It's a great concept however I found the assembly quite frustrating. If you purchase this I would recommend drilling out the bottom and feeding the screw though the whole arm. If you don't drill it out first, the screw will get stuck in the bottom. Then you will need to pop apart two of the middle arm pieces to push it out. I found these two peaces impossible to reconnect. I tried hitting the arm with a mallet while using a tube to keep the arm from bending but I eventuality melted the pieces after tying to heat them a few times. They are somewhat flammable by the way :)

I would not recommend this purchase unless you or sparkfun drill out the bottom piece first. I should also note that the arms that I received were different then the ones in the picture and video. They visually appeared to be of a lower quality. As such I would warn customers against popping apart the arms as you may not get them back together.

After trying to muscle the arms back together for 30min I gave up and got out a butane torch and heated both the arm and nozzle. Snapped together very easily after that.

I only can say, I LOVE this thing. I only wish there was a magnifying glass accessory available for it

Follow the advice provided by others regarding heating the plastic pipe ends with boiling water to facilitate popping off the end cap to install the clips. If you do, clear sailing

I love the convenience of the 3rd hand now that it's set up but it was a little tricky to pop the ends off in order to insert the screw and attach the alligator clips. I actually cracked one of the ends slightly but glued it back with no ill effects. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone, with the recommendation that you be careful popping the ends off!

I must admit - it certainly is far better than the third-hand thing you get with the magnifying glass at places like Harbor Freight and what was shown in the video. The arms are solid enough to hold PCB's, wires, etc., steady while you work on them.

Yes, popping the tips off IS quite difficult at room temp. One reviewer said if you can't pop them off by hand you have no business soldering. Don't listen to him. I certainly never would. Anyway, don't use anything extreme like a propane torch. A heat gun used for shrink tubing works great. Just turn it on the lowest setting, point it at the orange tip while turning the thing in your hand for about 10-20 seconds, then stick the tip in one of the holes in the base and bend it over till it pops out. Works great.

As to the alligator clips? Yes, use loctite on the threads to keep it from unscrewing accidentally and really, they should include BIGGER alligator clips. Unless you're holding small wire or a thin PCB, it's going to annoy you.

Also, you may want to get a couple of extra arms - one to hold a box fan and another to hold a fresnel magnification lens. Of course you'll have to figure out how to mount them to the tips - but it would be cool if Sparkfun offered those as options.

Aside from the small-ish alligator clips - the thing is great!

Once this product is assembled, it's great! The base is very solid and sturdy, and the whole unit is aesthetically pleasing.

My only complaint is in the assembly. It's nearly impossible to put together using brute force alone. I bought two additional arms with the intention of using four in total, which was fortunate, as I broke two of the headers just trying to remove them from their arms.

Update: I received my new set of arms. This time I followed reviewer John Price's suggestion and used hot water to remove and re-attach the tips. I boiled up a pot of water and submerged just the tip for 5 to 10 seconds, grabbed onto the tip with a cloth, and popped them off. Once I had the alligator clip attached, I submerged the base of the tip in the hot water, held onto the tip with a cloth, and popped the arm back in. The entire process was far easier than my first attempt. Installing the alligator clips on 4 arms took me no more than 5 minutes.

The base is solid and heavy, and the flexible coolant pipes are durable and can flex to hold your work exactly where you need it. I bought extra hardware to make a total of 4 pipes+clips and now I feel invincible.

Good grief, there is no need for torches or drilling out the base which might cause damage. Just dip the end in hot water for a few seconds and pop it off. Attach the alligator clip, dip the cup in hot water again and you can easily push it on again by hand.

You DO need to be a bit careful in screwing into the base so that you don't cross-thread it. Be gentle and make sure it is straight and it will screw in easily up to the stop.

I received the 3rd hand kit and was excited to put it together. The first thing I did was try to take off the top orange nozzle, which I found incredibly difficult. With some leverage on to aluminum base described in the video, I was able to get them off. The second I took them off though, I realized that the inside of this arm was completely hollow and that I probably could have fed the screw in through the bottom had I straightened out the tube. After assembling the alligator clips into the orange nozzle and using a lighter to melt the heat shrink tubing onto the clips, the next roadblock was getting the nozzles back on. This is incredibly harder to do than getting them off, and requires enormous pressure to achieve. I had this kit stashed in an unusable state for a few weeks, with various attempts at reattching the hose. I even tried sanding away some of the plastic to get it to assemble easier but stil no dice. I had almost resorted to superglueing them on, but I remembered a comment someone left about using a heat gun to push the orange piece on. I don't have a heat gun, but I did have a ligher, and I found that if you hold the plastic nozzle a few centimeters above the flame, while moving the nozzle to give it an even heating, the blue socket will slip in with a little bit of force. After the nozzle cools, the plastic contracts and forms a nice seal around the socket. screwing the threaded base joint into the aluminum base was more diffucult than it should have been, requiring a set of pliers to tighten it all the way.

