Custom 3D Printed Mounts

Every mount is a two-sided problem: it has to grip one particular object and attach to one particular surface. Manufacturers can solve one side of that. They cannot solve both, because your combination of thing and place is yours alone. So you end up with an adapter stack, a bit of drilled aluminium, or cable ties.

A printed mount solves both sides at once, in one piece.

Things people have made

• Cameras and action cams — dash mounts, workshop mounts, awkward-angle mounts for filming a machine
• Screens and displays — monitor arms adapters, panel mounts, VESA adapters for kit that has no VESA holes
• Phones and tablets — vehicle mounts shaped to a specific dash, workshop and kitchen mounts
• Sensors and electronics — mounting a bare PCB, a Raspberry Pi, a temperature probe, a doorbell to a surface it was never designed for
• Vehicle and campervan interiors — gauge pods, control mounts, fire extinguisher brackets, things clipped to a curved panel
• Model railway and hobby — controller mounts, point motor mounts, layout fittings
• Workshop and home — tool holders, light mounts, remote holders, router mounts

Why print rather than buy or fabricate

• The mating shape is free. The expensive bit of a bespoke mount in metal is the curve, the pocket, the shape that hugs your device. Printed, that shape costs no more than a flat plate.
• One is a normal quantity. No tooling, no minimum order.
• It can be a single piece. No adapter stacking, no accumulated wobble.
• Iterating is cheap. If v1 sits at the wrong angle, v2 is a small change and another short print.
• You can print spares. Or several, for several vehicles, rooms or benches.

Price comes from size, material and print time rather than complexity — see how pricing works.

Material choice comes down to where it lives

• PLA — indoors, out of the sun, light duty. A desk mount or a shelf mount for something light. Cheap and rigid. Not in a vehicle, ever: a PLA phone mount on a dashboard will slump in the first hot spell.
• PETG — the sensible default. Tough, handles knocks and vibration, copes with damp and a bit of sun.
• ASA — vehicles, direct sunlight, anywhere warm. The right answer for a dash mount or an exterior fitting.
• Nylon / nylon-CF — stiff and tough, for mounts under real load or constant vibration.
• TPU — for grip pads, anti-rattle inserts and anything that squeezes a device without marking it. A rigid mount with a printed TPU liner is a lovely combination.

Our material comparison has more.

Design points that decide whether it works

• Orientation for the load. Layers peel apart more easily than they tear. We orient the mount so the weight runs along the layers, not across a joint. Read how strong printed parts are for why this matters so much.
• Fillets, not sharp corners. The inside corner where an arm meets a base is where a mount cracks. A radius there is worth more than any amount of extra infill.
• Walls over infill. For stiffness in a mount, more perimeters beat a high infill percentage.
• Design in the clearance. A pocket printed to the device's nominal size will not accept it. See tolerances and fit.
• Metal where metal belongs. Heat-set inserts or captive nuts for anything you unscrew more than once. A thread cut straight into plastic strips.
• Think about vibration. In a vehicle, a mount fails at the fixing, not in the middle. Spread the screws, add a gusset, use washers.

What to send us

You do not need CAD. Most mounts start with:

1. Photos of the device, with a ruler or calipers in shot — and photos of where it needs to go.
2. Key dimensions of the device — the faces the mount grips, and any hole positions with centre-to-centre distances.
3. The mounting surface — flat, curved, what diameter, what it is made of, and whether you can drill it.
4. The angle and position you want the device to sit at.
5. Where it lives — indoors, vehicle, outdoors, near heat.

Our measuring guide covers the method. If you already have a model, upload it and we will check it before quoting. If you have neither, our design help service starts from photos and measurements.

Where a printed mount is not the right answer

• Anything overhead and heavy. A large TV, a projector, a hoist. If it falls it hurts someone — use steel.
• Safety equipment in a vehicle where a failure in a crash matters.
• Sustained heavy load plus heat. Plastic creeps: it slowly deforms under constant load, and warmth speeds it up. A heavy mount that is fine in April can droop in August.
• Long cantilevered arms carrying real weight. Printed plastic is good in compression and short bending, poor over a long lever.

Cameras, phones, sensors, small screens, controls, tools, lights, hobby kit — all well within what a printed mount handles comfortably.

Tell us what you are mounting, to what, and where. We will tell you honestly whether printing is the right call.

Get an estimate · see the brackets and mounts service · browse the print library.