15 mm Rail to dual NATO Rail Adapter 75 mm, v3

prusaprinters

15 mm Rail to dual NATO Rail Adapter 75 mm, v3The original design of the 15 mm rails to the dual NATO accessory rail adapter works, but is somewhat hard to move on the 15 mm rods. That makes it difficult to slide the adapter to a precise position on the rails. On the bright side, all it requires is a 3D printer with no further effort to create.This remake, the Foťák Rail version 3, is much more flexible. For starters, the two holes for the 15 mm rails are now slightly larger, with a diameter of 15.3 mm. They also have a 1.5 mm slit that allows us to move them freely.Secondly, I have added space to add six M5 threaded heat-set inserts positioned such that we can attach a SmallRig 15 mm railblock, which allows us to slide the adapter freely and also to lock it in whatever position we desire.How to BuildIn this section I will link to the tools and parts I used (each link will appear only once). You can, of course, use whatever tools you have at your disposal, though if you use different parts, please make sure they are compatible (for example, different heat-set inserts may be for the same M5 bolts, but may have a different outer diameter, which may require a different diameter of the holes).To build it, we first print the adapter, preferably with PETG. Then we replace the tip of our soldering iron with a heat-set insert tip for M5, plug the iron to the electrical outlet, turn it on and set the temperature to 200°C. One by one, we insert the narrower end of an individual heat-set insert into one of the six holes and gently press the insert tip of the soldering iron until the insert is almost fully inserted, turn the adapter with the newly added insert while still hot upside down, and press it against a glass pane to make sure the insert is flush with the surface of the side of the adapter. Please, do not press it against a wooden bench or desk, as that will burn a hole into its surface. Use the glass pane instead (of course, you can have the pane on the top of a wooden surface, just as I did in the enclosed photographs).When all six inserts are in, we turn the soldering iron off and unplug it from the outlet. The tip will still be hot, so we do not touch it but leave it alone until we are done with everything else. Touching a hot tip may cause serious burns.Similarly, the inserts need to cool off before we can mount the railblock. While we are waiting, we prepare three M5-0.8 x 30 mm flanged button head socket cap screw bolts. They can be longer, but they should not be any shorter than 25 mm. This is because the railblock is 15 mm thick, while the heat-set inserts are almost 10 mm long. That adds up to 25 mm, plus we add 5 mm to go slightly beyond the end of the insert. Hence the 30 mm bolts.We also prepare six M5 x 10 mm x 1 mm black zinc plated flat washers/spacers. We will use two washers per bolt to ensure the bolt does not wiggle when going through the hole in the railblock. Those holes are ¼ inch wide, which is more than the 5 mm of M5.Now comes the hardest part (at least for my 72-year old fingers). Once the inserts are cooled, we place one washer into each bolt. Then we insert the bolts through the ¼ inch holes in the railblock, and add one more washer to each bolt on the other side of the railblock. Wishing we had six arms like a Hindu deity, we screw the bolts into the three inserts on one end of the adapter using a 3 mm Allen wrench which, given we only have two hands at best, will make us feel needing some Wrench dressing.We place the result on the 15 mm rails, and add some other 15 mm rails device, for example a baseplate with a dual 15 mm rod clamp, perhaps with a quick repeat plate attached, so we can mount it all on a tripod.You will notice that we added six inserts, but only attached one railblock to three of them. We have left the other three unattached to use for whatever we may need at any future point, even potentially for a second railblock if we slide some heavy device onto the NATO accessory rail.But for now, we are done building.Building Compatible DesignsFor the future, however, if you wish to modify this design and wish to keep it compatible with the Foťák project (especially if you intend to publish your design or sell a physical variation of this design), please take a look at the enclosed technical drawing, and note the following:The 15 mm rails are exactly 60 mm apart (measuring from the center of one rod to the center of the other rod. They are also parallel. This is an industry standard to make sure that rods from one company are compatible with rail accessories from other companies.While the rails are 15 mm in diameter, the holes for their insertion need to be of a slightly larger diameter. How larger depends on the material you use to build this adapter. Here it is 15.3 mm for PETG. It would be different for alumin(i)um, or for wood, etc.The distance from the center of the hole for the rods to the top of the “anvil” of the NATO accessory rail is exactly 14 mm. This is important, again for compatibility with different designs.The maximum distance from the top of the “anvil” to the bottom of the adapter is 31 millimeters. That means it may be shorter but must not be longer. The importance of this maximum will become apparent when I publish the design of a Foťák tripod adapter.The default depth of the adapter is 75 mm. Not more, not less. Although this should be considered preliminary, but for now that is the default. That is for the base of the Foťák view camera, which consists of standard 15 mm rails (though longer than in the enclosed pictures), two of this adapter (or a compatible adapter whether by myself or by anyone else) to support the front and the rear standards of the camera, and a somewhat optional tripod adapter.Of course, you can use any values for the purpose of building something other than a Foťák, the open source view camera.