One Touch Rip

Updated SUN  23 JUL 2023

I gave the second version to my mother-in-law for beta testing this morning.

I ordered some suction cups (they come tomorrow). and updated the base to have six mounting holes for the suction cups – those designs are in the “experimental” folder and (obviously) haven't been tested yet.

Updated TUE 18 JUL 2023

New arm flexes better and clips to base better.

Base has some fillets – otherwise the same.

Original in “version 1” folders.

Summary

The objective is to create a paper towel holder that you can use with one hand.

The inspiration is Oxo's design, except that I've had three of this break on me (including one that I gifted to my mother-in-law!).

And, for simplicity, I want to use a compliant mechanism.

And…it has to fit on a mini.

What to Print

You need 1 base and 1 arm.

There are two versions of the base – hollow and solid.  I only printed the hollow – it prints 40% faster than the solid.

Note: the bases are oriented upside down for printing

Assembly

It should be obvious how the arm connects to the base – there's only 1 way to do it.

It's a little hard to figure out how to get the pieces together (it took me about a minute, and I designed the thing), but I don't think instructions will make it easier.

Use

For one-handed use, the arm currently exerts too much pressure for the weight of the base.  The Oxo weighs about two 1.2 pounds, and this one comes out to about 25% of that.  So, it probably needs to be weighted or secured to work properly with only one hand.

The solid base is probably better if you want to secure it to a horizontal surface.