Microphone Arm Mount for 2040 Rail

prusaprinters

<p>I'm new to 3D printing, but I'm learning that I like a particular design language. Part of that is making pieces that feel “organic” to my printers, as if they'd been there from the start, but part of it's also trying to make a generally human-friendly piece when I'm modeling.</p><p>Human-friendliness pretty much goes out the window when you're dealing with T nuts, though. I hate T nuts.</p><p>So this gizmo accepts 12mm bases often, but not exclusively, found on microphone stands, though there are also ring lights, desk lamps, etc. using the same base. (I use mic arms to support cameras, which is where this build comes from.) The build is composed of a base piece anchored to 2040 rail with M3x12 screws and T-nuts and supports an M5 screw (with handy, color-codeable captive-nut twisty handle) for locking. The collet is printed separately (so you can print it out of something more pliable; right now I'm using particularly bendy PLA+ but I'm planning to switch to TPU when I use this for microphones in the future; the screw is an M5x20mm screw held with a captive nut.</p><p>It's intended to print with the collet upside-down (open rim on the print bed) and with the base unit on its back (curve upward), and the through-hole for the collet is fluted for that purpose. The collet itself has a gap for the screw and a notch, so you can't put it in backwards.</p><p>Material only sort-of matters. I used regular PLA for the base and the aforementioned (Polyterra) PLA+ for the collet and screw grip. You could use PETG for either, and a TPU collet makes some sense for shock absorption on a microphone if you were to use it that way.</p>