Brush Whiskers

thingiverse

The design is for steadying your hand while painting or drawing, allowing artists to rest their paint brush or pencil on the page while keeping the tip off the canvas until a small amount of pressure is applied. It's called a brush whisker as it allows the artist to feel the page like a cat's whiskers. This design was originally created by me (David McKeown) for the Irish version of the TV program "Big Life Fix" to help a woman with MS steady her hand while painting, and I'm sharing it here so others can benefit from it. Printing and Assembly: The design was created by me (David McKeown) for the Irish version of the TV program "Big Life Fix" to help a woman with MS steady her hand while painting, and I'm sharing the design here so it might be helpful to others. Assembly & Parts List - (some affiliate links) Each Brush Whisker is made up of two parts. The bottom part is the same for all brush whiskers. The top part is one of five different sizes, depending on the size of the brush you wish to attach it to. For assembly, you'll need one M3 bolt (8mm) and one M3 nut, which will attach the brush/pen/pencil to the brush whisker. I bought a set (https://amzn.to/2X4YOk3), but you can probably find just what you need in a local hardware store. The 10mm pearl-colored hemispheres at the end of the forks were purchased at a discount store (basically these https://amzn.to/2Uz0ksW). They're self-adhesive beads, except I superglued them on because the adhesive is weak. You can substitute in some other smooth bead or try printing and sanding them smooth so they glide on the page. For the springiness of the bottom part, you need to use the right filament. I found PLA is too stiff, TPU/TPE too soft, so I used Real Flex filament (https://amzn.to/340ZGYB), which is a good balance of stiffness and easy to print with. Put supports on, it pops out easily. The top parts can be made from PLA or whatever you like. Print them with supports on with one end of the tube on the print bed. I printed them on an Anycubic I3 Mega S (https://amzn.to/2w94Ftz), but any reasonable printer should be up to it.