Build some helping hands from a load of old junk

How to some helping hands with nothing but a load of old junk that any geek should have!

What you will need:
- An old heavy internal drive from a computer, for example a hard disk
- Crocodile clips
- Some bendable but rigid wire
- Some screws
- Screw driver
- Soldering iron & solder

Apologies for the poor pictures, they were taken with an iSight.

Step 1: Building the hands

To build the hands put the wire through the hole in the crocodile clips and bend it around until it will stay in place until it won't fall off. Then get your soldering iron and suffocate the area in solder.

I choose to use some garden wire which had a couple of problems. Firstly it had a plastic coating that the solder doesn't like to stick to. Secondly when it is holding something it wobbles quite a bit. A better choice would probably be the copper wire you get in some electrical cables that is nice and rigid.

Comments

[foobear]

An old hard disk is a good idea for the weight. Most helping hands don't have a heavy enough weight to be truly helpful.

[whiteboipumas]

wait a sec, does this thing do anythin, or just decoration?

[TheLucster]

Both really, it was intendeed to be a poor man's version of this: http://www.instructables.com/id/E03GH3OTZFEP2869R5/ but if you wish I guess you could use it for decoration too.

Basically a pair of helping hands hold parts you are soldering because unfortunately the majority of us have no more than a pair of hands. :(

[TrumpetNeel]

the very fact that you use a macintosh makes me want to give this instructable -50 points, but that would be mean. good job.

[jinventive]

who said mac's are bad; just think, no viruses, no error messages and no frozen screens.

[Pharoah6905]

honestly those pictures are pretty decent for an isight. the only one that isnt great is the close up of the screw with the wire, but its hard to take a picture of something that close even with a regular camera. nice work overall.

[bporter505]

I knew if i kept those old drives they would come in handy some day. thanks