Soldering aid - third hand with magnetic base 3D Printer File Image 1
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Soldering aid - third hand with magnetic base

MW avatarMW

January 20, 2024

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Description

This flexible third hand is the perfect extension for the Soldering Station.

 

The actual arm is made by giufini from his Thingiverse profile. You should definitely take a look at his brilliant designs.

Because I use a metal sheet as the base for the soldering station, I redesigned the foot and inserted a magnet into it.

I used a crocodile clip as the head. The diameter of the end was 5mm. I then simply drilled out a joint, heated the end of the crocodile clip and pushed it in. 

Of course, all heads from giufini's PCB Workstation can also be used.

Print Settings and Assembly:

Parts:

Material: PETG and Ninjaflex TPU
Support: No

I used the BS_Joint_thick_coated.stl from Thingiverse for the arm. I printed this 25 times.

Disc magnet Ø 15.0 x 3.0 mm - can hold up to 2.9 kg

Assembly:

The head of the joint should be covered with shrink tubing. 
Diameter Ø: 9 mm, shrink ratio: 3:1 with glue worked well for me.
Make Magazine has written an article about it.

Simply press the magnet into the base arm.
And then push the TPU_Base_Plate arm into the base. This requires quite a lot of pressure, but it will hold without glue.

 

pro tip:
If a joint keeps coming loose, you can heat the "clamp part" with a lighter and gently press it together.