Magnetic PCB Holder

Sep 17, 2024

I was looking for a cheap magnetic PCB holder that could stick to a metal sheet—something like the PCBite PCB Holders shown below. It has a magnetic bottom and uses a spring mechanism.

Sensepeek PCB Holder kit priced at €59 with 4 PCB holders and one metal sheet.

I searched on AliExpress, eBay, and Amazon, but none looked both solid and affordable.
So, I thought, since I have a 3D printer, why not search for a 3D model and print it myself? (For those without 3D printers, there are numerous 3D printing services out there.)

There are plenty of 3D printer models for PCB holders. One that I found interesting was the Magnetic PCB Holder by hve2019 on Thingiverse, shown below.

Magnetic PCB Holder hve2019 — Magnetic PCB holder from thingiverse.com. Note that the author has placed a PCBite on the side for comparison.

However, I wasn’t entirely convinced by the spring mechanism. It seemed like it wouldn’t provide as strong a grip as a bolt-based mechanism.

So, I continued searching and even bought a 3D model from Cults3D by LILHAZE, shown in the picture below, which uses a bolt-based mechanism.

PCB Holders LILHAZE — PCB HOLDERS from cults3d, which seems to have a slightly better grip on the PCB.

In addition to the bolt mechanism, it has a textured part for better grip. However, if we take a closer look, there’s a weak point in the design: the top cap that holds the PCB is glued to the bolt, and if I tighten it too much, it could easily break.

So, I decided to create my own design based on the great ideas from these other 3D printed holders. It is composed of four 3D printed parts, assembled with an M8 bolt and nut. At the bottom of the base part, we can place a 20x4mm strong magnet.

jemos PCB Holder — 3D print of my custom PCB holder using PLA+ material and Dynamic Quality 0.16mm setting from Cura.

And here’s one assembled and holding a small PCB. The beauty of 3D printing is, of course, that we can duplicate parts very easily. Thus, we can have 4 or more of these for better supporting the PCB.

I’m publishing all design files under a CC Non-Commercial License. Find them below and feel free to use, customize, and share. The design doesn’t need any supports to print. I printed in PLA+ without issues.