Flexible hanging support for heavy SDS drill

[Mike Halmarack]

Nearly sixty years ago, when I spent some time on building sites, I was given a Kango hammer and told to hack off some unwanted protrusions on a vertical concrete area. After about 10 minutes I was done in. So I got a piece of waste cable and tied one end to a scaffold pole above and the other end to the Kango. Adjusting as I went, I spent most of the rest of the day completing the job with relative ease.

---------- The Foredom machines with a flexible drive can take a wood carving attachment with interchangeable chisels. But its a well pricey bit of kit and it's easy to knacker the flexible drive by putting too tight a curve on it.

------------ I bought a fairly cheap and heavy SDS drill from Screwfix. I also bought a set of old carving chisels from eBay and I want to fix the chisels to the hammering SDS drill. I can see how to do that.

What I'm hoping to come up with is a base platform with a sturdy post. Then a sort of horizontal outrigger on the top which will hold a dangling spring of just the right length and strength to take the weight of the machine. This so I can wiggle the business end about with some ease and precision.

Does anyone know if there's an existing, commercially available piece of support kit like the one I've tried to describe?

Alternatively, any suggestions on where I could find the dangling springy component?

[newshound]

I was looking for springs (vaguely) similar to make a "scratcher brush" for equines (commercial cow scratchers are available, but a bit pricy). There seemed to be a shortage of suitable springs.

But in your case, where you only have to hang the object you could easily engineer something suitable using bungee cord.

[alan_m]

Heavy duty gate or door springs which are adjustable (farm gate type).

[Mike Halmarack]

Bungee cord! Never thought of that. Less likely to get pinched by it too. Thanks.

[Mike Halmarack]

Thank. I'll look into that. Maybe as a combination to adjust length.

[williamwright]

I always used bungees for this. I used to use a Bosch GBH 24 VRE drill a lot, up a ladder.

Bill

[John Rumm]

There are a number of rucksack style support harnesses for taking the weight of hedge trimmers etc. Some are fairly pricey though:

[Thomas Prufer]

"Spring Loaded Retractable Balancer"

which finds such troves of search terms as: "Spring loaded balancer with 150 cm cable and hook for factory and workshop, retractable self-locking spring pull, 9-15 kg/15-22 kg/22-30 kg (size: 9 to 15 kg)"

The ones to 2 kg are about 25 EUR...

Thomas Prufer

[Clive Arthur]

<snipped>

You could always use a rope, pulley(s) and weight. Just be wary of this...

A constant force spring (like a coiled up steel tape measure) would be nice, but probably pricey.

[newshound]

:-) How did I know that was going to be Hoffnung!

Not necessarily, as pointed out by Mr Prufer

[Mike Halmarack]

This Elephant trunk idea looks great, thanks. Without the harness and high price tag would be even better. Now I'm thinking a suitably strong and flexible sapling fitted into a worktop, combined with the previously mentioned bungees. A bit like an old pole lathe setup.

[Mike Halmarack]

Sounds well worth looking into, thanks.

[Mike Halmarack]

Yet more interesting possibilities. Thanks

[Mike Halmarack]

Such a compact and specific possible solution too.