Modular wheelchair extra arm

Fully 3D Printed Modular wheelchair arm

I came up with an idea for this this modular wheelchair arm. I can spin and pivot, and has been designed in such a way you can attach different holders to the end depending on what you want to hold in it.

Idea

I read a bit about the daily problems of a wheelchair user and one of the things that stuck out was that bathroom mirrors are always just a little too high up to see and use effectively. My initial though was that if you have a smartphone you can just the front face camera to check yourself out, but then the problem is that you only have one free hand if you want to fix your hair or put on make up. With that in mind I though an arm to connect on to the side of the wheelchair could be really handy, and probably has a lot of use outside this context as well.

Constraints

I wanted the entire thing to be made of 3D printed components and no external hardware or tools needed. I also wanted it to be easily suited to any particular users needs, so everything in the project uses the same sized threads/bolts (which are also printed). Because of this, you can add extra shafts and connectors wherever you need them, making the arm as long/short/flexible as you need it.

I used OpenSCAD to design the parts, the code from which is included in the project files (though fair warning, it's not the nicest code in the world!).

Materials

For this project I used PLA, but it would work much better in ABS.

Parts from other sources

I used/modified two amazing parts in this project:

1. mike_linus's NUT JOB thread library (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:193647)
2. emmet's geared bearing (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:53451)