder/Rigger/IMG_4362.JPG

[Cedric Akins]

Really great work. I am very impressed to say the least. It seems as though you have some pretty good upgrades planned, which means a lot more work ahead. But from what you posted it seems as thouhg you have things well under control. I can't wait to see some footage from this rig. Great job on the balance.

[Sam Heijens]

it looks great, but i was thinking: if you pull the thing with a wire, isn't it going to go a little sideways, depending on how hard you pull? Or isn't this the case in 'the real world'.

I would like to see some footage ! (footage of you operating it and footage you've recorded with it).

-Sam

[Aleksander Steffen]

Thank you for the comments! Sam, you're totally right, though it looked good if i was very careful. I have reconsidered my requirement of that shaky feeling. I'm going to make this as smooth as possible. The rig will be really nice to film POV of a bird, in example.

Next friday I have access to metalwork-tools at my school. The new frame will be in steel square pipes. It shall be easy to put together and take apart, and not least transport. I'm coming with some drawings soon, I presume.

(sorry if there's any bad English here. After all, I am a Norwegian )

[Sam Heijens]

i wa thinking, if you took two pairs of wheels resting on the cable, the rig would have less front and back movement (still some movement sideways). Do you get what I mean?

maybe this will help:

   _____CO_________CO_____wire
            |                 |
            |                 |
            | __camera_ |

(the CO things are the wheels)

[Aleksander Steffen]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I was thinking of making something like that.. Two steel wires, four pairs of wheels, so that there will be almost no movement front / back or to the sides. Just like the dolly in the "Overhead dolly" thread in this forum, but this one runs on steel wires. I can't wait to friday!

[Sam Heijens]

I was thinking you could use this system to have two cables running side by side at equal distance, but you only need 2 trees instead of 4. (maybe you were already planning on doing this). There's only one problem, I haven't figured out yet how you can attach the cables at one side.

The T's are the trees. The thin lines are the metal wires and the vertical lines are pieces of metal with gaps in them, to keep the wires apart.

[Aleksander Steffen]

I've been planning something like that I'll attach the metal square pipes to the three with an other steel wire or some chains or something. Then I will attach the steel wire to the metal pipes with a carabine hook on to an eye-hook that is mounted on the pipe. Thats in the first end. In the other, I'm going to use a couple of winches (I'll need two, right?) to tighten the wires. I have to find out exactly how I'm going to do this, so if you have an other great idea, please feel free to share it.

When I'm finished and all is working satisfactory, I'm going to write a text that describes exactly how I did it and which tools and materials I used

[Cedric Akins]

Here is another example of a steel wire dolly. http://hbsboard.com/index.php/topic,1846.msg17093.html#msg17093

I think that if you were gonig to use four pulleys in this manner you could use two trees  along with two pre made track braces like this:

BBB

=Brace,

---

=Track

       

BBB

----------------------------------------------------------

BBB

TREE

 

BBB                                                                                 BBB

 

TREE

TREE

 

BBB                                                                                 BBB

 

TREE

TREE

 

BBB                                                                                 BBB

 

TREE

       

BBB

----------------------------------------------------------

BBB

Also I was thinking about that if you wer pulling it with a nylon chord you could regulate it with a pulley and crakn system, which could help reduce the jerky feeling of this typ of system. Another concern or question I have is about the initial pull; is there a since of lift or tilt when you first pull the rig to start it into motion? If so you may want to make some type of counter balance for the opposite end of the rig.

[Aleksander Steffen]

I'm sorry, but I didn't quite get that one... But the regulation system you're talking about sounds great, even though I talked about using motors... I'm never going to do that myself, because I don't know anything about such things. But could you give me an example of how to make this regulation system?

Yeah, right now it is swaing a lot if I'm not careful, but that will be solved with two wires and four wheels. I'm going to build something like the overhead dolly you linked to, at friday I think. But I have got some awesome shots from the current version of this rig, it's just that it is not stable enough, and require extremely careful operation.

[Cedric Akins]

Take a look:

[Cedric Akins]

Note that the crank and spool can be substituted with a motor if that is what you plan to use. Also where the pulley is located I forgot to add the connection points to the brace. It would be a simple matter of welding or bolting them to one another.

[Aleksander Steffen]

I don't think I will go for your regulation system AND a motor. It'll either be your system, or a motor that rotates a pulley or something, so that it rolls on the wire. Problem is, as mentioned before, I don't know anything about gears, motors, transmitters and receivers and so on.

[Aleksander Steffen]

Hey guys!
Tonight me and a couple of friends made a new version of the dolly....











It isn't finished yet, as you can see. Will continue to work on the dolly as soon as possible!

[Cedric Akins]

Now that is really looking good.