3D Printed Sight-Mount for Cartel Clicker

Several years ago while helping with my daughter's JOAD team I got the crazy idea to make a 3D printed mount to attach an inexpensive Cartel Magnetic Clicker to a sight extension.  It's a similar concept to the excellent AAE sight-mounted clicker, but the idea was to make it cheaper and also keep the option of mounting the clicker directly on the riser if desired.  The AAE works great, but you can't move it to the riser if you decide to go that route - you'd get to buy a new clicker.

After a few rounds of prototyping I came up with something that I even tried making molds of and casting myself.  Let's just say that worked, but only barely.  I discovered that these initial attempts had a flaw - the kids would rotate the clicker so that it aligned with the sight bar when they took their bow down, thereby making it impossible to return the clicker to the exact spot next time they assembled it.  Having a look at the Cartel Magnetic Clicker (Midas) the base has a unique shape, which I used to make an inset in the mount.  This inset makes it impossible for the clicker to be rotated on the mount, so as long as the mount is in the same place on the sight extension, the clicker will always be in the same location.

This design works really well.  It's also not terribly expensive when ordering from Shapeways.  Shapeways uses SLS machines with nylon, and the print quality and tolerances are really great.  The problem is, the cost is still a bit higher than I had wanted it to be.  It's about $12 as of this writing (Dec. 2017) to get from Shapeways, plus shipping.  Many have been ordered through Shapeways by myself and others over the past couple of years.

Fast forward to 2017.  I needed three more of these and wanted to find a way to bring the cost down.  Printing these on a more common FDM type 3D printer would make these considerably less expensive.

The design I came up with has portions that cannot be printed on a FDM 3D printer without support structures.  Many people have access to these types of printers at schools or libraries or they may even own their own machine.  The cost of printing something like this on a FDM machine would be a lot lower, so I did a little re-thinking.

By removing just a few parts and re-orienting the insets for the captive nuts (used for providing metal threads), I was able to make a modified version that can be printed on a FDM printer.  In my area, the library has a Lulzbot Taz that you can order 3D prints from at very minimal cost.  I didn't know for sure if it'd work, but I sent it off to be printed.  It successfully printed* and cost a whopping $0.68!  That's more like what I had originally hoped.

Here's a summary of the Shapeways printed version versus the Library FDM printed version,

Shapeways Version

• Very high print quality
• Very good tolerances
• Wide variety of colors
• Lightweight material
• Reasonable turnaround time
• Unfortunately, more expensive than I had wished, but not outrageously expensive.

Library FDM Printed Version

• Tolerable print quality, but not great.  It's usable, but definitely visible layering and some artifacts are always present.  In some cases, the first few layers printed spread out horizontally and are thinner, resulting in deformations that must be dealt with using sandpaper and sharp blade carving.
• The material is much harder than the nylon used by Shapeways' SLS machines.
• The cost is very, very low.
• Turnaround time can be slow.  I've had it take 3 weeks on parts before, but hey, it's really cheap!

I find that the FDM prints are usable, provided you don't mind the print quality and doing some cleanup to deal with the distortions.  The Shapeways SLS prints are of vastly better quality, but I think the plastic used in the Library's FDM machine (PLA plastic) might be a little stronger.

So here's the interesting part.
While these have been available to order from Shapeways for some time, I've decided to make the STL file I used for the FDM printer available to download.  If you have access to a FDM printer and want to try one, the link to the STL file is below.  The units are MM.  

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1A3abQLRj_yXJMcxNRn80CvQuP6ioPCX3

Licensing 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

This means you can make them, modify the design, and share the modified design with others, but you cannot use it for commercial purposes (sell them).

Choices
So, if you want to try one of these, you have two choices now:

1. Order one from Shapeways if you want the much higher print quality
2. Print one yourself using the STL file if you don't mind the look and possible distortions.  

As I said, I find that the FDM print has vastly inferior print quality but it's still totally usable and is very, very, very cheap.  You decide what's important to you.  

Here are some photos to help you decide.  The Library FDM print is on the left, and the Shapeways SLS print is on the right.

FDM Printed Mount (left)

Shapeways SLS Print (right)

Shapeways SLS Print (right)

FDM Printed Mount (left)

ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS
You will need: 2 #6-32 nuts, 1 #6-32 by 3/8" machine screw, and 1 #6-32 by 2" machine screw.

The nuts go into captive insets on the back of the lower adapter.  You may choose to put a dab of super glue in the inset prior to inserting the nuts to hold them in place.

The clicker goes in the inset on the front of the lower adapter.  Remove the rubber washer if you have one before putting the clicker into its inset.  Use a short #6-32 screw to hold the clicker in place.  If you need to, add washers so that the screw doesn't stick out the back so far as to interfere with the 2" bolt.

Insert the 2" bolt through both vertical holes in both pieces.  Attach the mount as seen in the photos.  Don't over-tighten the mount so much that it crushes the mount or your sight!  Just tighten it firmly so it won't move.

Aim small, hit small

This past week I had the privilege of running the archery range for two days at my church's annual girl's camp at Camp Batel, Wyoming.  The girls that attend these camps range in age from 12-18 years old and the majority of them are not experienced with archery.  In fact, a few have never touched a bow in their lives!

I had groups of 20 or so come through during the days, with most groups shooting for around 45 minutes.  About 150 girls in total shot at the range, I think.

I took up some standard 40cm targets and some balloons (about 8 inches) to shoot at as well.  The balloons had a little extra fun added - I put a bit of flour in each so they make a cloud when they pop.

In the afternoons and evenings the girls had free time and a lot of them chose to come down to the range and shoot some arrows.  Some girls were getting pretty competent, so I worked with those that wanted to improve a bit.

One girl was shooting very well with the camp's Polaris bows, so I offered her the opportunity to shoot the PSE Optima I own that I brought up.  She did much better with this Optima and acclimated to using a finger tab quickly.

The girls all wanted to shoot at some balloons, so I put some up.  The girl shooting the Optima immediately hit hers and asked for another.  As I was putting up the balloons I decided to give this girl a challenge.  I gave her a small water balloon to shoot at instead (~2 inches), placed right over the 10 ring on her target face.

The first response to this was "I can't hit that".  I told her that I was pretty sure she can.  She responded "No way.  I can't hit that.  I haven't even had one arrow fall in the yellow directly."  I again reassured her that I was positive she could hit it and asked her to try.  I told her the funny thing is, if you aim small, you'll hit small.  She was skeptical but agreed to try.

The best thing happened next.  She shot her first arrow after putting up the small balloon and the arrow went right into the X ring, popping the small balloon!  She was so excited . There was a lot of cheering and celebration.  It was really cool!

When shooting with the JOAD team, I regularly put up targets that have only the 7, 8, 9, and 10 rings (only red and yellow), but they're the exact same size as the 40cm targets' red and yellow rings.  A funny thing happens - the archers' aim improves even though the area they're aiming at is exactly the same size.  The removal of the distractions allows them to focus on what's important.

So, this experience at camp reminded me that when you allow yourself to be distracted by extraneous stuff, you may not hit your target.  This applies to regular life as well as archery.  When you focus on what's important, you're much more likely to achieve it, even if you think you can't.