3D Printed Articulated Finger Extensions
3D Printed Articulated Finger Extensions
by dragonator
Creepy and intricate, I have always loved seeing the articulated nger extensions. Recently I decided that I wanted a set
of my own to match a previous project. Not content with what was already out there, I decided to make my own design.
The project shared here is my current prototype. It does not yet meet all my requirements in regards to looks, but it is
already fully functional and can be made by anyone interested.
Supplies:
Tools:
A 3D printer
A craft knife
A lighter
A drill
A 1mm drill
A 1.75mm or 1.8mm drill
If a drill is not possible, a piece if iron wire of 1,5-1.8mm will also work. See "Preparing" step
(Calipers)
Why did I make this? First of all, because I can and they are awesome.
My rst encounter with the articulated nger mechanism was when I saw them on Tested ( video) where Adam Savage
showcased them. As is often the case, I vaguely remember it, and rediscover it later with more passion.
A few weeks ago was when I got that passion. I wanted to make a set. Preferably one that matched the 3D printed scales I
already have (link to scales). I started looking around the internet to nd existing plans. Why design something that
already exists. Gary Fey, the creator of the vingers in the rst video only sells the ngers themselves. There were 2
reasonable options.
The rst option was on thingiverse. These nger extensions were more closely resembling the model by Gary Fey, using a
pulling system on the top of the nger (more in the next step). It is designed to be as compact as possible, and the be
reskinned with another le. It is brilliantly compact, seems to work well, and should be a decent print. It was also one I did
not try myself, because I found something else rst.
The second is a model you have to pay for on Cults3d. It is a design that has the style in the part itself. In my case, robot,
but there is also dragon and skeleton. It is a pusher system which is a bit limiting in the movement, and places push bars
on the inside of the hand. My nger can only move by 45 degrees for the full movement of the extension. I printed a
single nger. While it was somewhat optimized for 3D printing, it was a supported print. It also tended to bind a bit
because of how the linkages are placed. The style did not really match with anything I wanted, but that is not a valid
complaint. There was no real information on the dimensions, so I had to print a random size and hope. It worked fairly
okay, but I would have wanted better measurements to determine what I needed to print.
The basic idea of the nger extensions is that it takes the movement of your nger, and extends it to several more joints.
The movement of the rst 2 sections (from the right) are used to move the next 2 sections of nger.
On the rst joint there is a linkage that is attached to the leftmost section of the nger. This linkage goes into a gear set
that inverts the movement so it goes the right way. A linkage is used to convey the movement from the middle of the
mechanism to the tip of the mechanism.
I have included images and a gif to hopefully give a good overview of how it works.
There are a few design choices that I do want to share with the people making this mechanism. These will hopefully help
people understand some of the choices I made, and maybe aid people trying to design this themselves.
Orientation of all parts
One of the main reasons to make my own design is to try and make it support free. This means that all parts cannot have
overhangs greater than roughly 45 degrees, and only short bridges. Given that all ngers have some sort of linkage
running through them, this kind of forces me to print all nger related parts upright. Printing them on the side would
give di cult bridges to print. The ring at the base of the nger also needs to accommodate the almost 90 degree motion
of the nger itself, forcing it to have a 45 degree angle. The same goes for all other nger joints, which need to move past
each other. In order to keep the design itself calm, I wanted all nger joints printed in the same orientation. I went with
55 degrees. This makes it simpler to print due to limited overhang, and gives all joints room to move 90 degrees. All gears
and linkages are printed at on the bed. The joint right after the gears was split up into 3 pieces in order to make it
printable.
Wire hinge
The rst hinge around the nger is the most challenging part of the design. While most hinges on the extensions have
width available to them, around the nger there is a nger in the way. There are also up to two ngers, one on each side,
sitting very close to the hinge. This forces the hinge to be fairly narrow. I rst tried making the hinge as a conventional
hinge (as seen in the photo). This hinge was still quite large, fragile, and di cult to print.
The nger extensions take the movement of the nger, and extend it to several more joints. Getting this movement from
the nger to the rst joint is the biggest challenge. Some sort of linkage is used to convey the movement. The linkage
needs from one side of your hand to the other in order to pull the nger in the right direction. This crossing is easy
through the mechanism, but around the nger itself it is di cult, since there is a nger there. If the linkage moves 1cm,
there needs to be a 1cm gap after the ngertip for the linkage to move.
Gear mechanism that Gary Fey uses solves part of this problem. It makes it so that the linkage has both joints on the top
of the nger. The gear inverts the movement before passing it to the next joint. This gearing takes space as well, but the
linkage can be more compact and generally takes less space the passing the linkage to the other side of the hand.
