If you’ve ever used these things, you know how evil they are:

So I was browsing sparkfun.com and found that they had a new style of helping hands, that seemed… much helpier. In case you didn’t check the link, they looked like this:

Well I decided I wanted some – but they were kinda on the pricey side: $35 bills. Luckily they sold the main component separately for a reasonable price. Apparently someone named Ryan Straugh first came up with the idea, as SparkFun points you to his instructable. Cool that he gets some of the proceeds from the sales. Maybe that’s why they’re marked up. Oh well, sorry Ryan. His design looked like this:

Both Ryans and Sparkfuns used the idea of an aluminum base with 2 or 3 machine coolant hoses mounted on the top. While I’m sure that works well, I don’t think I’ll be needing to move the hands by 3 inches very often, so I decided to make my mine with a traditional base. Further, the instructable requires a tap & die kit for making threaded holes. I don’t know about all that.

Instead of following the instructable, I ordered the hoses from SparkFun and set out to the hardware store to find some off-the-shelf components to make my remix. Below is a shot of what I came up with:

Notice how mine has a more traditional base. Now, I could have popped off some of the blue segments, but I left them full length. Since they come out from the base horizontally the extra length give’s them a bit of room to curve upward. I used a 1-inch pipe flange for the bottom, a 1″ to 1/2″ PVC pipe adapter, and some brass fittings. I’m not sure how pipes are measured, because the package labels are slightly smaller but I guess pipes aren’t measured from the outside diameter. Over all, I saved a few bucks and made one that I humbly think looks way more bad ass.

Check the video below for the build.

Here’s a few more pictures!

August 20, 2014 at 8:27 am | Other Projects, Video