PCB Rig on Rails

cults3d

Awhile back, I started messing around with Arduino and created a testing rig with one camera articulated arm to hold my prop while I wired it up to the breadboard. It worked out well, but now I'm getting ready to start doing some soldering, which led me to look up third-hand helping hand type things on Amazon. I didn't like what I saw on Amazon, then looked at Thingiverse for ideas and found lots of great projects that inspired me to make something for myself. I really wanted to play around with rails to see how well they work, and this was a good project to try it out. So here is my evolved Arduino testing rig - now it's a full-on PCB workstation. Using 1/4-inch rods (I wish there were metric rods at Home Depot), I created rails that can be connected together easily, so I can make my rig any size I want. I went for a 12x6-inch design since it's a good size for me, but I can always buy more rods and just make it bigger down the road. It's not hard to cut the rods - I spent $8 on this little hand saw and voila, I was cutting rods like nobody's business. So here are the features: 1. Rail design: Each side can attach together. You can be creative about how you want to create your rig's base and build vertically if you get some long 1/4-inch bolts or threaded rods to make a multi-level rig. With rails, I tried to have snap-on parts that can slide around and be locked into position with thumb screws. It works, but not as well as I hoped because tightening the thumb screws causes the plastic to push out since there's no bottom support. Beyond the standard two-rod connectors, there are single rod connectors. This allows you to create snap-on bits that are longer than the side rails. Allows more customization for me in the long term. Using the single rails, I created vice walls that can be stacked one after another. There are PCB grooves cut into it so you can hold boards. There's quite a bit of space so the under leads on the board don't touch the rails. I didn't want to ruin my boards or give myself a shock. On one magic arm, I put together a PCB vice. In case I want to hold boards in some other manner than just being on the base vice. Besides, it looks pretty bad-ass connected to the arm. Snap-on slider bit that you can easily screw on flexible water pipes onto. No point in 3D printing this since you can get six arms for $7 bucks on Amazon. Using a 1 1/2-inch #8 screw, I was able to attach alligator clips onto it. Works pretty well. On top of that, you can run wire through the hose and out of the bottom of the rig if you want to make some arms do things beyond just holding bits. So, it's a work in progress. When new needs arise, I'm sure to create new bits and post them here. I really wish I could get some really long stainless steel rods in metric that I can cut to size but so far I've only been able to get up to 300mm length stuff on Amazon. So when I get myself some good rods, I might redo this in metric. So far, only the PCB vice on the arm uses metric rods.