This post is largely focused on info that might be helpful if you want to try your hand at building yourself. If you want some more info on my thoughts during the design, you can find them here.
If you want to create your own variants, tool holders, improvements, etc., here is the link to the Fusion file. It’s a mess, but I’d love to see what folks can cook up to improve on the concept!
For all of the printed parts referenced below, I’ve uploaded the STLs to <MakerWorld>, Printables, and Thingiverse, pick your preference.
Before diving into the build details, some quick first impressions from my testing/playing thus far.
The only aspect of the design that I am not in love with is the tip changing solution. I knew this was going to be a gamble (hence my requirement that it remain compatible with the original), and it is functional. But I’ve found it a bit clumsy to use.
I have made some updates to the design to help with the clearances of the tongue and groove features there. I think that should make it significantly easier, but I doubt I’ll buy replacement parts to find out (I was fortunate enough to get the first set for free from PCBWay). But, I made the changes, should you decide you want to give it a go…and if you do, could you PLEASE let me know how it goes and any suggestions to made it a smoother process?
The arm was really the main focus for me, and that portion has honestly exceeded my expectations. I was mainly looking for a good use case to test out the jewel bearing four bar concept on something functional.
The counterbalance mechanism is fairly straightforward, but I ended up being really happy with it. Just something so satisfying about watching it.
I was really on the fence going in to this build on whether I wanted a counterbalance on both joints. I ended up going with the second link being free hanging, and I think that was the right choice for this one (at least in my opinion).
All in all, I’m more than a little pleased with this little fella. It’s been a whole lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to getting a long life out of it…..and continuing to find other fun stuff to strap to the end of it.
Now, if that hasn’t scared ya off, on to the build info!
Printed Parts: