Tilt-O-Matic

The Tilt-O-Matic (TOM) is an easy to construct pan and tilt mechanism designed by Gareth G4XAT for the ubiquitous yellow / orange surveyor’s tripods which are available for around £35 on the well-known auction site.

The ‘Tilt-O-Matic’ (TOM) provides smooth azimuth rotation with braking (optional) and a tilt mechanism capable of -10 to +10 degrees of tilt (exact limits selectable during the build) with a high degree of precision. Depending on your dish and end-use, the concept can be adapted to suit simply by changing the plywood (base-board) sizes, the height of the vertical separator and the length of the threaded tilt-adjustment rod. Materials have been chosen to be readily available, easy to work, and reasonably priced whiltst offering excellent performance in use.

Construction materials

The .stl files are available on the BATC wiki for the 3D printed parts.

PETG was used for the tilting printed parts, although PLA or PLA+ will also work with less resilience. Print time for the parts sets (print resolution varies depending on function of part/precision required) is around 10 hours and it uses 52m of 1.75mm filament, so about 1/6 of a 1kg roll.

Other materials required: