Targus Tripod Adapter for Anders Travel Telescope

The Anders Travel Telescope uses a 6mm thumb screw to mount the base to the tripod.  The Targus uses a 3/8" stub.  The two are not the same.  This fixes that incompatibility.  Good?  No?  Okay, read on.

As a beginner to telescopes and astronomy other than a silly moon shot using a DSLR with a decent lens and any inherent Uranus jokes you can think of otherwise, this telescope was awesome and easy to build, but I have decided that I would like a little more height when using it.  I have an old Targus Tripod that is being repurposed from the aforementioned old DSLR camera and camcorder endeavor now that everything is available as high quality from a smartphone.  

i have modeled an adapter to use seamlessly between the telescope and tripod in four different forms, all of which leverage a M6 heat set insert on the top side for the telescope.  One of these adapters should work for any tripod that has a 3/8" stub, but I cannot guarantee fitment of any tripod other than the one I have, nor should any others be considered tested.  I welcome any remixes as I think a growing reference of adapters for this telescope would serve the community well! 
 

The four options for this adapter set are as follows:

• Stock Quick Disconnect mount
• 3/8" heat set insert to mate with the stud on the tripod.
• 3/8" EZ-LOK insert instead of heat set
• 3/8" captured hex nut if you're alone on a Friday night and have a nut kicking around your junk drawer and some free time.  This IS the most FUN option I think, albeit not the best.

Non-affiliate links to materials I used, but these are abundant from several places:

• M6 Inserts: https://a.co/d/1tRZoSm
• 3/8" inserts: https://a.co/d/gf5T8k4
• EZ-LOK kit: https://a.co/d/gf5T8k4
• EZ-LOK brass inserts (I modeled using these so not sure about the fitment of the stainless variety, should be fine): https://a.co/d/ckHeyuZ
• 3/8" Hex Nut: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-3-8-in-16-Stainless-Steel-Hex-Nut-812136/301928243

The 3/8" heat set inserts seem to have the most thread engagement, followed by the EZ-LOK, which has a lot of start engagement space, and finally, the hex nut has the least since it's captured and there is 3mm of material between the top and the nut threads.  Either should work fine, and this project is merely for options.  Caution is also warranted with the QD mount.  This was my original attempt and almost did not leave it in as part of the distribution.  The parts connecting to it seemed to be very sloppy because of the weight of the telescope.  It is probably more to do with there being a lot of weight at the far ends more than anything else, it seems to place more of a sheer strength burden on the tripod that it can barely (read: poorly, almost not at all) handle.

Construction

In accordance with prophecy (and what I used to make the rest of the Anders Travel Telescope), I printed this using PETG-CF.  My biggest warning using this material is to not, under any circumstances, turn on ironing for this part.  I tried this just for fun.  An otherwise perfectly strong part separated right at the transition in the middle with just a little push of my thumb.   Twice.  It was not a fluke.  PETG-CF seems to prefer non-overlapping infill so I'm using 25% Gyroid for this, which seems to yield the best results.

A minor note about the hex nut option:  Since this is a captured nut, you will have to insert a pause in the slicer to install the nut.  I have done this ahead of time in the .3mf file.  I use Bambu Studio, so I am not sure how this will translate to others, but with the print settings of a .4mm nozzle and .2mm layer height, it came out to layer 105.  Happy printing!