Helping Hands Base - Soldering Helper - Alligator Clips with arms mounting base and screw storage

This is a 3 arm helping hands alligator base utilizing arms from the Temu clamp device ("Multifunctional Welding Workstation with Adjustable Arm & Stable Welding Base - Heavy-Duty Portable Welding Tool for Soldering..." photo of the of it included here) . I'll also link what looks like an identical Amazon version but I have not tried that one). Unfortunately, while the clamp seemed functional enough, I could never clamp it where I needed the arms to be. And in some cases, what I wanted it to clamp to wasn't flat and the clamp couldn't clamp to it. Enter these designs. One design led to another.

Since the arms screw into the clamp I found a thread size to work. I include that for any remixes to add arms or options to move arms around.

Then I made a simple ring and had the 3 arm attachments sprouting up from that. That seemed OK but I wondered about balance depending on the weight of what I was working with.

That led to the idea of a fatter ring with the arms coming from the sides where they themselves could be part of the side to side support as needed. Also, this led to the ability to have a parts tray built into the center.

As that was printing it hit me... why not add a magnet?

So, the final version lost a little volume in the parts tray, but gained a magnet. It's the standard Harbor Freight Ceramic magnet from their 2pk (#97504). (3/8"x7/8"x1-7/8" are the measurements from the packaging). I didn't make it a really tight fit and simply glued it in with some epoxy. It also adds an additional small amount of mass to the center of the tray to help even more with balance (which hasn't seemed to be an issue anyway).

Although, I consider the 3rd version, with the magnet, the best, it really depends on your usage or remix purposes. Hence, including the final versions of all 3 steps (and the threaded receiver) here.

What seems to be the same arms and clamp on Amazon- Amazon Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/4oLTcVS
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