The New Hotness

A spate of tidying-up led to mounting an outlet strip along the back of a bench:

Outlet Bench Mount - installed — Outlet Bench Mount – installed

Rather than drill holes into the top of the bench for those screws, they fit into M4 brass inserts heat-staked into the brackets:

Outlet Bench Mount - show view — Outlet Bench Mount – show view

The holes for those inserts aren’t centered side-to-side on the brackets, because the screw holes aren’t centered on the bent-steel angles forming the outlet strip endplates.

The bottom arm on the brackets probably isn’t necessary, but they kept the outlet strip from crawling away while I match-drilled two holes for the screws into the side of the benchtop.

For obvious reasons, the brackets print on their sides:

Outlet Bench Mount - build view — Outlet Bench Mount – build view

Another outlet strip from a different manufacturer is, of course, different, but changing three parameters in the OpenSCAD program summons a different bracket from the vasty digital deep:

Outlet Bench Mount – different brand

Parametric modeling and a 3D printer are exactly the right hammers for the job …

The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:

	// Shower soap dish
	// Ed Nisley – KE4ZNU
	// 2026-06-04

	include <BOSL2/std.scad>

	Layout = "Show"; // [Show,Build]

	/* [Hidden] */

	HoleWindage = 0.2;
	Protrusion = 0.1;
	NumSides = 334;

	Gap = 10.0/2;

	$fn=NumSides;

	ID = 0;
	OD = 1;
	LENGTH = 2;

	BenchThick = 21.0; // workbench top

	ScrewOD = 4.0; // into edge of bench
	Insert = [4.0,5.5,10.0]; // robust M4 insert

	WallThick = 10.0;
	BaseThick = 10.0;

	OutletBase = [15.0,40.0];

	HoleOffset = 6.5; // from outside edge of bracket
	HoleOC = 24.0;


	MountOA = [OutletBase.x,OutletBase.y,BenchThick + Insert[LENGTH] + 1.0 + BaseThick];

	//———-
	// Build it

	module Mount() {

	difference() {

	cuboid(MountOA,rounding=1.0,anchor=BOTTOM + BACK);

	up(BaseThick)
	fwd(WallThick)
	cuboid([2*MountOA.x,MountOA.y,BenchThick],anchor=BOTTOM + BACK);

	up(BaseThick + BenchThick/2) back(Protrusion)
	ycyl(OutletBase.y,d=ScrewOD,circum=true,$fn=6,anchor=BACK);

	for (j=[-1,1])
	fwd(MountOA.y/2 + j*HoleOC/2)
	right(HoleOffset – MountOA.x/2)
	up(MountOA.z + Protrusion)
	cyl(Insert[LENGTH],d=Insert[OD],circum=true,$fn=6,anchor=TOP);

	}
	}

	//———-
	// Build it

	if (Layout == "Show") {

	left(Gap + MountOA.x/2)
	Mount();

	right(Gap + MountOA.x/2)
	xflip() Mount(); // mirror for the other end of the outlet strip

	}

	if (Layout == "Build") {

	left(MountOA.z/2)
	up(MountOA.x/2)
	yrot(90)
	Mount();

	fwd(1.5*MountOA.y)
	left(MountOA.z/2 – BenchThick/2 – Insert[LENGTH]/2)
	zrot(180)
	up(MountOA.x/2)
	yrot(-90)
	xflip() Mount(); // mirror for the other end of the outlet strip


	}

view raw Outlet Bench Mount.scad hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The New Hotness

Outlet Strip Bench Mount