Cold Shoe <> ARCA Adapter

Lil print to let you put cold shoe accessories in an ARCA mount.
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updated February 20, 2026

Description

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Got some flashes for studio photography, wanted to attach them to tripods I already had on hand that have ARCA quick-clamp heads. Here's a 3D printable adapter. I think it's important to print this as shown so that the cold shoe retaining tabs are printed in their strongest orientation. I printed this with enough perimeters to be 100% solid (albeit made of perimeters).

I sized this for the cold shoe + tightening wheel on my GODOX flashes. Hope that's standard! 

Updates:

  • 260220 - R04:

    • Removed the shelling from R03 but added a drafted hole for installing a 1/4-20 heat set insert (McMaster 94459A736) since some attachment systems may utilize this instead of ARCA.

    • I didn't make the part taller, so it's a pretty short insert! Some 1/4-20 mounts may need to be spaced to not drive the screw up into the cold shoe.

    • I have not yet validated this design. Will update if I end up needing it and trying it out.

  • 260217 - R03:

    • Reduced thickness of the retaining tabs from 1.5 mm to 1.0 mm to match the thickness of the cold shoe metal bracket on cameras.

    • Seems strong enough but it's thinner than before, so I'm leaving R02 up in case that's still useful.

    • R03 also has some slight tweaks to make the entry geometry a bit smoother (gentle lead-in in the XY plane, some small fillets)
      Shelled it out to a 3mm thickness to save some material. Still seems plenty stiff!\

    • 260220: I've been using R03 on a couple tripods for a few days, and it's working great!

  • 260216 - R02: First release (R01 didn't make the cut 😂)

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