Better helping hands

I ordered some of these cheap flexible cooling hose and they arrived today. Really easy to turn them into helping hands. :bigsmile:

I already had these handy Ikea Komplement brackets; some wood screws fit perfectly into both ends of the hose.

I cut off the screw heads with a hacksaw, leaving a length of threading for the crocodile clips.

These hose are surprisingly sturdy and easier to articulate, but do still require two hands, and can take up more space (solder reel shown for scale).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rolson-Tools-60335-Helping-Magnifying/dp/B001BMSBD4

Nice! 8)

Awesome idea and great pictures.

kick out of your photo “watermarks”. My old RS unit seems to drop the ball when touched forcing constant re tighten…

8)

BRILLIANT!!!

This is one of my favorites

Thank God, because I am dumb as a box of rox :slight_smile:

I also stumbled across these as well

Thanks for the tip. I think I’ll grab 10 pcs from a seller on Ali. I have another application where these also may come in handy as spouts for filling dispenser bottles with liquid.

That's awesome, Chloe! You could add even more as I find a need for 3 extra hands quite common. You rock!

Thanks guys! I ordered another pair, I am sure I will find some use for them. There are holes in the bracket to mount another pair of arms too.

Now I will look for some 1.5” long wood screws with smallish eyelets for easy/quick arm rotation and retightening…

HH=Gorilla
InstructMe

Very cool.

Thanks for posting this.

Just a head’s up on the GorillaPod’s. I bought one from MEC a few years ago. In about a year the legs would not support a small point and shoot camera anymore. I stumbled across some forum posts elsewhere that gives me the impression this is common. ALthough I planned to, as we only get to MEC every year or two, I never did get around to returning it as yet. Maybe now it’s a good thing that I’m like a farmer and never throw anything out (if I did, the teenagers would be the first to go), perhaps it will work better as Helping Hands than a useless Tripod. Thanks for the head’s up!

@ TSellers: I have had that issue recently with gorilla pods already converted to helping hands. But a little bit of CA glue in tiny "specs" on the offending links and then let dry in air (I did not glue them in position, just put CA glue on the surface that rotates inside the next link) helped that issue and I am rocking again.

That’s interesting, thanks for that tip. (I had been contemplating putting some UV glue on, sprinkling a bit of sand in it, and then curing it). Murphy’s law, I’ve been tripping over that item for about the past year, and now I can’t seem to find it……

I can just imagine that is a Photography forum somewhere there’s someone who posted how to make a tripod from flexible cooling hose. So then I google it, and sure enough, there’s also an Instructable for that as well.

Just thought of another use. If you use hand warmers in winter and keep them in a pocket that does not have enough air to sustain them, you can drill some extra holes in them and use these are ‘snorkels’ to get more Oxygen into your pocket and thus keep your hands warm.

Excellent work Chloe. If you are after a reliable supplier for woodscrews or screws for fettling knives etc. then Kays fasteners have a good selection, I’ve bought from them for the past couple of years and they give excellent service.