Hold my stick

Overview

This is my entry in the Travelling category for the Build2gether Inclusive Innovation Challenge.

"What were the needs or pain points that you attended to and identified when you were solving problems faced by the Contest Masters?"

At times in my life I have needed to walk and commute with a stick, so I decided to look at my own experiences to identify a real life problem to solve. One of the issues I had while travelling on a crowded train was that I needed three hands, one to hold the train to stop me falling over, one to hold my phone, and the third to hold my stick.

I do appreciate that in the general scheme of things this is not a big problem, but it is a problem that would have improved my life in the past if it was solved. Yes I could could just not use my phone, but why should I not have access to the same technology as everyone else. I could rest the stick somewhere, but if it falls, and it does, it results in the very embarrassing situation of needing to ask a fellow traveller to pick it up for me. I could also not hold on to the train, but that would not end well.

My solution is so simple I am embarrassed to enter it into the competition. It is a simple clip that allows me to stow my stick on my belt.

I say simple, the design is perhaps a little more advanced than most hacks. I will go into some details about the design below.

Material selection

The hook itself needs to be soft enough to grip the stick and bend rather than break. It needs to not have sharp edges so it can not harm or hurt. I also need to make it, so it needs to be a material I can create in the workshop or print with a 3D printer. With this in mind I have decided to use a 3D printed TPU that is flexible enough to absorb force and flex instead of breaking itself, or breaking me.

One issue with using TPU is that it is more flexible than I would like and the clip may flex, or it could fall off my belt. It is this flexibility that makes it a good fit for the problem so we can not change that, but I can work around the problem. Inside the clip where it goes over the belt, we can insert a stronger part to add the strength where it is needed. For this I intend to use PET-G that is strong. It flexes just a little to prevent it from shearing, but adds strength where it is needed.

Printing

The PET-G part is easy to print. We can simply invert it and it will print without any support. For the prototype I have used a 60% material fill, but with hidesite 35% would have been more than adequate.

The TPU part is more tricky. If we print it the correct way up there will be a thin overhang that may bridge across without support. If we print it inverted we will need to use a support structure that will be removed, but any marks left will be hidden inside the part. In the end I added a fillet to the overhang to give it a better chance of bridging, and that worked.

The colour chosen was because I did not want it to stand out, but then I used red for the PET-G insert to make it pop, so I am nothing if not contradictory. The colour does not matter. Just pick a colour that works for you. :-).

Assembly

After printing the two parts simply slide the PET-G part inside the TPU part and press down from the top. That is the clip assembled.

If your stick is like mine there is a little plastic ring that can be eased off, and pressing in the stud then allows the top to be removed. Slide the clip on to the top remembering the gap needs to be at the bottom. The design should grip the pole, but be loose enough to slide up and down when twisted.

The results

In the end it works, and it works well.

It is a little fiddly to hoop over the belt when wearing some trousers because the top of them is the same height as the top of the belt, but I can live with that, and it is fine with most trousers. I may try to evolve the design to make this easier.