Printable Tripod Mount 2014 - after Starno by Processaurus

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

EDIT: 8/2016 Streamlined the design to eliminate the funny bottom piece. More on that below**
Note: This model requires inserting metal hardware mid print, to then get covered, which is a technique that requires either manually pausing the print it the correct moment, to insert the part, or modifying the G-Code being sent to the printer.
This is a remix of Starnos "Printable Tripod Mount" for smartphones. I loved the original concept, because it allows for different brands and cases. Anything shaped like a bar of soap.
After building and using the original, there were some issues this update addresses:
the original clamp fingers stuck out horizontally and the phone could easily slip out, away from the plastic. There is now an angled lip on each finger, to pull the phone in to mount when the nut is tightened down.
-the original used a 4" pan head screw (102mm to the sane world) sticking up through the clamp pieces. This could get loose and the head of the screw could spin around free when the hand nut gets tightened down. In this version it is changed to a bolt, so there is no way the head can spin in the bottom ("Camera Bracket") when the top gets tightened.
-the original used 10-24 sized screw. This uses 1/4", because they are easier to find at the hardware store, in the length needed. Also the smaller screw size seemed to bow/bend a little when mount got tightened down on a phone.
-the original relies on a press fit for the 1/4" nut the tripod screws into. A bump could make it fall out of the cavity, and let the phone/tripod mount fall off the tripod. This version uses a buried nut that cannot pop out, because it is encased in the plastic.
Other differences are cosmetic: An acorn cap for the top, and a knurled nut (also using a steel nut buried in the plastic) as a 3d printed alternative to the wingnut.
*BURIED NUTS. In order to encase a nut completely in a 3D printed plastic part, it is possible to pause the print at the right layer, and insert the metal nut into the cavity, and then print over the top to encase it forever. More in the instructions.
**UPDATE 8/2016 I Realized with the buried nut, that this design didn't need the original's Camera Bracket Piece, the 1/4" nut that the tripod screws into can just be inside the bottom of "Side 2". Less parts to print, smaller, better.