Brush Whiskers by dj_mckeown

Last crawled date: 4 years, 2 months ago

The design is for steadying your hand while painting or drawing. It allows the artist to rest their paint brush or pencil on the page while keeping the tip off the canvas, until a small amount of pressure is applied. It is called a brush whiskers as they allow the artist to feel the page a bit like a cats whiskers.
The design was originally created by me (David McKeown) for the Irish version of the TV programme "Big Life Fix" to help a woman with MS steady her hand while painting. I've sharing it here so others can get benefit from the design.
Printing and assembly:
The design was created by me (David McKeown) for the Irish version of the TV programme "Big Life Fix" to help a woman with MS steady her hand while painting. I'm sharing the design here so it might be the help to others.
Assembly & parts list - (some affiliate links)
Each Brush Whisker is made up of two parts. The bottom part is the same for all brush whiskers. The top part is one of five different sizes, depending on the size of the brush you wish to attach it to.
For assembly it requires one m3 bolt (8mm) and one m3 nut. These attached the brush/pen/pencil to the brush whisker. I bought a set (https://amzn.to/2X4YOk3)
but you can probably find just what you need in a local hardware shop.
The 10mm pearl coloured hemispheres at the end of the forks were purchased at a discount store (basically these https://amzn.to/2Uz0ksW) The are self-adhesive beads (except I superglued them on, because the adhesive is week). You can sub in some other smooth bead or try print them and sand them smooth so they glide on the page.
For the springiness of the bottom part you need to use the right filament. I found PLA is too stiff, TPU/TPE too soft. I used Real Flex filament (https://amzn.to/340ZGYB) which is a good balance of stiffness and is easy to print with. Put supports on, it pops out easy.
The top parts can be made from PLA or whatever you like. Printed with supports on with one end of the tube on the print bed.
I printed them on an Anycubic I3 Mega S (https://amzn.to/2w94Ftz) but any reasonable printer should be up to it.