Professional camera gear is expensive, which is probably why there is such a huge DIY field for camera equipment. Here’s another great DIY camera slider that you can build for cheap.
Similar to other rigs we’ve seen, the heart of this design makes use of skateboard wheels — they’re cheap, have good bearings, and are easy to mount. He’s created a dolly for them using a T-strap bracket, which is used for wood framing — the wheels mount directly to it without any modification.
What we think is unique about this build are the rails [Shootr] decided to use. They’re U-Post fence posts — strong, rigid, and probably one of the cheapest forms of processed metal you can buy. To hold them together, he’s using a threaded rod with two pieces of 1/2″ square steel tubing, bracing the fence posts. This wedges the dolly in between them with just enough slack to slide smoothly back and forth.
The other method of making a camera slider like this is using tubular rails, which also allows you to add a curve in your camera track. And if you’re looking for a precise, 2-axis camera dolly… you should check out this one!
Those wheels are in-line skate wheels rather than skateboard wheels.
Those wheels are definitely from rollerblades and not from a skateboard.
How does the camera move without a quadrocopter?
Lasers of course…
Bravo for using fenceposts!
Wow, never thought anything I did would be worthy of Hackaday. Thank you for picking up on this and reposting.
I have the 5rpm motor and bronze bushings on order, I hope to motorize it for timelapse sequences next week.
Thanks again!
Great idea for cheap bearings!
The reversible motor came today and it has loads of torque at 5v, with a nice 5-6 rpm speed. I stripped a USB cable so it can be powered off a Voltaic V15 USB battery pack, which will also back up the camera battery so I can do 2+ hour sessions. The motor only draws .05amps so I think 4AH will suffice since the camera will start with a fully charged battery as well.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Yes-Another-Camera-Slider-NOW-MOTORIZED/
Here is the link to motorization part of the slider!