How long are the thumbscrews for locking the sensor-camera gantry to the rail? Are four M5 screws strong enough to hold the dovetail clamp to the rail?
The thumbscrews are 12mm long. As for the rail clamp, the M5 screws have proven durable on my prototype assembly, but I haven’t run formal strength or fatigue tests. However I do have a pretty long career in mechanical design, and you’d be surprised how much strength even a few small screws can provide when spaced out a bit.
It looks like I’ll have to drill out the lateral holes in the main gantry plate to attach the rail clamp mount, the lens carrier, and the intermediate sensor assembly. Is that right? Also, it looks like there’s no way to mount the taking camera in a vertical orientation, right?
Most of the mounting holes are large enough to clear the 1/4"-20tpi screws. But some are drilled smaller at 5mm. So it just depends on where exactly you're mounting things. But certainly for the lens carrier and intermediate sensor, you don't need to drill anything. The rail clamp mount *might* need it, depending on where you mount it. As for vertical orientation, you could accomplish that with an L-plate like this: amzn.to/3YOzEGv, or a rotating lens collar like this: amzn.to/3WMfQC2
