Soldering third arm station

cults3d

I've created this "third arm" for soldering inspired by standard soldering helping hands. The arm design is a friction-based design with multiple ball-joints, reminiscent of Bionicles if you're familiar with those. I also wanted an adjustable axis system in case of bigger or smaller circuit boards, so I came up with this simple solution where the center arm is rigid and you have two adjustable side arms. Of course, there was a lot of prototyping with the joints, but after four versions they ended up working pretty well. All three arms together can hold fairly heavy boards. I'm really pleased with the end-product - it actually turned out to be better than I thought. It's easy to use and adjust, and can hold any board or wires if needed. The advantage here is that you have the ability to extend or diminish the arms as you like by simply adding or removing ball-joints. In fact, it might even be better than what you can get from the store. Every piece is also easy to replace by just screwing on a new part if something breaks. As for the screws: As you can see, this model isn't 100% 3D-printed, but don't worry. I decided to use screws to make a more solid product, and mostly to make all parts easy to replace. The additional parts are pretty cheap - in any case much cheaper than buying a third hand from the store. I've added links for all the additional parts below. CROCODILE CLAMPS: https://www.ebay.com/itm/10Pcs-Stainless-Steel-Electric-Test-Crocodile-Alligator-Clips-Clamps-Silver-Tone/112086725995?epid=1038457086&hash=item1a18e3b56b:g:h4UAAOSwJItcd4xl M3x10mm: https://www.ebay.com/itm/M2-M2-5-M3-M4-M5-M6-M8-Stainless-Steel-Metric-Hex-Socket-Cap-Head-Screws-Bolt/113257104654?hash=item1a5ea6450e:m:mgjKzaJ57EiRMg7EEaWKw8A M6 ROD: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Stainless-Brass-Threaded-Rod-Bar-M2-M2-5-M3-M4-M5-M6-M8-M10-M12-M16-Full-Thread/362434804034?hash=item5462cc3942:m:mo2eS6CXrQgY8TDavjRe2cA