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Simple Helping Hands

Helping hands are designed to hold wires and components in place while you solder them, you can buy good helping hands from the shops quite cheaply but when I made these I was in the middle of a project and didn't want to stop to go to the shops, making things yourself is fun anyway !

The basic principle is two crocodile clips held up in the air.

Steps:
1- Cut a square of wood
2- Drill two holes
3- Screw two large screws through the holes
4- Glue screws in place
5- Duc-tape underneath to stop scratching
6- Solder 2 crocodile clips to the tops of the screws
7- Put electrical tape around the sides because it looks cool :)

Thats it !
They took me about 5 minutes to make and were really useful when i was soldering.

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27 comments

May 12, 2011. 1:14 AMjwoo2023 says:

instead of wires to hang the clips in the air, i used aluminium foil and rolled it up and then twisted it to make it strong and used that! much more cheaper and easier to find in the house!

Aug 14, 2009. 6:50 AM

Goodhart says:

If the board is thick enough, you could always countersink so the head of the screws are below the surface of the wood - no scratching that way.

Aug 15, 2009. 6:06 AM

=SMART= (author) says:

Yea i did countersink but i put the tape there just to be sure, i was going to say i countersunk the screw heads but i forgot the word hehe.

Mar 3, 2010. 12:57 AMbluefly1215 says:

They make a sticky back felt that you could put on the bottom to finish it off. just a thought

Feb 23, 2010. 3:41 PM

Schooniedude says:

cool. i like how simple it is

Oct 17, 2009. 7:08 AMbassclarinet23 says:

Nice project. Could prove to be very useful. What's the instructables chat room/ where is it?

Aug 13, 2009. 3:40 PMDELETED_DELETED_HIVLTGE1 says:

(removed by author or community request)

Sep 19, 2009. 10:33 AMfinnrambo says:

enough comments

Sep 19, 2009. 10:38 AMDELETED_DELETED_HIVLTGE1 says:

(removed by author or community request)

Sep 20, 2009. 4:31 PMfinnrambo says:

cmon you have 11 isnt that enough

Sep 21, 2009. 5:50 PMDELETED_DELETED_HIVLTGE1 says:

(removed by author or community request)

Sep 23, 2009. 3:46 PMfinnrambo says:

no but its annoying when people clog the forums with random stuff

Aug 15, 2009. 6:08 AM

=SMART= (author) says:

cool :P might catch fire when soldering though :S

Sep 17, 2009. 1:14 PMdanlab says:

I had a science teacher who made some like this only he used 12 gauge solid copper wire instead of screws, that way you can adjust the position some.

Aug 15, 2009. 6:20 AMDELETED_DELETED_HIVLTGE1 says:

(removed by author or community request)

Aug 16, 2009. 6:17 AM

Goodhart says:

Many of us do this, it isn't so much memory loss, since there are THREE types of memory: the first and shortest forgets in about 30-90 seconds, and if you don't do something to move it into the more intermediate short term memory, it will go away.

Try this; which I did to get myself in the habit of paying attention to what I was doing: when I put something important down, I would look at it for a moment, and think in my head it is right there and look at what was around it. After a few times, I started doing it without the mental dialogue and I now rarely misplace things like that anymore. :-) Hope this helps!

Aug 16, 2009. 6:26 AMDELETED_DELETED_HIVLTGE1 says:

(removed by author or community request)

Aug 16, 2009. 6:43 AM

Goodhart says:

:-) Now, if I could just get my wife to do this.....she is ALWAYS misplacing things *sigh*

Aug 16, 2009. 6:51 AMDELETED_DELETED_HIVLTGE1 says:

(removed by author or community request)

Aug 16, 2009. 7:41 AM

Goodhart says:

This morning....all I really need is just a shower :-)

Aug 16, 2009. 7:46 AMDELETED_DELETED_HIVLTGE1 says:

(removed by author or community request)

Aug 16, 2009. 7:55 AM

Goodhart says:

LOL I wasn't asking, I was just indicating where I will be soon off to ;-)

Aug 16, 2009. 9:58 AMDELETED_DELETED_HIVLTGE1 says:

(removed by author or community request)

Aug 16, 2009. 12:23 PM

Goodhart says:

Of course, my wife thinks I should soak in the tub for awhile.....mostly she thinks I should soak my head ;-)

Aug 15, 2009. 7:44 PMalbylovesscience says:

cool

Aug 15, 2009. 2:25 AMdarknovasoul says:

If you use some reasonably heavy gauge solid core wire, like 16 AWG or 18 AWG , you can put that in instead of screws and you can have flexible arms for your helping hands device.

Aug 15, 2009. 6:06 AM

=SMART= (author) says:

Thats a good suggestion