Ball & Socket

cults3d

I was looking for a customizable mount for another project, something that could hold several hundred grams or more and withstand some vibration. I came up with this design to meet those requirements. The tolerances on this design are quite tight, so any part with threads (nuts and sockets) should be printed at 0.1mm resolution or the size of all parts increased. A video demonstration is available showing the parts in action: https://youtu.be/XHjbzKNqYlk The ball-and-socket mechanism was inspired by a Manfrotto camera mount and a cheap Ebay car windscreen mount for my phone. The ball-jointed end can be easily modified to any length, but I've included several variations as well as options for the socket and ball combination. The socket is 15.3mm in diameter and the ball is 15mm, with a small ridge that provides a satisfying click when the ball is inserted. The shaft diameter is consistently 8mm across all designs, which can be adjusted to suit your needs. I've given more tolerance on the threads, allowing for 0.4mm, but these work fine straight off the printer even at 40mm/s. The ball-ball parts come in Ver (vertical) and Hoz (horizontal) versions, indicating the flat edge that touches the print bed and the part's orientation during printing. The vertical version allows for a complete ball shape to be printed, while the horizontal version provides greater strength along the length of the arm due to layer alignment. The flanged socket has four fixing holes centered at 18.9mm from each other.