Copper No Touch Tool

thingiverse

Check out my significantly enhanced tool here - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4339715 - Update April 4, 2020 - After carrying this for quite some time now, I must say that it is simply too delicate and inconvenient to be practical at all. I do not recommend printing this in any way. -I'll leave this up though just in case someone finds it inspiring. A tool designed specifically for touching things that you don't want to touch is what this pivoting 'T' shape represents. This unique solution to designing a 'No Touch Tool' as far as I know it, is truly novel. I strongly encourage anyone to try and improve on this concept as it seems like an ideal way of creating a hook shape that folds into something comfortable enough to carry around in your pocket all day long. The ribbed cover is threaded to securely lock the tool in either the open or closed position with great precision. This design revolves around a 20mm length of 3/8inch copper pipe usually used for plumbing, available at most hardware stores. Copper is known to be generally inhospitable to bacteria and viruses, one study (https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.09.20033217v1.full.pdf) found the Covid-19 virus could be detected on copper for up to 4 hours, which was actually the lowest time of the few materials tested. To pull something like a lightweight door you leave the handle loosely extended and use the tool just like an L shaped hook letting the potentially contaminated surface touch only the copper pipe and the inner section of plastic that is fully covered when the tool is closed. This design is somewhat under built in my opinion. I was going for the smallest printable way to safely carry a piece of copper for pushing buttons and light weight lifting and pulling, but it needs improvement. Printed in PLA this will break if you try to pull open a heavy door at all. The outer Cover part must be printed in place around the Inner part. I found it impossible to print tight fitting threads within threads and couldn't figure out how to generate supports that didn't interfere with the outer threads so, there is an otherwise useless cylinder under the inner part to stagger the threaded sections of the two parts. It's kinda ugly, but doesn't actually get in the way at all. I will create a multi material version to use water soluble filament some time soon. Please let me know if you can think of a better way to avoid this issue altogether.