VESA to Nooelec Parabolic Dish Adapter Plate

VESA-to-dish shim

A printed block that bolts to a monitor arm's VESA quick-release plate on one face and takes the satellite dish's mounting plate on the other.

dish plate (ears up, flat face down)

│ M6 down into the shim

┌─────▼─────────────────────────┐ ← dish face (top, as printed)

│ shim, 116 × 116 × 18 │

└─────▲─────────────────────────┘ ← VESA face (print-bed side)

│ M4 up from the arm side

VESA quick-release plate (monitor face against the shim)

Files

vesa_dish_fit_gauge.3mf — 2.4 mm plate with every hole of both patterns. Print it first and check it against both plates. 43 min, 28 g

vesa_dish_shim_A.3mf — A: heat-set inserts. M4 × 8.1 inserts in the VESA face, M6 × 12.7 inserts in the dish face. 5 h 9 min, 159 g

vesa_dish_shim_B.3mf — B: captive hex nuts. M4 nuts drop in from the dish face; M6 nuts press in from the VESA face. 5 h 22 min, 159 g

vesa_dish_shim_A+B.3mf — A and B side by side on one plate. 10 h 30 min, 318 g

Each .3mf is already sliced for the P1P, so open it in Bambu Studio and send it. The .stl and .step files sit beside each one.

Geometry

Both plates share the shim's centre. Both patterns are 4-fold symmetric, so the dish plate and its tab can point any of four ways.

VESA plate: a standard 75 / 100 quick-release plate with eight M4 clearance holes. The measured spacings were 99–101 mm and 74–76 mm.

The shim has a receiver under all eight holes.

The plate's hook lips and latch tab face the arm. Its flat monitor face goes against the shim.

Dish plate:

65 × 65 mm square, plus a 30 mm tab with two ears.

Twelve 6.8 mm holes (17/64", clearance for M6 or 1/4") and a star cut-out in the middle.

The holes sit on a 2.000" (50.8 mm) grid. Measured against a steel rule, the corner square came to 50.9 mm, the 8-hole circle to 50.9 mm, and the inner square to 36.0 mm (50.8 / √2 = 35.9).

Receivers on the dish face: eight, at the four corner holes and the four on-axis holes, the ones stamped with a ring.

The four diagonal holes sit 10.5 mm from the corners, too close for a receiver at both, so they get none.

Ring reliefs: each stamped ring gets a Ø15 × 1.2 mm relief. The plate then sits flat whichever way the stamping protrudes.

Lettering:

The variant letter is engraved in the middle of the dish face, where it shows through the star cut-out.

"DISH SIDE – VESA BELOW" runs along the −X edge.

The label is on the −Y side and the copyright on the +Y side.

Hardware

Screw lengths assume both plates are about 2 mm thick. Measure them; if a plate is thicker, go one size longer, within the maximum.

A: heat-set / B: captive nuts

VESA receivers (8) — A: M4 × 8.1 heat-set insert, Ø5.6 hole (Ruthex RX-M4x8.1 or CNC Kitchen M4 standard). B: M4 hex nut, DIN 934, 7 mm across flats; or an M4 nylon-insert lock nut (about 5 mm tall) with M4 × 20, nylon ring facing up

VESA screws — A: M4 × 12. Range M4 × 10–14: the bore stops 12.6 mm into the shim. B: M4 × 30. M4 × 20 ends flush with the dish face, outside the dish plate.

Dish receivers (up to 8) — A: M6 × 12.7 heat-set insert, Ø8.0 hole (Ruthex RX-M6x12.7 or CNC Kitchen M6 standard). B: M6 hex nut, DIN 934, 10 mm across flats

Dish bolts — A: M6 × 16 + washer. Range M6 × 12–16; ×20 bottoms out. B: M6 × 16 + washer. ×20 reaches the VESA face and the plate behind it.

Pocket details

A, M4: each insert pocket opens to the bed with a 0.7 mm lead-in. Past the insert there's 4 mm of Ø4.5 tip room, and a two-layer sacrificial bridge prints the bore's ceiling. That leaves 5.4 mm of solid plastic under the dish face.

A, M6: each insert pocket opens to the dish face with a 0.7 mm lead-in, plus 2.5 mm of Ø6.5 tip room.

The floor left under the corner pockets is 2.3 mm.

Under the ring reliefs it's 1.1 mm.

B, M4: each nut sits in a 7.25 mm hex pocket on a 10 mm plastic floor. The Ø4.5 bore through that floor has a 0.4 mm chamfer at the bed.

B, M6: each nut sits in a 10.25 mm hex pocket, open to the VESA face. There's a 0.4 mm-deep enlarged mouth for first-layer squish, and a sacrificial bridge at the roof.

The roof is 7 mm of plastic above the nut.

The pocket is 11 mm deep: the nut plus 6 mm for the bolt tip.

Printing

As modelled: VESA face on the bed, no supports, on the P1P's High Temp Plate. Every hole is vertical, and every pocket that opens to the bed has bridge steps at its roof.

Shims: Bambu PLA Basic, "0.20mm Strength @BBL P1P" (6 walls), with 40 % gyroid infill and 5 top / 4 bottom shells. With 6 walls, there's about 2.5 mm of solid plastic around every bore.

Gauge: "0.20mm Standard @BBL P1P".

For a mount that lives in the sun: PLA softens around 55 °C and creeps under bolt load. Re-slice in Bambu Studio with the PETG Basic filament profile and print in PETG.

Fit check

Print the gauge and lay it over each plate.

Dish plate: pass an M6 bolt or a 6 mm drill through all 12 holes. The gauge's holes are 6.6 mm against the plate's 6.8 mm, so all 12 should pass together.

VESA plate: pass a 4 mm pin or an M4 screw through all eight holes.

If any hole doesn't line up, measure the offset.

Assembly

A: heat-set inserts

1. Set the iron to about 220 °C for PLA.

2. Press the eight M4 inserts into the VESA face and the eight M6 inserts into the dish face. Each should sit flush with its face; the M6 inserts under the ring reliefs sit flush with the relief floor.

3. Bolt the VESA plate to the VESA face with eight M4 × 12, its monitor face against the shim and the screw heads on the arm side.

4. Set the dish plate on the dish face, flat side down and ears pointing away from the shim, in whichever of the four orientations suits.

5. Fit M6 × 16 bolts with washers through the corner and ringed holes.

6. Snug them down, about 2–3 N·m. Don't crank on inserts in PLA.

B: captive nuts

1. Press the eight M6 nuts into the hex pockets in the VESA face. The pockets are snug, so the nuts stay put.

2. Drop the eight M4 nuts into the hex pockets on the dish face. They sit outside the dish plate, so they stay reachable after the dish is on.

3. Bolt the VESA plate on with eight M4 × 16 from the arm side.

4. Set the dish plate on top as in A, then fit M6 × 16 bolts with washers. Each bolt pulls its nut up against the pocket roof.

© 2026 Spencer Callicott, KQ4VYY. Apache 2.0 License