How
to Improve Extra Hands
I decided that this will be the year that I seriously address the things
that aggravate me in my shop. So far I've been pretty good about it.
The way I'm going about it is whenever I plan to use a tool that doesn't
work right I'm fixing it before I use it instead of putting it off like I
have in the past.
As I mentioned in the article describing
how to make extra hands,
these things are really cheaply made. The most significant problem
I've had with them is that the alligator clips crush when clamping them
which means they never really get clamped securely. The fix was always
obvious to me, but until now I never got around to it.
Another problem with extra hands is the clamping system for the articulating
arms. The arms have ball ends and are clamped between two pieces of
soft sheet metal using a cheap thumb screw.
The soft sheet metal bends as its tightened and it can't be tightened too
securely either. I still haven't fixed that part, but I think what it
will need is a harder metal for the clamps or maybe just thicker sheet.
This works well enough and I don't have material on hand to fix it.
Also see
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