Camera Mount 4040/4020 Ender 3

thingiverse

I needed a solid mount that minimized machine vibrations translating to the camera and provided an ideal angle for The Spaghetti Detective to do its thing, but I couldn't find one that suited my needs. This mount is designed to slide onto the top of the left-front 40mm leg rail of an Ender 3, but it should fit any standard, dual t-slot 40mm extrusion. It should slide in snugly with a little force and stay put without additional hardware to hold the mount in place on the printer. The mount also swings in for easier travel/storage. ### Additional Hardware You'll need a 1/4"-20 x 1" hex head bolt, which is the standard thread size of most consumer-grade camera mounts. ### Printing Please follow these tips for the best results: - Follow the print orientation example to avoid supports and have higher strength in the directions that matter. - The upright orientation of lowerArm1.stl looks precarious, but with at least decent bed adhesion, you shouldn't have any issues and the t-slot anchors will be much stronger and more dimensionally accurate. - Print lowerArm1.stl by itself if you're unsure of your bed adhesion. - You'll have better strength and rigidity with these minimum settings: - At least three shell layers - At least 30% infill with gyroid or cubic subdivision preferred, in that order - Layer height should have little impact on performance, but I printed at 0.2mm layer height for a nice balance between speed and surface quality with very good results. ### Assembly - Before assembling, thread the elbowScrew into the threaded sleeve of the upperArm completely until the screw cap touches the sleeve to get past any printing imperfections that may create sticking spots. - A standard 1/4"-20 (course thread) 1" hex head bolt should snugly fit into the mountScrewThumbCap with a small amount of force by sliding the bolt through the hole and then pushing the hex cap down into the hex-shaped hole in the top of the thumb cap. - If you plan to use zip ties to manage your camera cable/ribbon, do yourself a favor and thread those through the small holes on the bottom of the arms before attaching the whole assembly to the printer. - When sliding the lowerArm into the t-slots, you'll have to wiggle it a little until it lines up just right and push firmly, but it should slide on with a little force. If your rails have dust/debris in them, consider cleaning them out first for a smoother fit. ### Feedback This initial design is just based on what I needed, but I can easily imagine some different arm styles for both the upper and lower arms. If you would like to use this but it doesn't quite meet your needs, shoot me a comment and I'll see what I can do to accommodate. It's a pretty modular design on purpose, and I plan on adding more options in the future if there is demand for it. ### Acknowledgements I was looking around for a camera mount that suited my needs and couldn't really find anything, but I stumbled on this design which was the inspiration for my design. Not sure I'd call this a remix since it's a ground-up custom design, but I wanted to make sure and give credit for the inspiration. Cheers!