Printable Parts for Olympus OM1-n Shoe 4

As far as I know, the 3D print community hasn’t created printable files for often broken, removable hot shoes on the old Olympus OM series cameras.  So I put up some files on GrabCAD here. I believe you can use Google and Facebook credentials to login so hopefully it is painless enough to download files.  If you are unfamiliar with GrabCAD and are worried about logging in I can say that I’ve been using the site since 2013 without incident.

Anyway if you have an OM camera and a Shoe 4 with broken plastic, the STL files should allow you to fix it with a 3D printer.  They won’t allow you to create a shoe from scratch because you need all of the metal bits from an original shoe.

One difference is that the recess around the center and TTL pins in the original body did not print well so I made a separate part call TTL-Interface that just sits in the main body, no need to glue. Note that some sanding may be required depending on the accuracy you get from your printer.

You will also need some sort of super glue like JB Weld or Sugru, etc. to glue in the side/cushion wings.  Four silicon 5x2x1.5 mm o-rings are used for cushioning the interface to the body and can be found on Amazon. If the 3D print edges are crisp enough, the o-rings will snap in and stay on their own, no glue required.

There is also a step file (in inches) on GrabCAD which may be useful or a starting point for other variations of the OM series removable hot shoes.  I think the files may work for Type 1 but for sure the TTL interface will not work for Type 2 but the rest might.

I don’t know if 3D printed PLA will last any longer than the phenolic parts Olympus made but at least with these files we can keep reprinting new ones if they do break.  I am happy with how firm my repaired shoe sits on the camera.

These are such a pain.  In my case, I bought a beater of a camera with a 50mm/f1.4 lens and a broken Shoe 4 off eBay and with shipping it cost less than any of the broken Shoe 4’s listed on their own.  It also seems that non-broken shoes are quite rare to find listed.  So I hope this is helpful to people.  Here’s a few photos that may help if you are considering doing a repair.

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