Tripod for soldering third hand. An indispensable assistant for those who like to solder: "The third hand The third hand with your own hands
Radio Circuit Mounting Tool
In the device, the clamps are fixed on a massive rack with a screw. One of the legs of the clamp fits into the groove of the rack and is pressed with a screw through the washer, and the second leg is free and allows you to clamp the parts.
This fastening allows you to rotate the clamp or move it along the groove, while the part remains clamped in the jaws. It becomes possible to remove an unfinished product from the rack, put it aside without opening the clamp, install another clamp with a new product and return to the first one at any time. On one device, you can do several jobs in parallel. There would be clamps.
Two clamps can be installed in the fixture, which is sometimes necessary. A fourth hand appears. Comfortable.
Buying clamps is not a problem. It is impossible to name the address, as the Internet is literally littered with offers. Prices from 100 rubles. There are up to a thousand, but the latter, most likely, with carbide jaws and they are not needed for our purpose.
Any radio amateur is well aware that during radio editing, as a rule, two hands are missing. You hold a soldering iron in one hand, tweezers in the other, and a third hand is also required to properly hold the board. Of course, you can solder without tweezers, but this is risky, the tweezers serve as a heat sink, without it you can easily overheat the radio component. In the simplest case, the holder - the "third hand" for holding small boards - is just an alligator clip on some kind of base.
To hold small parts, the industry specially produces a similar design.
A crossbar with two crocodile clips is hinged on a small cast-iron base.
Thanks to the hinges of the structure, a variety of configurations can be betrayed.
And to work with small details the holder "third hand" has a magnifying glass.
The design is really very useful when working with small printed circuit boards, wires, individual radio elements,. If you don't have it yet, I highly recommend buying it. But the small mass of the base leads to a slight overturning of the structure, so that it will not work to hold relatively heavy parts with it. Unless, as a base, screw a more massive piece of metal. Review prepared Denev.
In the past, I have used third-hand clips bought from electronics stores and have been unsatisfied with how comfortable they are to work with. The clamps didn't always reach the places where they were supposed to fix the parts, or it took too much time to install them in the right position. I also needed to be able to hold small PCBs, and the alligator clip is not always handy for getting the job done.
I had previously dealt with modular coolant hoses used to supply coolant in machine tools and decided that they could be used for my purposes. Various nozzles and hose segments were ordered from the online store, and experimentation with them began! The result is described below and although there is still room for improvement, the design has been in service for 3-4 years. 
The “hands” of the clamp can be set in any position, while they will not move, and the fixation of the part will be reliable. Another nice feature is that you can make all sorts of fixtures to work with objects of a wide range of shapes and sizes. On the this moment i have a holder printed circuit boards, clip, LCD mount and exhaust fan to keep out harmful soldering fumes.
All it takes to make a basic third hand version is a few simple hand tools, a pair of taps for threading, a drill and drill bits. If you already have the tools, then creating a structure will cost you a very small amount.
First of all, let's gather everything we need together. 
Tools:
- Drill or drill press (a machine is preferable, although a hand drill will work too)
- Drill bit 9.5mm
- Tap 3mm (6-32)
- Tap 8.5mm (1/8-27 NPT)
- Tap holder
- Ruler
- Kern
Be sure to use safety glasses!
Materials:
- Foundation. I used an aluminum block with dimensions of 14.5x6.5x1.5 cm as a base. Aluminum is heavy enough to make the base stable and easy to thread. You can use whatever you want. The only condition is a thickness of at least 1.5 cm and the possibility of threading in drilled holes(plastic, wood, MDF, steel). The lighter the material, the larger the base must be in order to remain stable. If the material is too soft, the threads will wear out quickly and the grips will simply not hold.
- Arms. They are made from flexible modular hoses and nozzles used on machine tools to supply lubricant and coolant. I purchased a set of 30 cm hose and various nozzles and adapters from the online store. I recommend buying a couple of these kits and additional attachments - you will have enough parts to assemble four hands. For each of them you will need:
- Adapter with 1/8 NPT thread (1pc)
- Hose (10-12cm)
- Nozzle on the hose 3mm, at an angle of 90° (1pc)
You may need to purchase special tongs to assemble modular tubes. Connecting them together requires effort, although I did without them.
-Grips. Each of them consists of a banana connector screwed into the hose nozzle and a crocodile. I chose the flexible banana connectors because they have 6-32 threads, which will allow them to be screwed into the hose nozzle. Clips "crocodile" have a size of 5cm.
Once you have chosen the material for the base, you need to cut it out if it has not already been done. As mentioned above, I used an aluminum bar. 
Now you need to mark the location of the holes for each of the hands. In the example, I made three hands. The location of the holes is not defined by a strict pattern, however, the arms should be placed close enough so that they can connect to each other, and symmetrically so that the design looks neat. The location of the holes will also depend on the shape and dimensions of the base. I note that the base of the triangular shape will be good decision if you are going to use three hands in the design. 
Use a punch to mark the center of each hole.