To get the right size of nger, you will need to measure your hand. The easiest way is to use a calipers to measure the
indicated spots of the nger. You measure by placing the calipers over the indicated spot and have it barely touching.
Make sure you do not squeeze the nger. This will make you measure too small a value. All dimensions are in millimeters.
For the thicknesses you want the thickest parts at the indicated points, usually plus 1mm to have some
clearance.
For the width you measure the width of the widest part, plus around 1mm. You need to exclude the
webbing of your nger, the part moves around your webbing.
For the length you measure the distance between the middle of the wrinkles of your ngers and the very
end of the tip of the nger. Here you add at least 2mm, because a nger becomes longer when it bends.
3D Printed Articulated Finger Extensions: Page 14
Adding 1mm to width and thickness is important. This design binds easily to the nger, making it di cult to remove from
a nger. My rst prototype almost needed to be cut open to remove it, even though it t perfectly.
The dimensions you need for a single nger are:
1. "Base thickness": The thickness of the base of the nger
2. "Base Width": The width of the base of the nger
3. "Base length": The length to the rst joint + around 2mm
4. "Joint thickness": The thickness of the rst joint
5. "Joint width": The width of the rst joint
6. "tip thickness": The thickness of the tip (around the nail)
7. "Tip width": The width of the tip (around the base of the nail)
8. "Tip length": The length from the rst joint to the tip + around 2mm
Since each nger is based on the same le, the dimensions will be included in the lename. All given dimensions are in
millimeters in the lename, in the order of the list above, so the lename will be constructed:
AFE-Finger-T#1-W#2-L#3-T#4-W#5-T#6-W#7-L#[Link]
or
AFE-Thumb-T#1-W#2-L#3-T#4-W#5-T#6-W#7-L#[Link]
My index nger for instance is: AFE-Finger-T22-W21-L31-T21-W21-T15-W17-L55
What sizes are available
Finger:
AFE-Finger-T15-W15- L28-T13-W14-T11-W12-L36 (27-03-2022)
AFE-Finger-T15-W16.5-L19-T13-W14.5-T11-W12-L39 (10-10-2021)
AFE-Finger-T16-W16.5-L24.5-T16-W16-T12-W14-L46 (10-10-2021)
AFE-Finger-T16-W17.5-L21-T15-W17-T12-W14-L43 (20-12-2020)
AFE-Finger-T16.5-W18-L20.5-T15-W16-T11.5-W13.5-L39.5 (11-04-2021)
AFE-Finger-T16.5-W17.5-L23-T16-W17-T13-W16-L42 (11-08-2021)
AFE-Finger-T17-W18-L24-T16.5-W17.5-T12.5-W14.5-L48 (11-04-2021)
AFE-Finger-T17.5-W17.5-L33-T16-W17.5-T12.5-W14-L50 (10-10-2021)
AFE-Finger-T17.5-W18.5-L24-T17-W18-T13-W15-L48 (20-12-2020)
AFE-Finger-T18-W17-L18-T17-W16-T14-W15-L38 (27-03-2022)
AFE-Finger-T18-W19-L26.5-T18-W19-T14-W16-L46.5
AFE-Finger-T18-W19-L28-T16.5-W17.5-T12-W14.5-L46 (10-10-2021)
AFE-Finger-T18-W20-L29.5-T18-W20-T14-W16-L51.5
AFE-Finger-T18.5-W19.5-L29-T18-W19-T14-W17-L51 (20-12-2020)
AFE-Finger-T18.5-W21-L24.5-T18-W20.5-T13.5-W17-L56.5 (11-08-2021)
AFE-Finger-T19-W18-L23-T17-W17-T14-W14-L35 (27-03-2022)
AFE-Finger-T19-W18-L26-T18-W18-T13-W15-L48
AFE-Finger-T19-W19-L22-T19-W19-T15-W15-L40 (27-03-2022)
AFE-Finger-T20-W20-L24-T17-W19-T13-W16-L46 (30-10-2021)
AFE-Finger-T20.5-W22.5-L27.5-T17.5-W18.5-T13-W16-L46 (11-04-2021)
AFE-Finger-T20.5-W21.8-L31-T20-W21.5-T15.5-W18.5-L56 (11-08-2021)
AFE-Finger-T21-W18.5-L28-T17-W18-T13.5-W15.5-L50.5 (11-04-2021)
AFE-Finger-T21-W20-L29-T20.5-W21-T15-W17-L55
AFE-Finger-T21-W22-L27-T19-W20-T13.5-W17-L48 (20-12-2020)
3D Printed Articulated Finger Extensions: Page 15
AFE-Finger-T21-W22-L30-T21-W22-T17-W19-L53
AFE-Finger-T21-W23-L34-T21-W23-T17-W19-L59
AFE-Finger-T21-W25-L28-T20-W22-T15-W18-L58 (30-10-2021)
AFE-Finger-T22-W20-L37-T22-W22-T15-W17-L59
AFE-Finger-T22-W21-L31-T21-W21-T15-W17-L55