Overall I think this is a great product with some fairly obvious flaws. Firstly, they used the cheapest coolant hose they could find. removing the top and reattaching it for the kit was far more difficult than the assembly video implies. This wouldn't be such big issue had the instructions given the tip of using a heat gun or lighter to reattach the hose. The aluminum base is high quality and I can imagine the threads being quite accurately cut, however the threaded hose still required a bit of force to get in, which again is probably due to the cheapness of the hose. That said, the hose works well and the only advantage to a more expensive one would probably have been a nicer thread and easier to detatch links, which we're never going to break apart again anyway

I recommend you order this and (if you don't have one) order a heat gun

I'm not if it's me or the product but I'm have trouble with the clips fItting.

Please send information on everything fits together.

This thing is absolutely awesome once put together. My one complaint is that it doesn't come already put together. This took me about 30 minutes to assemble because the ends are so difficult to reattach.

Some people have successfully used pliers to snap it together rather than trying to push on it with about 100lbs of force, but even then it's not straight forward due to the curved surfaces. On, the other hand, +1 for beveling the edge of the aluminum base, otherwise my hand would be scratched up from when the tubes invariably slip and move around when you put 100lbs of force on them

I found snapping the blue segments apart and putting them back together to be nearly impossible in my cold environment. A bit of time with a heat gun made it easy though!

Whose bright idea was it to not assemble the arms before shipping it out to customers? I had 2 people try to help me snap them together and we couldn't do it.

The guy in the video makes is look so easy -- which only makes it that much more frustrating.

Finally had to use a heat gun to heat up both sides and then the parts would actually snap together like the video shows -- so I call shenanigans on that video.

Once assembled it's fine, but why frustrate and anger customers and not just ship the arms assembled???

Aluminum block and flex arms are great. Additional flex arms are also a great value.

There's room for improvement and it's easy-ish to accomplish.

1. The stock alligator clips are too small - too short, jaws don't open wide enough and thumb lever too small.

2. The clips need to be able to rotate on the flex arms but not come unscrewed - that means locking up the threads. This can be done a number of ways: threadlock compound like Loctite, set-screw into the side of the clip thread body or the easiest to ship in a revision, a nut to be placed on the bolt BEFORE the clip for the clip to tighten up against.

As an aside, anyone that can't follow the directions in the video for popping the flex arm apart AND putting it back together really has no place working with a soldering iron. It requires some force, but it's no reason to get frustrated, it's simple. If you understand how these flex arms work, you wouldn't be complaining that it should be easier.

This product is bigger, better-built and more versatile than the little gizmo I had been using. It does vibrate more, but this hasn't caused any real problems so far. The big knobby blue things are totally outrageous looking but do the job quite well.

This in theory is great. The alligator clips are very small and when you heat wrap the ends to reduce the scratching from the clips, you lose even more width of space on the clips. The overall assembly is a PAIN in the neck. As in the orange ends don't pop off very easily in order to screw the roach clips on. i have tried heat guns to soften the plastic and my thumbs became raw. The overall rigidity is too tough, perhaps it will loosen up with use - much use Im sure since they are very taught. But I guess better then lose and sagging when needing them to hold in position. Overall 3 out of 5. It's not perfect, but it works better then the stiff arm 3rd hand products. Also it's very weighty so that's a good thing. Just be sure you have strong hands and or gloves to assemble it. Yes I followed the video on here on how to do it for tips, but it didn't work.

I guess I should have read the reviews and tried using heat. I really wasn't expecting it to crack. I figured these must be able to handle the separation of the orange tip from the blue hose or they wouldn't expect me to assemble it myself. So, yeah, a little disappointed out of the gate. I do have high hopes otherwise since the base is so heavy compared to my other third hands from the Shack.

It works great. I like how I can add hands to it or move hands.

Really helps you in holding thinks the way you want. A couple of things: - Double layer those alligators teeth with the sink or it will have scratches in your boards; - As someone said, a lighted mag in this would be "SWWWEEEEEEETTTTT" (thumbs up for anyone who figures who says/said sweet).

