Hot Shoe to 1/4-20 Magnetic Quick Release / LumeCube Magnetic Mount

Last crawled date: 4 years, 3 months ago

Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAIydsQTraw
These are some mounts that I developed to use as a magnetic quick-release mount for a LumeCube v2 on my Canon DSLR. One piece of the mount is placed on top of the DSLR camera. The other piece is screwed into the bottom of the LumeCube. Each half has four magnets and when placed together they will be securely connected.
I made two versions of the mount, for 6mm x 3mm and for 10mm x 3mm magnets respectively. The 10mm variant is much stronger (which is both a plus and a minus). The 6mm variant can come loose if the camera is shaken violently.
The base is secured to the camera using a screw and a wedge-shaped plastic piece. Tightening the screw places addition pressure from the wedge onto the camera's hot shoe, and secures the base. You may or may not find this wedge/screw system necessary, the base will kinda stay there on it's own, but the wedge will make it more solid.
In addition to 3D printed parts you will need the following:
Neewer Stainless Steel 1/4" Mounting Screw. This is a 1/4-20 "camera screw". A regular 1/4-20 bolt of the appropriate length will do.
Magnets, either 6mm x 3mm or 10mm x 3mm. Eight magnets total.
M2.5x30 machine screw for the 6mm variant or M2.5x34 machine screw for the 10mm variant. Longer is fine, though it will stick out.
M2.5 heat-set threadsert. You can buy these on ebay. You set them with a soldering iron. An m2.5 nut may also suffice.
The parts are designed to print in the orientation depicted, yes the base is supposed to print vertically like that -- it puts the layer lines in the orientation I wanted them. On the base there will be a small "pillar" across the wedge shot that should snap or cut out cleanly. It's used to support the overhang that prints above it. All of these pieces are intended to be printed without supports.
The magnet packets are designed slightly oversize to allow for some tolerance, be careful you do not set your magnets too deep (if you do, the magnet will usually happily pull back up before your glue sets). Secure the magnets with cyanoacrylate superglue.
I recommend printing the parts in PETG. For the models depicted in the video I used Priline Carbon Fiber PETG. The Carbon Fiber is likely not necessary, but I do recomment PETG or Polycarbonate over PLA. I would be worried about durability of the base if printed in PLA.
I did use raster's "Hot Shoe Mount" (Thing 33823) as a basis for developing the part of the base that interfaces with the camera.