DSLR Camera 15mm Rails Platform

I've been doing development on my motion control rig for a few years now. After selling my primary camera for the rig (Sony F3), I only had my Nikon DSLR left to test the rig with. Since I didn't have a way to mount the required focus and zoom motors, or even a way to attach the camera to the rig at all, I made a complete camera platform 100% 3D printed.

I looked on this site for anything that would work that someone else had already made but I couldn't find anything that worked exactly how I needed it to, so I modeled everything from scratch in OpenSCAD. I'm not an OpenSCAD expert and the code shows it, so I won't be posting the source files. If you want them, just ask and I'll send them to you.

Also keep in mind that I modeled the bottom plate to fit directly into the Bogen tripod quick release plate. This makes the rig much simpler. If you need it to fit your tripod plate, just design a new bottom or put holes in my bottom plate and attach your tripod adapter.

Obviously there is a bit of risk in creating a part like this and putting $5k worth of camera equipment on it. I'm confident that the parts I printed are up to task and I'm not too worried about breaking my camera, but use at your own risk.

Also, the rig pictured is using my 15mm Stepper Motor Rail Mounts too. That part has its own page and you can get the STL for that there.

Lastly, the actual 15mm rods are standard rods. They are not printed. I get mine from Filmtools.

You'll need some 1/4-20 Panhead screws for the platforms to attach to the vertical posts. I get mine from home depot. I can probably find the exact SKU for you if you need it. I sized the holes in the vertical rails just perfectly so they can be tapped with a 1/4-20 tap. Sorry if you don't have a tap, just go buy one. They're not that expensive. Just get a good grip on the rod and tap it, pretty easy.

You'll need some 1/4-20 hex nuts and bolts too. These are used to fix the rail holders to the vertical posts and also for the rail holders to grip the rails.

The camera is held on the platform with a thumb bolt. The rod blocks are fixed to the vertical rods with a super extended thumb bolt. The 15mm rails are using a shallow extended thumb bolt. These are all essentially the same thumb bolt with different depths to fit the purpose.

The lens support is very specific and it was made to fit my 24-70mm Nikon. Your lens probably needs a support with a different diameter. If you get the OpenSCAD source from me, you can probably figure it out.

I am aware that the bolt hole in the rail holders is slightly off-center. I can't figure out why but it still works fine. If there is an OpenSCAD expert who thinks they can unravel my code and figure it out, please do.

If you make one, post a picture of your rig so I can check it out. Good luck!