Squircle Cable Hub — 3-Way NATO Rail Cinema Camera Mount

A cable hub that doubles as a full mounting point for cinema camera rigs.

Most cable management on a rig is an afterthought: a strap, a clip, something bolted on separately. This is built the other way round: one hub that gathers your cables, clamps directly onto a 15mm rod, and gives you NATO rail on three faces plus a top camera mount, doing the job of several separate accessories at once.

Mounting

• NATO rail on 3 of the 4 sides, built to Kondor Blue's published design standards — any standard NATO clamp attaches here, top, bottom and left (when the handle + lanyard on the right).

• Top face: 1/4"-20 mount with a captured nut, straight onto any tripod-style camera thread.

• Side face: 1/4"-20 mounting points at 18mm spacing, for smaller accessories.

• Integrated 15mm rod clamp in the centre window, closed with an M5×25mm adjustable handle — no tools needed to mount or remove.

Cable management

The rod clamp sits inside a bigger window rather than filling it completely, leaving a gap that doubles as a routing channel - cables pass through cleanly in one direction instead of trailing loose around the rig.

Printing, materials, hardware.

Materials

• Frame: PETG, for rigidity where the rails and mounting points need to hold shape under clamp pressure.

• Rod clamp ring: TPU, printed to flex closed around the rod without a separate hinge mechanism.

The materials above are what I tested and trust, but this is exactly the kind of part worth trying in something else if you have it - a stiffer filament for the frame, a different flexible material for the rod clamp ring, whatever you've got that might do the job better. I haven't tested alternatives myself, so if you try one, tell me how it goes - that's exactly the kind of feedback that helps this move forward.

Print settings

Frame (PETG):

• Layer height: 0.2mm

• Walls: 3–4 perimeters minimum

• Infill: 30–40%

• Supports: On

• Print standing up, as shown below

• Brim: Outer brim only, 8mm

Rod clamp ring (TPU):

• Layer height: 0.2mm

• Print circular face down, as oriented in the screenshot below

• Infill: 40-50%

• Wall loops: 3-4 perimeters minimum

• Supports: On

Hardware you'll need

• 1 x M3 20mm countersunk screw+ nut (mounting for attaching clamp to frame)

• 1 x M5×25mm adjustable handle screw + M5 nut (rod clamp)

• 1 x 1/4"-20 screw + nut (top camera mount) I got screws from here (includes allen key, not nuts)

• 2 x 1/4-20*6*8 threaded inserts

Design notes

Earlier versions included a built-in hinge for angle adjustment. Dropped once the base became a plain NATO rail — Kondor Blue and others already make excellent swivel and hinge mounts that clamp straight onto a standard rail, so duplicating that here would have added complexity without adding anything new. Keeping the base a plain rail means it stays compatible with whatever hinge or swivel you already own.

Compatibility

Rail length is 40mm per face. Worth checking your own clamp's jaw length against this before ordering hardware.

Don't have the hardware? Print it anyway.

• Just the frame prints and holds its shape on its own — good for checking rail fit before committing to anything.

• Just the TPU rod clamp prints in minutes, worth trying even on its own if you're curious whether the flex-close design suits your rod.

This is meant to leave "prototype" behind — help me get it there.

Four iterations to get here, and I want the next one better, not just different. If you print it, tell me what worked, what didn't, and why. Critical feedback is genuinely welcome — more than compliments. If something doesn't fit or could be simpler, say so, with your reasoning and what you'd change. That's what actually moves this toward something worth machining in metal. A Make, even a partial one, helps just as much.

Leave a comment if you require any assistance. Thanks. 🙏