Off-Set Cold Shoe for Robot Royal camera and other cameras 3D print model

In continuing with my tradition of designing tools for the most esoteric of subjects, let me present my off-set cold shoe for the Robot Royal camera.

The Robot Royal is a very cool spring-driven camera from the 1940’s-1960’s. It also sports a 24mm x 24mm frame format, which is also pretty dang cool. They also had a traditional 35mm format size as well.But what they didn’t have is a light meter.

This brings us to my latest design. I have an external light meter that fits in the hot shoe of the camera (it’s really a cold shoe) but the light meter blocks the shutter button. So the reason for the off-set cold shoe is to shift the light meter over to left to be able to attach the light meter and also be able to take a picture at the same time. BTW, Some hot shoe light meters have an adjustable base so you might not need this at all. Mine actually does have the adjustable base but it fits so loosely in the shoe its more secure in my adapter.

I’ve uploaded three versions of the design. The first version is just a cold shoe with a small half circle carved out from the front of the shoe that mates up with the little rod at the back of the shoe that keeps the hot shoe from sliding out the other end. The second version has a little design I made (I’m kinda proud of it) that snaps around the stop rod and locks on to it. And version 3 is the version 2 with the Robot Royal logo on it, for all those Robot royal enthusiasts out there.So if you are among the select group of Robot Royal camera owners this might be of some use to you. Or if you need an off-set cold shoe for some other reason this might be the answer. However, remember this cold shoe is somewhat supported by the Robot Royal camera itself. So depending on the weight of what you are putting in the cold shoe and how the camera is shaped and how strong a resin you are using, you might want to be careful before fully trusting the cold shoe. One last note: If you are planning on using the version with the snap I would suggest an ABS-like resin. The ABS-like resins have a little give that I think helps with the snap.

Enjoy