Folding Flat Tripod for Action Cam

This is a print-in-place, adjustable, compact, level tripod that you can take with you anywhere. A simple, no hassle way to get that camera footage you need, when you need it. At only 20 grams, you wont have to worry about how much weight you are sacrificing. Enjoy!

There are two versions.

• One to use with your own ¼ inch UNC bolt with a thread length of somewhere between 14mm and 20mm, head height of 5mm or less
• And the other as a base for your action camera mount

Design Journey:

Having picked up mountain biking, I was out and about one day with my Insta360. At one point I wanted to get a shot to check my jump form. Alas, I had nowhere to put the camera except balancing on a dusty piece of wood, hoping it didn't fall over while filming. An idea was born, or rather an idea of an idea. It took about a week to reason something that was compact, light, easy to print, and easy to use. 

The most interesting part about this design is that, thanks to FDM (fused deposition modeling, the official name of the way most 3D printers print) I am able to make the joint mechanism within the model itself! The alternative would have been to make an external locking joint which would have taken up space, added mass, and reduced the ease of use for the user.

The most challenging part of the design was figuring out the space between adjacent parts of the model. Too much space and you get ease of movement and rotation, but you would get sloppy action and the inability of the tripod to stay in one configuration. Too little space and it became difficult to initially separate the 3 pieces. In some cases the space was so low that the pieces were fused together. I eventually settled on a gap of 0.20mm. A gap of 0.15 was possible, but the amount of effort and pain in my fingers led me to believe that you did not want to suffer a similar fate as I.