DIY Prosthetic Project

So for my next project,  I am in the process of creating a 3D printed DIY prosthetic. After drawing  with my feet and mouth for my Spring break homework, I realized how vital control and pressure are to prosthesis designed to help amputees produce art.  I also realized that working with ones' arm is the most logical solution because it would still possess some fine motor skills even if the hand or some fingers were missing.

When designing, you have to think about the universality of your design.  Are you making an attachment for an already existing prosthetic?  Will your design only work with one specific pen/paintbrush/etc., and how can you generalize your design?  Since I decided to create a prosthetic that could hold a pen or pencil, I knew I would have to create a very general design that could fit multiple brands.  My design also had to give the user easy access to the drawing tools so they could quickly replace them.   I decided to make a device that attached to the wrist that way it was useable no matter how many fingers the person had.




 My design was loosely inspired by the hidden blade seen in Assassin's Creed.  For my research, on top of making cardboard models, I also watched tons of Youtube videos on hidden blade construction.  Initially, I wanted to make a spring loaded design that would make a pen or pencil pop out, but later I simplified it to just a pen/pencil holder.

 

My initial inspiration

cardboard model

I built my design on Tinkercad off of a hidden blade design I found on Thingiverse called "Hidden Blade!" by Theprintrbotmaker.  Here's what it looks like at the moment:

My Project 

I just printed out my initial Tinkercad design and am now in the process of making adjustments.   I'm going to attach it to my arm with Velcro and the small tab on the back will (hopefully) be able to hold the pen in place as I apply pressure to it while drawing.  The top of the device (the thing with the orange hole) will slide across the top of the device and I will glue it into place.  I took a spring out of a click pen and will use that to hold the tab in place.  Then, when the pen dies, the person just needs to press on the tab, lifting it from its previous position of blocking the hole and allowing the pen to slide out.

Right now, a lot of the parts I created are too small to print out properly, so I'm in the process of making them bigger and trying to get the back to actually work.