Ball & Socket

cults3d

I needed an adjustable mount for another project, something that will be able to hold a few hundred grams or more and take a bit of a vibration....so I came up with this design. The tolerances are pretty tight on this, so any part with a thread (nut and socket) I would print at 0.1mm, or increase the size of all the parts There is a short video showing a quick demonstration of the parts.https://youtu.be/XHjbzKNqYlk The ball and socket is nothing new, inspiration was taken from a Manfrotto camera mount and a cheap Ebay car windscreen mount for my phone. The ball jointed end can be easily redesigned to any length to meet your needs, but I have included a few variations and this is the same for the socket and ball combination. The socket is sized to 15.3mm in diameter and the ball to 15mm, there is also a small ridge in the socket that gives a satisfying click when the ball is inserted. The shaft diameter is 8mm in all cases, this can be increased or decreased depending on your requirements. I have given a bit more tolerance on the threads and allowed for 0.4mm here, for me these work straight off the printer but I printed them at 0.1mm and at 40mm/s. The ball_ball parts come in a Ver (vertical) and Hoz (horizontal) version, this indicates the flat edge (edge to touch the print bed) and the orientation of the part when you print it. The vertical part will allow for a more complete ball shape to be printed, whereas the horizontal part will not. However, the horizontal printed version will provide greater strength along the length of the arm, due to the way the layers are laid down. The flanged socket has 4 fixing holes, these are centred at 18.9mm from each other.