This is a 8 foot camera slider made with rig wheels and box track, both now available
at rigwheels.com.
We're going to do a quick tutorial here on how to put this example together.
Let's get started.
So this is really pretty simple to assemble the slider track.
All we have to do is connect the ends on both sides.
You can do this with a lot of different materials.
I use the track itself to connect the ends.
I cut off one foot and use it to connect the ends.
But if you want to preserve the full 8 feet, then you can use other materials.
You can find steel or aluminum at your local metal supply.
Cut just a 2 or 3 inch section of that and that will bolt right to the ends.
You can use wood to connect the ends.
That works just fine as well.
But for this demonstration, we're going to use the box track itself.
So all we have to do is drill 1 5 16 inch hole in each end of all the sections and then we're
going to connect them all together.
The key here is to be very precise in how far those points are away from each other so
that your slider runs really smooth.
And to keep those points in place, we're going to drill a small starter hole first so our
drill bit doesn't slip around when we're drilling a larger hole.
Okay, we're going to do that on our other section as well for the other end.
And then on the ends of the long section of track, we're going to drill one hole in each
end at 5 eighths of an inch in the center of the solid side.
And that's what these ends are going to connect to.
So let's drill some holes.
So we've drilled our starter holes in the end of every section as well as the holes for
our tripod plates.
So now we're going to go back around with our 5 16 inch bit and drill our bigger holes.
Okay all of our holes are drilled now.
So we're just going to connect all four of the corners using in total 4 5 16 inch bolts.
This is about one and a quarter inches long and three washers per corner, so 12 total.
Our slider track is totally intact now.
Our next step is going to be to build our camera carriage that our camera is going to
ride on.
There's lots of different ways that you can do this.
I used 15 millimeter rod gear to build mine, but all you need to do it is a piece of wood.
We're going to drill five holes in this.
The same distance apart as our rails is going to be 10 and a half inches from hole to hole.
On the sides are four rig wheels and then one for our tripod.
So let's mark this up.
This is a one by one sheet of press board.
So first thing we're going to do is mark this center on the side that we're going to put
the wheels.
And then from that center point, I'm going to mark five and a quarter inches to match
the width of our rails.
So one, two, three, four, five and a quarter on the same side, other side, five and a quarter.
That's one side.
We'll do the other side.
I'm going to mark those lines.
And then our holes on the four corners for the wheels are going to be set in an inch
and a quarter on each side.
So there's the point for our first wheel and that's for our fourth wheel.
Then the easiest way to find your center point for your tripod hole, let's go quarter
into corner.
This doesn't have to be exact, but pretty close.
X marks the spot.
So four, five, sixteenths inch holes on those four spots and one, three-eighths inch hole
for your tripod head.
Let's drill them.
Okay, almost done.
Next step is to attach our four rig wheels.
This rides on the bottom side of the track, so the rig wheels get mounted to the top.
I'm going to put a washer on each side of the press board.
Just leave those finger tight for now.
So there's our four rig wheels attached.
Now we have to put this into the slider before we can mount the tripod head on the top.
Use this as standard tripod head with a three-eighths inch hole on the bottom.
So there's an eight foot slider.
Let's stick it on our tripod and tighten everything up and see how it looks.
So that's it.
Our slider is done.
It's strong.
It's stable.
You can put any camera on this that you want.
You don't have to use tripods.
You could easily put baby or junior adapters on the ends.
It's portable.
If you're familiar with standard dolly track, this works the same way.
It can collapse on itself to travel.
From this point, there's lots of different stuff that you could do with this.
One thing that's pretty cool is to take it to a paint shop and spray it with bed liner,
truck bed liner.
That gives it a nice durable finish.
It also helps with noise when you're moving quickly with the track.
Another thing that's cool are leveling feet.
These are cheap and easy to come by.
We'll have a link on our website.
These can go right on the end.
So you can put this whole rig right on the ground, get nice low angle shots.
Also people are sharing their ideas with us all the time of different ways that you can
use this stuff.
We're posting those ideas on our website along with links to supporting products that you
may want to use for your rig.
If you like this stuff, please share, post, tweet this video so that we can keep this
good stuff coming.
Thanks so much.
