Purpose

I use this to hold my phone still while taking photos or videos.

Designing

Camera arm cad

CAD from Fusion

Several factors contributed to making this design 3D printable.

The Clamp

The clamp consists of 3 parts.

  1. Clamp main section
  2. Threaded section
  3. Screw

The reason the clamp is split into a threaded section is so that I can print the thread vertically, running the layer lines across rather than vertically (increasing the strength of the clamp) and removing the need for supports.

This then attaches to the base of the arm using screws.

clamp and screw

The Arm

The arm consists of a series of screw joints.

Simply tighten the screw to hold the joint in place.

The simple design also allows for customization. I could add 2 more arms to this if I wanted to, no extra design needed.

arm parts

The Camera Clamp

The camera uses a vise-like mechanism to hold the phone in place.

Just tighten the screw to hold the phone down.

While this part may seem simple at first glance, take a close look at the top piece.

The big problem is that the screw has to spin within this part. It might be possible to print this in place using supports, but the layer alignment is not ideal. Certain parts of the print would look ugly due to the supports. That is why I broke this piece into 3 separate parts that are held together by 2 M3 screws.

phone clamp

Thoughts

Overall, it works, and for a 3D printed camera arm, it works well, and it has proven to be extremely helpful when it comes to designing this website. The biggest annoyance is that whenever it is bumped, it takes a long time for the shaking of the arm to go away.

Camera Arm Gallery