So, I have been feling the need for some helping hands for a while, but I was not sure what I wanted. Before trying to reinvent the wheel, I went and looked at what was commercially avaliable, and I was kinda disappointed, to be honest.
Barring some high end (and pricey) stuff, mostly what there was where either those cheapo magnifying glasses with a pair of alligator clips or…this:
I mean, they haven’t even bothered to change the end nozzles, just stuck the alligator clips directly…FFS
I was definitely NOT going to buy that, but given the budget constraints, I could not get much else…or could I? (y’all already know the blog, a post never ends well, does it? (well = purchasing something straight away)
In a happy coincidence, I remembered I had bought long, LONG ago, some flood cooling arms for my milling machines, but I never used them, they where too big, and I don’t have the mill in an enclosed space, so flood cooling is a no-no. So, I could use those for experiments at least.
For starters I designed a base that I would screw onto a metal plate:
And why, you ask, does it have a cutout in the back? Well…you see, the flexyarms are hollow, so…I was thinking about routing cables through the arms themselves. It should make for a cleaner space just over whatever you where working on. Also, help with the issue that the cables can actually pull the board or whatever you are testing around, and maybe even short circuit something that they shouldn’t.
Bad example, but you get what I mean.
After some temptative designs on the alligator clip end
Y setled for a more unconventional solution: 5 radially spaced 2mm banana connectors around the clip:
With that decided, I mechanically wired the connctors to some silicone cable (28AWG because I didn’t have anything larger)
The small recess makes some space for the cable, that has been tinned, and the threading motion holds it in place very securely.
After the deed:
I had those two cables around, some shorter ones should be made later.
Experimenting with it:
And that’s it, just some weird-ass helping hands mod. XD
STL files avaliable here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4711107
The Electronic Mercenary 