I usually start with a smaller drill and then finish with a 9.5mm drill. Make sure the material is drilled through and the hole can be threaded. The axis of the hole must be perpendicular to the surface of the base so that the hose adapter screwed into it lies flat. This precision can be achieved hand drill, but use drilling machine will make the task easier. 
Thread the hand holes using a 1/8-27 NPT tap. Remember that the threaded area on the adapter is tapered, so you need to cut the threads deep enough for the arm to fully screw in. But, at the same time, cutting the thread too deeply, you will get a loose adapter, which may break the thread. Remember that the tap also needs to be held perpendicular to the base surface.
I didn't have a large enough tap holder for a 1/8-27 NPT tap and had to use a chuck I bought for this. If you chose metal for the base of the "third hand", use a threading lubricant.
Now that the holes are drilled and threaded, it's time to clean up the surface and round off the corners of the base with sandpaper. I started with P80 grit, then used P220 paper, and finished with Scotch Brite, which gives a nice matte finish.
Remove the plastic black and red covering from the bananas and set it aside. We only need metal parts. 
Tap the 90° hose nozzle with a 6-32 tap. The threads on the "bananas" aren't really exactly the same, but similar enough to make for a tight connection. 
When the "banana" is screwed into the nozzle of the hose, simply put the "crocodile" on it. Alligator clips work well, but they tend to spin on the axle when holding the part for a long time or in cases where the part is quite heavy. Let's see how this can be fixed.
The reason lies in the fact that the "crocodiles" expand a little after putting them in place. You can see in the image that it is slightly loose.
To fix this problem, I found two methods. Of course, you can skip this step, but it will make it much easier for you to work with the “third hand” clamp in the future. 
- Metal tube. I picked up stainless steel tubes of a suitable diameter (mine was 5mm), and then cut off several sections of 1cm in length. Putting them on the place where the "crocodiles" were attached to the arm, I lightly tapped them with a hammer, fixing the clips in this way. The best solution in my opinion.
- Wire wrapping. I found a few scraps of thin and hard wire, wrapped around the attachment points of the "crocodiles" and soldered them. This is the easiest and cheapest way to solve the problem.
If you bought modular hose assembly pliers, the process of assembling them will be easier. I did not buy, but found a fairly easy method to connect them. 
Put on a screwdriver right size those elements of the hose that you want to connect together. Thus, they will all align, and this will easily make it possible to dock them together, putting them on top of each other.
Although the photo shows a hand that includes 10 segments, I found out empirically that 7 segments give a more comfortable arm length. Of course, these are my preferences and you can use them as much as you want.
Now all you have to do is screw your arms into the base and your homemade "third arm" is ready! In the next part, I will tell you about some of the devices made in order to expand the functionality of this helper clamp.
For a long time I looked closely at this device, but could not bring myself to buy it. It seemed painfully expensive for such a device for a poor Belarusian. Especially since I don't solder very often. But after I finally got my kalichnaya soldering iron, it was decided to stock up on the rich in all sorts of soldering stray. The so-called “third hand”, which has long been coveted, has also made it to this list.
We receive the package, unpack it and see such a constructor:
Actually, what is here:
Lens in a plastic housing with illumination
Crocodiles with lamb attachments
Bed (with a black coating incomprehensible to me), in which you can put napkins to clean the soldering iron tip
Soldering iron holder and connecting rod set
Let's take a closer look at the lens.
In the lower part at the base there are two LEDs, the purpose of which is to illuminate the soldering item.
On top there is a compartment for three AAA batteries, equipped with a tape for easier removal. On the side of the slider to turn on the backlight.
The lens size is impressive. She is big. I would even say huge, against the background of the main dimensions.
We insert the batteries by binding them with tape.
We turn on the backlight. It shines well in general.
We proceed to further assembly. The holder is in the frame and fixed with a locking screw.
The most difficult thing was to assemble the barbell with crocodiles. It was necessary to simultaneously fix two hinges between the plates. They constantly tried to jump out.
Then everything is much easier. We insert a vertical bar into the frame and hang a lens and a bar with crocodiles on it.
Assembled
After the soldering iron was placed in its rightful place, some feature of the holder was revealed. It turned out to be too big for a soldering iron in diameter and it simply fell through, striving to bury itself in the frame. What is not good.
There are two ways to deal with this matter: either put the soldering iron as shown below in the photo; or do some upgrades. Because, inserting the soldering iron into the holder each time and at the same time trying to fix it somehow is not comme il faut. Moreover, if you then touch the cord with something, then it will clearly fall into the position, as in the photo above. 
Modernization by compressing the spring at the end, in order to reduce the diameter, is immediately eliminated. Not only is the last coil soldered to the post, it is also soldered to the previous coil. In general, in the future you will have to somehow finish it.
Another bad feature of this creation is poor stability. This is primarily due to the large size of the lens, and as a result of its decent weight. Therefore, if you turn the lens to the side, then the whole structure, obeying the teachings of Archimedes, strives to fall sideways. Approximately like this.
