Articulated arm

thingiverse

One day I wanted something to hold a magnifier glass while soldering something, and I recalled some arms I had seen used by YouTubers and figured it'd be fun to try to make something similar by 3D printing. I made three different versions with varying requirements, none of which were hard to find anyway. The one in the pictures is put together using different arms, one with an aluminum tube, and the other with a printed tube. For the two versions using a M8 rod connecting "push"-pads, some tweaking of the length is required, the pad the cone fits into has some extra space for tweaking the total length of the push rod. ##### Assembly tips When assembling the screw handle assembly, only insert a M5 nut on cone on the opposing end, so that when tightening, the cones come together. All parts can be printed in PLA, but the parts providing friction will work better if printed in a somewhat flexible material. The version with the aluminum tube is the most flexible, since the length of the arms can be adjusted, but it has proven tricky to keep enough friction against the alu tube to prevent it from slipping when tightening. When assembling the balls, use 2 M8 nuts to fix the ball to the M8, on the top there needs to be enough space left to press the cap on. I put a lot of epoxy in there before inserting the nuts and screwing the M8 rod into place and tightening. On the version with the printed balls, I printed them as halves and then used glued them using super glue. **UPDATE** Added a bench clamp with where a M8 rod or bolt can be directly bolted in, rather than using a fortune in M6 nuts and stuff. #### Vitamins for the mostly-printed version: * 2x 10cm M8 threaded rods * 4x M8 nuts * 6x M3 screws * 6x M3 nuts * 1x 90mm M5 threaded rod. * 1x M5 lock nut * 2x M5 nuts * handful of 5mm id washers #### Vitamins for the version with threaded tubes **UPDATED Uses printed hex rods instead of M8 all-thread** * 6x M3 screws * 6x M3 nuts * 1x 90mm M5 threaded rod. * 1x M5 lock nut * 2x M5 nuts * handful of 5mm id washers * 2x 10cm M8 threaded rods for the balls, M8 bolts or any kind of 8mm stick can be used. * Some M8 nuts or glue to fasten the rods in the balls #### Vitamins for the version with aluminum tubes tubes * 2x 10cm M8 threaded rods * 4x M8 nuts * 6x M3 screws * 6x M3 nuts * 1x 90mm M5 threaded rod. * 1x M5 lock nut * 2x M5 nuts * handful of 5mm id washers * 2x 10cm M8 threaded rods * 8x M8 nuts * 2x 7cm aluminum tubes (15mm od, 13mm id)