Workshop Bridge

Description

My wife wants to make pieces of art by gluing pretty things on a large canvas. This requires her to stretch her arm for a long periods of time, resulting in poor fine movements to glue pieces and a painful arm. 

The Workshop Bridge provides a place to rest your hand above any large and flat work piece, might it be a canvas or a PCB. It also has an arm to hold the things you need where you need them as close as possible. It finally provides a flexible lighting solution. It only requires commonly found elements such as metric screws and metallic tubes.

Features

• Bridge height can be adjusted by unscrewing the M8 screws and rotating the legs. The legs rotate in sync thanks to the gears, insuring the bridge is always flat. The height is secured by notches in the gears, ensuring the bridge will not collapse on your work piece. 

• A set of modules (called sledges) can be quickly and easily attached and removed.

• The sledges can slide along the bridge for fast adjustment, and be securely clamped to the bridge by turning a single screw.

• Three sledges are available:
  • A hand rest to support the hand above the work piece.
  • A gridfinity baseplate on an arm so that it can be located neat the hand rest in an ergonomic location. The gridfinity standard gives access to a large collection of utility and storage modules, such as https://www.printables.com/model/844545-gridfinity-paint-palettes 
  • A sledge to attach an Ikea JANSJÖ lamp which provides good lighting around the hand rest. 

Printing

I printed it in PLA with 3 perimeters, 5 top and bottom layers, and 15% infill. Holds well as long as one does not put their own weight on it. Better filament (PETG/ASA) and more perimeters will probably make it more durable. 

Assembly

Besides 3D printing, you will need:

• 15mm diameter metallic tubes
• M8x40mm DIN 933 screws with hexagonal head
• M8 DIN 934 nuts (13mm wide from side to side)
• M4x25mm DIN 933 screws with hexagonal head
• M4 DIN 934 nuts (13mm wide from side to side)

See assembly manual pdf for further information.

EDIT: Uploaded the correct assembly manual, instead of one of another project.