Alignment Assembly for 2020 Frame
I drew this design purely out of interest to test a concept I thought of to assist with alignment of the outer solenoids in a multi-solenoid drop system
Personally, I have a different system, so I have not actually tested a fully printed system. Another problem I have is that 2020 aluminium profile is not readily available to me, so I was unable to print and test final tolerances.
I understand that many people advocate to keep everything simple, and I get that, but I am also sure that there are some like me, who after mixing up all their liquids and assembling the stand, want to get through the alignment stage as fast as possible and get on with capturing some great drop photos.
Maybe something like this can help.
The top bracket (light blue) is locked into a suitable position.
The yellow hinge swings in 4 directions.
The grey brace is similar to what is provided in a few drop stands. I do not have one of these braces so I was unable to test the strength – it may need 2 braces, glued together and then a couple design modifications to the hinge and slide.
The green component is also locked into a suitable position and provides a fixed housing for the adjuster thread.
This screen capture just shows the cover removed to show the 2 ball joints sit independently within the red housing.
If there is any interest in this particular system, I am happy to consider doing some more work to fine tune the design and make the STL files freely available for anyone to print.
For people unfamiliar with 3D printing, a STL file is all that is needed to be loaded into a 3D printer to enable printing.