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Tilting feet

This page was last updated : 19-Dec-22 17:48:48

It's hard to get tilting feed for enclosures these days. So #diy it is.

I made the parts from polycarbonite and stainless steal. 

 

 

 

Everything back together it looks nice. 

But the feet can be 3D printed when needed. I made a design from them on Tinkercad (see 3D below pictures).  There are 2 versions.
One which can be screwed from the inside (grey), and one from the outside with a hole for the crew head (orange). You can download them directly from Tinkercad or use Tinkercad to modify them. 

Tilting feet for the QCX+ (can be adopted for other cases)

I really love the original case. But when you have it on a desk, the ergonomics aren't that good. Trying to turn the dials can be very uncomfortable and on groups.io/QRPLabs, Larry N6NC described the same problem. He asked  if some one all ready made a 3D printed stand for the QCX+ and I showed hem the tilting feet I made for my uBITX. These are rather large so I took a moment design a dedicated set for the QCX+.  It's not finished yet (maybe I want to bar to be a little taller, giving the case a large elevating angle. 

The set consist of 2 round feet and a lifting bar (how do you call that in English??).

Note : I used yellow material for prototyping. That way I can see the wires and details with my own eyes without aditional light and magnification.

The lifting bar fits really nice in the feet.

Using thin (and strong) double sided tape I placed the set under my QCX to see if the elevated angle was ok.  

The angle with this lifting bar is aprx 15 dgr. 

The lifting bar can  flipped underneath the QCX when needed. 

In the 3D design I have added 3 different lifting bars with different heights. Images below show the short, middle and tall version.  

So far it looks good to me. I made the lifting bar in various height to check what the most comfortable elevated angle is. Also the feet is in 2 models, one which let the lifting bar in a angle 120 dgr (shown in the pictures above) and one in 90 dgr (shown in the pictures below).  

The front panel PCB assembly of the QCX+ is all away to the bottom of the case. Meaning that drilling the holes should be done very accurate not to interfere with the front panel PCB. So I added 2 drilling template to the 3D design. One (10mm) for when you have a 1.5mm Plexiglas screen in front of the LCD like I have and one (8.5) when you don't have it. This is needed because the front panel 

 

Check check double check. 

Nicely drilled holes exactly on the spot (remember that the drilling template can be used only once when the drill gets hot). 

Pictures showing the use of the 90 dgr angle feet. Because the case is lifted enough it wont tip forward. 

We need to install the front panel assembly first because the bolts will prevent sliding in the front panel assembly (the PCB will hit the bolts). 

Everything together. 

After using the QCX for a few hours I decided to finalize the design. Although I like the yellow color for a lot of tools and parts, I printed  a set of straight angle feet and a medium height lifting bar in grey color. Giving it a little more matching for the black enclosure. 

I used a M3 thread tap to cut a M3 thread in the enclosure (the 2.5mm holes where perfect for that) and used short M3 bolts to mount the feet.

For me the aprx 18 dgr operating angle is very comfortable. 

All done. 

I made the design publicly available so you print your own but licensed it Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Meaning : 

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
• NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

It's not to be childish but it now happened a few times that a 3D design I made was sold by other people just because is was "Open source, so I can do anything I want with it" without any credits or even a token of appreciation. 

When you want it to be used Commercial, please contact me.   

  

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