Optics researchers and engineers often build their own experimental setups by assembling suitable components, which are traditionally purchased from companies or manufactured by partner workshops. However, the recent rise of commercially available 3D printers opens the way to fabricating custom-designed optical components directly inside the lab. Following this third way is appealing not only for bringing creative and personalized solutions, but also for lowering the costs of setup development. This is exemplified by Daniel P.G. Nilsson and coworkers, who assembled 3D printed and off-the-shelf elements to fabricate motorized rotation mounts suitable for tuning dynamically the orientation of mirrors, gratings, or polarizers. The material cost of such mounts was much lower than the price of commercial components showing a comparable performance. Besides reporting on performance, the authors provide detailed information and open-source code about the printing, assembly, integration, and electronic control of the mounts, which will guide interested readers in replicating the proposed device.

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