Camera Wooden Grip With Bottle Opener

A wooden camera grip adds a personal touch and a sense of comfort to your camera. and if it has an extra feature makes it more personal and why not funny. This tutorial show how you can make a wooden camera grip with the feature of a bottle opener. The Idea came with some unusual news about mirrorless camera are fragile, and long time ago I heard a colleague said he used his DSLR hot shoe as a bottle opener as a joke. And it might be possible if your camera it is not a new Canon R that it seems to have a fragile hot shoe.

If you don't have a CNC machine you can do this by hand using a marquetry saw, just follow the same steps and print the design. And if you do not need the bottle opener part you can add a different feature or just add the magnetic pocket for a coin.

• Wood of your choice of 18mm thickness.
• Desktop CNC machine.

Or:

• Two wood pieces of your choice of 10mm thickness.
• arc saw or marquetry saw.
• Drill.

And:

• An old penny, other coin or washer. (Note: old pennies from 1992
• 8x3mm neodymium magnets.
• 1.25"x1/2"mm small metal bracket.
• 1/4" flathead screw.
• 1/4" camera screw.
• Wood Stain. (Optional)
• Varnish.

• First, you will need to scan the base of your camera next to a notebook piece of paper or a ruler.

Note: this paper or ruler will be really helpful as a measurement reference.

Inside Fusion 360:

• Import the scanned file as a canvas.
• Right click over the canvas a create and select calibrate.
• Click between two known point to enter the right measure. (If you used a notebook paper click between two corners of a square and enter 5mm. If you used a ruler select a distance in the ruler and enter the correct measure i.e. 10mm)
• Now you have a right measure reference image you can start a new sketch over the image.
• Draw the lines and arcs you will need. Use the tools line and 3 point arc for this.
• In my project I draw some extra circles for the bottle opener part.
• Once you have drawn all the lines and arc. Finish your sketch.
• Use the extruder tool to start create the grip. Select the shape you want to extrude and enter the thickness of your wood.

Note: Once you create a first body the sketch will disappear, don't alarm just find your sketch in the left menu and click on the eye icon to show your sketch again and continue creating the parts.

Tips:

• The thickness for the camera screw should it be 5mm or less, because the length on the camera screw it is not longer than this measurement.
• Leave enough space around the camera screw head to be able to insert your coin to tight the screw up, the diameter I used is 20mm, the diameter of a penny is around 19mm.
• I used 8x3mm magnets but you can use any kind of magnet you have around just take the right dimensions when you create the pockets for the magnets.

Fusion 360 includes an amazing CAM software (Manufacturing Tab). This will help us to create the wood grip the easy way. In the next step you can find the manual tooling alternative.

• First you need to create a setup for your design.
• Select setup and New Setup.
• Select the body of your design.
• Select the thickness of your stock material (this means the thickness of your raw wood).
• Select the extra material you have in your raw wood. (I use 1/16" as my bit is 1/8")
• Use the pocket tool to create the pockets for the camera screw, bottle cap place, coin pocket and metal bracket.
• Use the pocket tool to create the holes for the magnets and the screw.
• Use the 2D contour tool to make the hole for the battery door.
• And finally use the 2d contour tool to create the grip shape.

Note: to make safe the contour steps you can add tabs in the pattern. Using tabs prevent the part to be freely moving and being caught by the spindle and cause a jam.

We can design the manual version of our grips using Fusion360 to keep a good track of measurements.

• After we follow the same steps we will divide the design into 3 layers. Using multiple layer will help us to cut easily the wood with manual tools.
• The first layer should have 3/16" (5mm) or less in order to introduce the camera screw. The next layers can be thicker.
• Once you design the pattern the difference between the layers will be in the hole for the camera screw head and the space for the bottle opener.
• You can use a drill bit to make the hole for the pockets for the magnets.

You have many alternatives for the finish of a wood work. You can leave the grip with their natural color or use a wood stain.

• After the stain you can apply finish of your choice like varnish or polyurethane.

I like stain the wood with a dark color and use clear matte varnish for the finish. You can use light or vivid color and use a bright finish.

The assembly is pretty simple:

• Use epoxy glue to attach the magnets into their pockets.

Note: If you have done the grip using manual tools, you will have to glue the layers, you can use wood glue and compress the layers using books or a height flat object. Once the layers are glued you will need sandpaper to eliminate all the imperfections of the marquetry saw.

• You can use a 1/4" tap to make the threads for the camera screw hole. This is optional if you used a smaller drill bit for this hole.
• Use a drill with a smaller bit of the screws you will use to hold the metal bracket. I used a 1/16" bit with 1/8" flathead screws for the metal bracket. This will prevent cracks on the wood when you will insert the screws.

Using a grip especially for mirrorless cameras it is really pleasing for many reasons.

• First, many new mirrorless camera have a smaller and thin design this is really helpful when you want to use your camera on a smaller gimbal or you want to travel light, but on the regular basis it is not comfortable for your hand.
• Regular grips have more technical advantages but they do not look awesome. Wooden grips have a more stylish look for your camera and sometimes you want to feel great using your favorite clothes and a wooden grip it is more like a stylish clothing for your camera, like nice straps.
• If you are starting with tools, your grip may have chips and dents, but your work crafting it is priceless. You will love your grip even it is not the best, and you can try to make it again and make it better!.

Done, enjoy your grip and using it with your camera.