This has far more range of motion than my existing 3rd hand. Replace existing 3rd hand in minutes. I did replace the smaller alligator clips with larger ones by machining some round brass stock (Center drilled in lathe then tapped 6-32), then soldering the new brass inserts into the larger clips. Will be adding additional arms next order.

The plastic threads on the arms and metal on the base don't seem to be the same. I have 6 arms and a few will only screw in a half turn. Feels like the threads don't match. I havent tried all of them since the plastic threads will deform if forced. And I'm sure they already have.

I'll buy some more arms if anyone can confirm the threads do indeed match.

It's pretty expensive. I feel like it could be a little less expensive, but it does work really well.

I don't need a soldering vise when I have all these arms.

Try to solder almost anything and you will soon find you need something to hold everything in place. Other 'third hand' solutions look flimsy and inflexible. This was much more expensive but why have a hobby that is frustrating?

The only problem is that it is a little tricky to assemble but if you are careful, take your time and follow instructions it can be done without breaking anything. Hold the 'just the tip' in boiling water for 20-30 seconds and pull them off with your fingers or use the base plate (see Sparkfun video).

I was worried that the flex arms would not be stiff enough but they are just right. Even if they eventually wear out they can be replace cheaply enough.

My husband was thrilled!! He is the ultimate "do-it-your-self" type person, from circuit boards to woodworking. He has already used it a dozen times and is very happy with it.

This variation of the 3rd hand is everything the description says it is. And that's great! But it isn't perfect. Like every other 3rd hand, it's still difficult to get the clips lined up with the millimeter accuracy you often need. There's still the usual "over bend, and hope it springs back to the right position" trial-and-error. Taking a few sections out of the arms helps somewhat, at the cost of reach and versatility. Next, while you can certainly attach things other than alligator clips, this isn't a modular, plug and play system. You'll have to engage your maker creativity, and that takes time. The last two gripes are nit-picky, but things you'll notice, nonetheless. Once you get the orange tip of the arm off (no easy task, which visibly stresses the plastic), slide the screw in, and begin to tighten the clip on, you'll see the neck start to bulge as you get the clip tight enough to be stable. Even then, I never felt like I could get the clips as solid as I'd prefer. Would pan head screws possibly work better? The included alligator clips are what you'd expect, though the threaded part is a particularly nice addition. But for holding anything other than wires or credit card size PCBs, they're too small. Having a selection of different sized clips (WITH threads) would be a big advantage (though once you unscrewed one, the screw would slip down into the arm...).

The base is amazing, though. 10/10.

I used to use those traditional metal "helping hands" for years for hobby electronics work. While they technically worked, they were always finicky and tedious to use because you had to constantly adjust the tension of the wing-nuts that hold the joints together. And the arms usually had limited range.

These, on the other hand, are much more hassle-free to use. There are no wing-nuts to worry about and no ball and socket joints to come loose. And these have more positional degrees of freedom than traditional helping hands. You can bend them into almost any configuration imaginable. And the solid aluminum base makes the unit quite sturdy. It's pretty much impossible to knock it over by accident.

This model comes with two arms but the aluminum base has six drilled and tapped holes to allow you to add up to six arms total. I'm going to buy an extra pair or two of the arms (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12783) and alligator clip hardware (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12033) to add to my existing unit.

Overall, this is a great product and I recommend it over traditional "helping hands" models.

Well, I finally finished the assembly of the SparkFun Third Hand and overall I found it to be a frustrating experience. Hot water didn't work for me, but a hair dryer eventually did the trick. I purchased two additional arms to bring the total to four and I'm stoked to start a new project. Robert's trick to snap the arm segments back together definitely came in handy!

Echoing the responses of previous reviewers, I'd sum up the Third Hand with the following pros and cons:

Pros: - Very stable base - Supports up to 6 arms in various configurations - Assembly will help you develop the superhuman strength Robert displays in the product video

Cons: - Alligator clips could be larger and stronger - High likelihood of injury during assembly - Lack of additional accessories from SparkFun (e.g. magnifying glass)

If anyone has a way to reattach the blue knuckle back together I would appreciate it.

The base is flat, heavy, and better polished than the photo shows. It's useful for bolting things down as a heat-sink, but that's about it. The alligator clips are a bit small compared to the arms, but ultimately work. The problem is the arms, which seem to be repurposed flood coolant sprayers from a CNC mill.

Every time I've tried to use this as "helping hands" I've found them simultaneously too springy to hold a board/part rigidly enough, and too rigid to adjust finely. Adjusting them means overcoming the friction of the individual joints until they'll move, after which they'll move too far. I found it near-impossible to position them accurately enough to be useful, especially compared to the traditional chromed-steel ball-in-clamp helping hands.

