3D Printing: Not Just For Do-Dads Anymore PART 3 – WDTV

wdtv 3d printed bracketThere’s a new TV setup at the Bremster household. Flat screen on the wall with no visible wires. There’s one problem though, my WDTV media player. It’s small but still a tad too awkward to be precariously balanced on the top of the TV. Plus, the power, ethernet and HDMI cords sticking out the back don’t let the media player stay aligned with the TV. So what’s a dude to do? Design and 3D print a sweet bracket of course.

WDTV 3D Printed Bracket FeaturesI was thinking, the ideal place to put the WDTV was centered under the TV. Unfortunately, there are no good mounting points on the bottom of the TV. There were two flat surfaces, perfect for using double sided tape. But alas, those two surfaces were at some oddball angle to each other. Break out some card stock and scissors to make a template! A little guessing and checking goes a long way. While 3D modeling the bracket, I held the cardboard template up to the screen in order to match the angle of the model with that of the template. This may sound cheesy but it’s totally fine for angles. This template-to-screen method wouldn’t work for linear dimensions.

To facilitate printing without supports, the bracket was designed in two pieces which will be epoxied together. The bracket looks abnormally complicated but there were reasons for all of the features. The WDTV gets warm, not hot, but warm enough where I didn’t want any surface to be totally covered. There are vents on the sides of the unit to permit airflow, so the bracket should not cover them. All the ports had to be accessible plus the surfaces that will mate with the TV must be at the right angle.

The original configuration:

WDTV

Here are the printed bracket pieces:

WDTV 3D Printed Brackets

…and the final setup:

wdtv 3d printed bracket

wdtv 3d printed bracket

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