Editorial: Ball joint arm alternatives?, We are guinea pigs & UwP 2023 Survey

Staff · Issue 130, Jan/Feb 2023 · pp. 4

Editorial Ball joint arm alternatives? I don’t know about you but I have to admit that I am not, and actually never have been, a fan of ball joint arms. Yes, I accept that they do quite a good job because they are very versatile in terms of length variety, positioning and rigidity, when tightened, but, in my defence, they need two hands to adjust them and they are highly snaggable. Try as might (and my garage shelves are a museum of tried and abandoned attempts) I have not been able to come up with a viable commercial alternative. All I have been able to come up with is a very simple and totally free way to make most of the existing designs much less snaggable. The solution is to unscrew the locking lever and simply turn it round and screw it back in. This results in a much lower profile which can still be easily clamped, even with gloves. It helps a lot but it doesn’t take away that nag…