For holding boards I eventually got a panavise-style holder which has worked much better.

The alligator clips REALLY need to be placed on their yellow, plastic holders (arms, or whatever they are called), and the yellow, plastic holders need to be placed on the blue, flexible, plastic arms at the factory before they are shipped to the customer. I found it to be extremely difficult to put back the yellow, plastic holders onto the blue, flexible, plastic arms after I had inserted the alligator clips into the yellow, plastic holders. In fact, in the process of doing this, I unfortunately managed to crack both of the yellow, plastic holders. However, for the time being, these cracks are not preventing me from using this device (which works well, once assembled).

The video explains how to put the clips into the nozzle. Looked simple. The first nozzle separated easily and the alligator clip was inserted. The second nozzle cracked and the separation point was after the first blue articulated piece. The nozzle could not be repaired. Willing to try again, I contacted Sparkfun and asked for a new arm. Received no reply to my email. I'll find some other use for the aluminum base. It is nice and heavy, but the plastic arms are useless to me

Upgraded from the typical cheap 3rd hand, used the boiling water method to assemble worked like a charm

I love the heavy aluminium block as a base. Makes for a very stable working area. The arms are flexible enough to manuvear into the weirdest of positions, but stiff enough so I can solder stuff without moving it. Hell through a peltier on the bottom and it could double as a soda can heat sink! As other comments have said, getting it assembled it the hardest part. I used a kitchen blow torch at a very slow setting to loosen up the plastic. A heat gun would be a better option. Be careful when trying to put the tips back on, I bent one of my alligator clips and it broke. Luckily I had another to use!

This works much better than any other third hand I've used. I'd like to see an option for larger clips, but the ones it comes with work great. The heat-shrink for the tips is a nice touch.

Even following the instructional video wasn't enough. Step 1 from the video is to try to snap the hose end off. Well don't it will shatter immediately. Other people have suggested dunking these things in boiling water first. I guess I'll try that.

SPARKFUN: PULL YOUR VIDEO! It'll just cause more harm than good!

This is a great tool that works as described. It is a little hard to put together, but once assembled, works great!

I’m glad I made the purchase.

Needing something to support my soldering work while using my not so steady, old tremoring hands, I read the reviews fraught with all peoples' problems. Watched the video, decided assembly would not be beyond my 50 years' engineering experience, and ordered one with extra arms to have a 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th hands.

Not! The guy doing the video must be a Super Hero! Getting it apart was difficult but getting them back together was nearly impossible. The joints must be tight fit to be rigid enough to stay in position. I decided to try hot water on the orange part and ice water on the blue to facilitate snapping together- unsuccessful. Reasoned that the temperature difference needed to be larger.

One part in Kuerig heated water and the other in 0 degree freezer crushed ice (no water). This enabled snapping the parts together if you waited long enough and hurried the assembly. Still difficult but doable.

Happy that it'll maintain enough stability that I can apply enough pressure to steady my hands. Back into hobbies again!

Compared to other third hand kits this one is pretty good. It's a lot more stable because of the increased weight in the metal base and the hands are stiff enough without being difficult to adjust. I do wish the base was even heavier though because I find myself spending a lot of time trying to position boards in just the right place above it so they won't move when I solder things on them. If it was 25% heaver it would be perfect I think.

This has been a great product to use! The flexible compared to the traditional style of helping hands has been much better to use! My only complaint is that I broke one of the arms when assembling and had to use a dremel to remove the broken section from the test of the arm. So one of my arms is 1 link shorter than the test! Ha!

Overall, spend the extra money on one of these vs the cheap kind you can buy everywhere else!

No instructions were included. There is no way to install the clips to the arm. The screw head will not fit down the tube from the bottom. The joints do not appear to separate to insert the screw without breaking them.

Easy to assemble, and works great. I would definitely recommend this to someone looking for a good quality 3rd hand.

I had no trouble assembling it. The pipe joints are easier to pop apart than the yellow tip is. I separated the joint just behind the one at the tip and could still drop the screw in and connect the alligator clip. Bigger alligator clips would be nice. The ones supplied are probably made by Mueller, who make bigger ones with a threaded barrel, but those take an 8-32 screw. You can get them from youdoitelectronics dot com ("...128 when it's dark outside..."). Just throw out the covers. We might have to drill out the tips to 5/32". It would be nice if someone sold a magnifying glass or LED add-on kit.

