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.
Simple Helping Hands
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3 years ago on Introduction
Counter sink where the screws are and that should stop from
making marks on your table. Doodado
7 years ago on Introduction
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!
9 years ago on Introduction
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.
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
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.
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
They make a sticky back felt that you could put on the bottom to finish it off. just a thought
9 years ago on Introduction
cool. i like how simple it is
9 years ago on Introduction
Nice project. Could prove to be very useful. What's the instructables chat room/ where is it?
9 years ago on Introduction
no but its annoying when people clog the forums with random stuff
9 years ago on Introduction
cmon you have 11 isnt that enough
9 years ago on Introduction
enough comments
9 years ago on Introduction
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.
9 years ago on Introduction
Of course, my wife thinks I should soak in the tub for awhile.....mostly she thinks I should soak my head ;-)
9 years ago on Introduction
LOL I wasn't asking, I was just indicating where I will be soon off to ;-)
9 years ago on Introduction
This morning....all I really need is just a shower :-)
9 years ago on Introduction
:-) Now, if I could just get my wife to do this.....she is ALWAYS misplacing things *sigh*
9 years ago on Introduction
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!
9 years ago on Introduction
cool
9 years ago on Introduction
cool :P might catch fire when soldering though :S
9 years ago on Introduction
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.
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
Thats a good suggestion