Soldering Helping Hands Remix

thingiverse

I stumbled upon a fantastic soldering helping hand tool at my local amateur radio club gathering, and it really caught my eye. So, I did some research and discovered https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2757071 by Mistertech. The original design was great, but as a mechanical engineer, I wanted to reimagine it to suit my needs and capitalize on the capabilities of 3D printing. There were several things that stood out to me as areas for improvement: 1. I needed larger components to grasp with one hand while feeding a wire to solder. 2. I didn't have the small diameter feet in stock, but I had plenty of thin feet available, so I could eliminate the pockets for the feet. 3. I wanted bigger teeth with the top one capable of gripping extremely fine wires and a shelf structure to hold flat items. 4. I wanted to print all the jaw parts with their cross-sections in the X-Y plane, allowing for a better fit between the teeth and pivot. This is my revised design. I've included a step model in the file list, so if you want to create a remix, you won't need to go through the process of curve fitting the .stl files. To assemble this helping hand tool, print two copies each of the rotating and static jaws and one base. I printed mine on my Creality Ender 3 Pro using HTPLA+ (3D870 from Nature Works) filament from Fusion Filaments.