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small foldable tripod dolly

by andrea biffi on June 29, 2014

Table of Contents
small foldable tripod dolly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Intro: Small foldable tripod dolly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 1: The design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 2: A better improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 3: The three arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 4: Glue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 5: Drill foot seats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 6: The pivot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 7: Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 8: Attach wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 9: Completed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

http://www.instructables.com/id/small-foldable-tripod-dolly/

Author:andrea biffi

www.andreabiffi.com
I'm an Italian freelance structural engineer, graphic designer and photographer. I'm also investigating electronics, robotics and science in general. I enjoy
hacking and disassembling as much as designing... I love cycling, running, hikink, traveling in any way and taking spherical and gigapixel panoramas of
cityscapes and landscapes. I wish to have enough time to turn into instructables every my brainchild... but I still have to invent the time-machine!

Intro: Small foldable tripod dolly

To make movies you usually need to move smoothly your camera on a flat surface, like a table or the floor. There are many commercial tripod dollies but you can easily
make your own with a few wood boards and three wheels.

Step 1: The design

To build this dolly you can choose different materials and dimensions. I made a small one, but you can adapt this project to build a big dolly from pallet wood boards.
Here you can see how I decided to cut an mdf (medium density fibreboard) board to obtain the pieces of the right size. Since I already had a 70 cm long board I made a
little dolly, which is good for a little tripod or for a classic tripod with un-extended legs.

http://www.instructables.com/id/small-foldable-tripod-dolly/

Step 2: A better improvement

Anyway I noticed that I had some problems in finding three wheels with small plates. Indeed as you can see in next steps, with my 3 cm wide wood pads I barely found
fitting wheels. Then I suggest you to keep at least the dimensions indicated in this step schematic.

Step 3: The three arms

When you have cut the three wood arms you can drill an hole on one extremity of each board, and smooth the edges with sandpaper.

Step 4: Glue
Now with a proper glue attach the small pads on the longer boards. As you can see you need some space between them so that you can fold the dolly arms. To make
that space you can smooth the extremity of each arm after gluing the pads, so to obtain a very smooth and a bit rounded surface.

http://www.instructables.com/id/small-foldable-tripod-dolly/

Step 5: Drill foot seats

I drilled three big hole where to fit the tripod foot. Then using a spherical drill bit and then a spherical abrasive bit, I rounded them, and I finished the smoothing with a
small piece of sand paper.

Step 6: The pivot

The pivot is a simple bolt with nut and washers. When you are sure that the dolly is finished you can glue the nut so that it will not un-screw opening and closing the dolly
arms.

http://www.instructables.com/id/small-foldable-tripod-dolly/

Step 7: Wheels
Choosing the wheels can be fundamental to determine the behavior of the dolly and the tripod movement.
I had some furniture wheels, but they had a large base plate, and they didn't fit on my 3x4cm pads. So I found different wheels, bus some needed a cavity in the wood,
and I have one thin mdf arm where there is already a cavity (on the opposite side) for the tripod feet. At last there are some nice spherical wheels with a long screw, but in
this case too I have not enough depth to screw them.
Finally I found the wheels in the first picture, which barely fit on the three pads. Unfortunately I didn't check that all three wheels were identical, and as you can notice,
one of them is specular, and it fits a bit awkward with closed dolly. I will substitute it.

http://www.instructables.com/id/small-foldable-tripod-dolly/

Step 8: Attach wheels

Set up four screws for each wheel, then drill four holes in the boards, and attach the wheels in place.

http://www.instructables.com/id/small-foldable-tripod-dolly/

Step 9: Completed
As you can see now the dolly is completed. You can paint it in black to make it appearing more professional.
After opening the dolly you can place the tripod with foot in the dedicated seats. As you probably noticed the height of each seat id different from the other ones. This is
not a problem since the tripod will not be exactly horizontal, but usually tripod have an adjustable head. Anyway you can extend two legs of a small length (about 1 cm
one leg and 2 cm the other one), and your tripod will be planar.
So, good luck now with your new easy DIY tripod dolly!

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Comments
8 comments

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Darthorso says:

Jul 8, 2014. 9:58 AM REPLY

Well done Andrea, brilliant! :)

ASCAS says:

Jul 7, 2014. 3:12 AM REPLY

Brilliant as always :)

MacGroowe says:

Jul 7, 2014. 2:07 AM REPLY

Simply genius =)

MrE says:
Where did you get that little wire Hand drill thingy or did you make it? Would you supply some more pics of it?

http://www.instructables.com/id/small-foldable-tripod-dolly/

Jul 6, 2014. 4:52 PM REPLY

andrea biffi says:

Jul 6, 2014. 10:30 PM REPLY

in Italy we call it trivellino or succhiello

MrE says:

Jul 7, 2014. 1:06 AM REPLY

Thank you. I love old world tools and this is fantastic.

Nicola283 says:

Jul 6, 2014. 7:28 PM REPLY

Great idea!

CurtosNoirDesign says:
Cool idea. Simple and effective. Thanks for posting!

http://www.instructables.com/id/small-foldable-tripod-dolly/

Jul 6, 2014. 1:08 PM REPLY