Universal Bracket

This is an Universal Arm or Bracket. It is an helping hand to hold things in place. 

This way you have your hands free to do other things :-).

It can hold a flashlight to light up things in the dark for instance. If you do not like battery's there is also an LED light extension that can be powered by an Phone Charger.

It can help you with soldering. For instance in those situations more than one component most be held in place so you can solder them all in one shot.

Also the Universal Arm can hold on to your Phone so you can make a video of you 3D Printer while you are doing something else at the same time :-)

Or in Summer at very hot days when you want to print with your old ABS Printer and the Extruder stepper motor is overheating. The Universal Arm can hold a Fan in the right place to cool the motor and thus be able to print on! :-)

It can temporary hold up data sheets etc and at the same time light it up for you.

Temporary Signs can be held up also.

There is even a Dial Indicator holder option. This makes is easy to clamp your Dial indicator on stuff that is not an ferromagnetic material.

These are just some examples and of course there are many other applications I didn't even think about :-).

Please view the Photo's to get and Idea :-)

Unfortunately not all the text is visible on the web-page. But no worry there. The screen-shots are included with the files as parts_named.zip

Note that this arm can not hold super heavy things. Its strength comes from the friction between the ball joint and the clamp on the arm. The smoother these surfaces are the less weight the arm can carry. By scuffing these surfaces up it can hold more weight again. Of course more arms in series makes it also weaker. Later I also made an second type of Thumb screw (nut holder M4 B.stl & nut holder M6 B.stl) that makes it much easier to tight up the clamps. If you have any questions about this, feel free to ask :-)

Clamp 1 & 2

It begins with the “Clamp” that holds the Arm. Clamp 1 is a bit stronger than Clamp 2 but gives the arm less freedom to move around. I recommend to try Clamp 2 first. One Clamp consists out of 5 printed parts, one M4x40mm bolt, one M4 nut, one M6x60mm bolt and one M6 nut. The clamp can hold on to objects that are up to 26mm thick. When an M6x70mm bolt is used instead of the M6x60mm one, the clamp can hold on to objects that are 40mm thick.

Arm 1 & 2

The arm fit into the “Clamp” and can be set into different angles due to the “ball joint”. With the “nut holder M4” or thumb screw the arm can be fixed in a position. “Arm1.stl” & “arm1 gripper.stl” gives more movement freedom but is weaker. “Arm2.stl” & “arm2 gripper.stl” are stronger but give a bit less movement freedom. One arm consists out of 3 printed parts, one M4x25mm bolt and one M4 nut. Please see the screen-shot to get the idea.

T Joint

This extension makes it possible to connect two arms to one Clamp. On the Photos you can see it in action several times. This part consists out of 5 printed parts, two M4x30mm bolts and two M4 nuts.

Double Ball Joint

This one can be used to link two clamps together. In one of the Photos its used to hold up a temporary sign :-)

To make it better FDM printable (without support material), I sacrificed some part of the ball form. I did this also on some of the other parts for the same reason. If you want them with the ball form complete let me know.

Dial Indicator holder

this one speaks for itself. You can use this to mount your Dial Indicator.

LED strip holder

The LED strip used is 36.25mm x 9mm

There are 2 types that can be printed in different ways. LED strip LampA needs print support or bridging. Therefor I also made LED strip LampB that can be seen on the Photos.

Ring Holders

The Ring Holders are made to hold onto cylindrical objects like an Flash Light for instance. There are 7 different sizes. See the screen-shot for the details. It consists out of 3 printed parts, one M3x28mm bolt and one M3 nut.

Multi Grippers

The Multi Grippers can hold a lot of different forms as you can see on the Photos. Small ting like resistors but also bigger cylindrical objects due to the round indentations in the inside of squeezers.

An M4x46mm bolt head locks into the “pin.stl” but must still be able to rotate freely.

The pins cap can be glued on to prevent the pin from falling out. I only had that problem with Multi Gripper1.

An M4 nut is also hold in place by “pin.stl” that can rotate freely.

Then the “nut holder M4.stl” is locked in place (at the end of the M4x46mm bolt) by 2 M4 nuts. Please see the 2 screen-shots in the Photo Section. When the “nut holder M4” is turned “Multigripper part1 & Multigripper part2” will open or close. Note that additional print support is needed for printing “MULTIGRIPPER3_part1.stl”.

Linear Gripper

The Linear Gripper was made for “cube like” shapes but also proved to be able to hold more irregular shapes. Like a Magnifying Glass as you can see on one of the Photo's. This gripper consists out of 23 printed parts, four M3x30mm bolts, four M3 nuts, four M4 nuts and one M4x90mm bolt (or one threated rod and lock nut... is what I did in this example). The screen-shot included with the photos is very helpful to see how it gos together. When the “Lineair Gripper main joint” is turned, the “linear Gripper lawA & linear Gripper lawB” will open or close. Its based on a Scissor Lift principal.

Phone Holder

The Phone holder is for holding Phones or other square objects.

It consists out of 3 printed parts 2 M4 nuts and M4 treated rod

The M4 treated rod length depends on the size of the Phone or object.

For mine it is 100mm. See scree-shot to get an better idea.

Nut Holder B

In most Photos I used the “nut holder M4” and “ nut holder M6” to tighten the “clamps” but later I also made an “ B” version. With “nut holder M4 B” and “nut holder M6 B” it's easier to tighten it because you have a better grip.

And of course, if you have any questions feel free to ask :-)