This is a great use of off the shelf parts, and I had none of the issues as reported by other reviewers. Snapping off the ends of the sprayers to install the clips was a breeze. I added my extra set of arms I ordered and now my brain is abuzz with ideas for what to screw into the remaining holes.

I have been using this recently and found it very effective. It has helped me with some very difficult to hold tiny wiring to a small motor that was still physically and loosely attached to a clockwork. It was also used for a cabling repair where in the past I had to hold and solder connections by hand. A very useful tool.

much more versatile than the articulated arm types, which I also have. Also has a greater reach and the ability to move the arms, or better, add a third (say, for a magnifier).

Bought this for our son on this last birthday & wow was it ever a huge hit!!! He LOVES it & it does make his soldering projects so much easier!! Thanks!

I have had the traditional 3rd hand rigs with the magnifier and they just dont get to where I need to go. So with a gift certifcate from the recent holidays I was able to get the SparkFun Third Hand Kit.

It didnt come with assembly instructions, but seems obvious what needs to be done. I tried to take off the conical end to put the screw in for the clip. That was a bit difficult but I thought there must be an easier way. It turns out that if you drill out the yellow connector on the other end to allow the screw head to pass, it will go all the way through the tube and connect the clip nicely. No screwdriver required.

Note: hold the part you are drilling in a vice so you dont spin and loosen the connection to the blue bits.

Not long after, I was doiing some work under the dash of my car, and this was just the help I needed to solder some wiring. Its a really sturdy build. I will probably see about adding an additional arm or 2 down the road.

Great kit!

Like other reviewers, I had a horrible time reattaching the yellow tip once I'd installed the alligator clip. I finally saw advice to use heat, which really worked (a propane torch is so handy!) but BE CAREFUL! The plastic is fairly heat resistant, but once it's at temp it gets soft/melts quickly.

That all said, it's DARNED USEFUL now that I'm using it! It's nice and stiff but flexible and definitely stays where you move it. I'm considering picking up two more pieces for other parts (magnifying glass and LED light come to mind.)

I've used this product a few times now; each time was soldering to semi-small PCBs. The kit has been wonderful at holding position and adjusting to any awkward angles.

My only gripe was the amount of force required to install the alligator clips; taking the nozzles off was quite an interesting time!

Thanks to Ryan for the design, and I look forward to adding more arms to the kit in the future.

After purchasing a few of these units for use at the University of Colorado College of Engineering I found that this cool device has one very distinct problem. The Alligator clips are too small and fragile, they shear off right at the threaded sleeve. They are held on very well with the screws but the metal section that connects to the threaded sleeve is very thin and weak. It is time to redesign this product. Considering that this product costs about 4 times as much as the original third hand is should out last and out perform it.

I'm new to soldering so I can't say what working with the more traditional third hands is like. This third hand kit is amazing. The arms can be twisted in to just about any configuration that you want. I want to order more arms and clips but at the moment SparkFun is all out of the alligator clips.

An option for bigger alligator clips would be nice for holding on to larger items.

The concept is cool. The metal base is great. Alligator clips are so so. My biggest problem is that it is hard to precisely position the arms. This is because the plastic joints don't slide smoothly, but instead they move in jerks. I actually thought about putting some lubricant in the joints but haven't tried that yet.

This thing puts regular helping hands to shame. It was simple to assemble, didn't need to use heat guns or butane torches. Just watch the video. Great product!

Great idea and works fine once it is assembled. After cracking one of the yellow endings and reading the reviews, I applied about 15 seconds of heat gun to the yellow part and then it snaps right in.

The alligator clips should be bigger ones, I bent one of them while tightening the screw. Might want to use lock-tite on that connection.

Edit: Sparkfun was great about replacing the part I broke. This works so well that I ordered a second one as a gift.

I'm a man of average strength and it was really hard for me to pop the nozzles off and impossible to reinstall them. I broke one in the process. I finally took a sanding disc and shaved a hair off the end pieces of the pipes. If you do that, be careful to take off the minimum necessary amount: the device depends on a tight fit to hold the alligator clips in place.

It's a great device but I honestly wouldn't do it again.

The arms are flexible but hold steady while soldering or doing other fine work. Great for students who are learning to solder.

I had one of those old third hands with a magnifying glass which is not easy to use. This is much more versatile. The hands can be a bit stiff to position correctly, but once you get them in the right place they don't move. Make sure to put the heat shrink on the clips cause they can scratch whatever they are holding on to.

I didn't have very much trouble getting it assembled. It wasn't that easy, but the techniques they show in the video work well.