Here, either apply another “doping”, increasing the area or weight of the bed, or try to make sure that nothing outweighs anywhere during work. Or even remove the lens if it is not needed at the moment. Fortunately, it takes two or three seconds. I have not even decided yet whether I will eliminate this shortcoming, or whether it does not bother me so much.
Springs in crocodiles are quite tight. They keep capital. For demonstration, I clamped a knife in the middle of the blade into one of them. And nothing, the crocodile did an excellent job.
Summarize. I liked the subject matter. I don't regret buying. Despite a couple of shortcomings: a large diameter soldering iron holder and low stability. The build quality suits me. On the old work we had a “third hand” in the laboratory, and so, compared to the monitored one, it’s just slag. Perhaps the downside is the price. Not so much, but not cheap either, especially given the current state of the economy. If you wander through the expanses of Chinese online stores, you can find many variations of such a device. Dual-lens, gooseneck-mounted, battery-powered, mains-powered, and more. Some are a little cheaper, others a little more expensive. By the way, offline, at least here in Minsk, you can find a similar product at a comparable price, or you can at sky-high prices. To be honest, I don’t even remember why I chose this particular model.
Thank you all for your attention.
Often, when soldering small circuits or individual elements, there are not enough hands to simultaneously hold the wiring or circuit element, solder, soldering iron, sometimes a flashlight or a magnifying glass, so the circuit also strives to run away somewhere when soldering. In such situations, the “Third Hand” comes to the rescue. Many make their own such devices to suit their needs.
I decided to make a similar device, not going much beyond its application. Or rather, making it universal and with an aesthetic appearance.
Video recording step by step assembly and a familiarization test.
Materials and tools
1. 2 alligator clips with insulation;
2. Details from an old compass;
3. Bottom from an aluminum can;
4. Base for stability made of plastic, wood or metal;
5. 3 flexible legs “Goose necks” 20cm each;
6. Heat shrinks 3mm and 5mm;
7. Insulating tape;
8. Hot glue;
9. Super glue.
From tools:
1. Pliers;
2. Thermal gun;
3. Lighter;
4. Scissors.
Third hand making
We will need 3 flexible gooseneck legs, 20cm each. I took them from a USB flashlight and USB fan bought in a fixed price for 60 rubles. The USB flashlight has a flexible leg 39 cm, it can be cut in half with a bite of pliers or wire cutters to get 2 by 19 cm.
The USB fan has a 23 cm leg, so let's leave it.
Now you need to choose a suitable foundation for the stability of the structure. I have a plastic case from a quartz table clock lying around, I will use it.
It is better to take something heavier, depending on your needs. I won’t hook large boards from tablets and heavy objects there, so a plastic one will do.
We make 3 holes in the base for flexible legs.
Since hot melt does not adhere well to metal, we will use electrical tape. We wrap the ends of the flexible legs with electrical tape, which will be fixed in the base. This will then allow you to fix the flexible legs well at the base.
We take 2 crocodiles and put 3 mm heat shrink on the teeth, as shown in the photo. This is so that the metal teeth do not damage the elements on the boards, the winding of the wires and do not leave marks on objects that will be fixed by crocodiles.
Glue the crocodile to the end of the flexible leg with super glue. We do not regret the glue) After the glue dries, we put on a 5 mm heat shrink (it will give a good fixation of the crocodile with a flexible leg) as shown in the photo. And we repeat the same with the second leg and the crocodile.
From the old compass we get such a contraption with a fixing bolt and nut.
We glue the fixing bolt with super glue into the inside of the flexible leg (it just goes there). Glue do not spare) This will be a universal leg that can be customized and applied to your needs. In my case, there will be an additional clamp for wiring or light bulbs and a clamp (where the lead is inserted) for solder wire.
The resulting flexible legs are inserted into the prepared holes on the base, glued with super glue. After the super glue dries, fix it abundantly with hot glue.
You can make 4 legs with hot glue, for better stability and preventing slipping on the surface of the table.
I thought about how to take an empty place on the base and decided to make a place for small things necessary when soldering or for push pins, paper clips, or something else.
The bottom of an aluminum can came up very well. It is necessary to cut the edges, round the corners and fix with hot glue on the base.
Can be used for cargo (for example, a hefty nut)), if I still cling large boards or heavy objects)
That's it.
In the “Third Hand” case, it proved to be not bad. Copes with the task. The circuit holds well, does not slip. In the photo, the light bulb is weak (there was no other), you can cling more powerfully. The adjustment is convenient, the hot melt glue holds the base of the legs well.
Many cling lenses and fans. He refused it. Takes up a lot of desk space when not in use.
This design and appearance allows you to leave the device on the desktop and use it for other purposes. With the help of a universal flexible leg, you can change the design and add the necessary elements (the same fan, magnifying glass, flashlight, more crocodile, diagram drawing) depending on the purpose of the application.
By the way, the remaining fan can also be used. In a couple of minutes, making it a desktop battery.
As planned, can be used for more than just soldering.
For example, to cling notes with important things for the day or a card so as not to forget.
Even the phone holds confidently. I didn’t plan for this purpose) Nice addition)
I have no doubt that in the process of using it I will find more than one use for this device.