AFE-Finger-T23-W26-L25-T20-W22-T16-W19-L48 (26-09-2021)
AFE-Finger-T24-W23-L20-T20-W22-T17-W19-L46 (03-10-2021)
AFE-Finger-T24-W25-L30-T21-W22-T13-W17-L56 (30-10-2021)
AFE-Finger-T24-W25-L34-T24-W25-T20-W22-L59
AFE-Finger-T24-W26-L31-T20-W24-T15-W18-L62 (30-10-2021)
AFE-Finger-T25-W22-L31-T21-W22-T16-W20-L55 (26-09-2021)
AFE-Finger-T25-W26-L38-T25-W26-T20-W22-L67
AFE-Finger-T26-W28-L25-T24-W26-T17-W21-L52 (03-10-2021)
AFE-Finger-T29-W24-L23-T26-W24-T18-W20-L53 (03-10-2021)
AFE-Finger-T30-W27-L26-T25-W26-T17-W20-L57 (03-10-2021)
Thumb:
AFE-Thumb-T19.5-W20-L23.5-T18-W21-T15-W20-L31.5 (11-04-2021)
AFE-Thumb-T20-W19-L26-T19-W19.5-T19-W14-L34.5 (10-10-2021)
AFE-Thumb-T20-W21-L18-T18-W21-T15-W19-L18 (27-03-2022)
AFE-Thumb-T21.5-W19-L23-T18-W16-T15-W13.5-L32
AFE-Thumb-T21.5-W24-L25.5-T18-W20-T15-W17-L36
AFE-Thumb-T24-W25-L26-T19-W23-T15-W20-L34 (20-12-2020)
AFE-Thumb-T24-W30-L30-T20-W25-T17-W21-L41.5
AFE-Thumb-T24.5-W27-L35-T20-W23-T17.5-W23.5-L36 (11-08-2021)
AFE-Thumb-T25-W28-L33-T20-W24-T16-W21-L38 (30-10-2021)
AFE-Thumb-T25-W29-L27.5-T21-W24-T17.5-W20-L38.5
AFE-Thumb-T26-W28-L34-T20-W23-T14-W20-L41
AFE-Thumb-T26-W30-L32-T25-W26-T20-W25-L40 (03-10-2021)
AFE-Thumb-T30-W39.5-L32-T25-W33-T21-W27.5-L44.5
Given that I have no good database of hand dimension, and only have my own thin long hands as reference, I have made
a guesstimate of some sizes that might be useful. If a size close enough is not on the list, for the rst while after this
project I will be creating new les on demand. Give the list of dimensions that you need and I will make it. Do however
look if there is not already a le which matches yours fairly closely (1-2mm too big ts just ne) since I do not plan to
make creating new hand les my full time hobby. Also do give me a few days to make the les, I do also lead a life.
(Be aware that since most models are automatically generated, they may have mistakes. I try to catch most of them, but I
cannot guarantee that all les work perfectly. If you encounter a le that works poorly let me know and I will x it)
As mentioned before, all parts are supportless. Any printer capable of overhangs of 45 degrees should be able to print
the parts for a nger. I printed mine on a Prusa Mk2s. A single nger takes around 4 hours to print at 0.2mm layer height
and takes around 30-40g of lament (10-12m). A thumb prints faster at 2,5 hours.
Lower layer heights should give you a better printing experience at the angles of the parts. This will increase the print
time however. Also, some parts have only a small amount of surface stuck to the printbed. I myself print on gluestick,
even though I have a PEI bed. I do not know how these parts print if you have poor bed adhesion.
It is important to keep all parts of a le together after printing. There are no identi cations on the parts, and size
di erences can be small. I keep all parts in separate bins after printing and assemble one nger at a time.
Getting the les
For now I have included the les with this instructable. I will probably nd another place to stash them if I get more sizes,
but they will remain available for free.
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The wire holes on the parts around the ngers need to be drilled with a 1mm (or similar) drill. Here it is wise not to go the
full depth in one go. This will ll the drill with plastic and either break the drill or the part. Drill several millimeters at a
time, and then take out the drill and remove all loose plastic.
3D Printed Articulated Finger Extensions: Page 23
The parts might have an elephant foot (a squashed rst layer) that can hinder the operation of the extension. Use a knife
to carefully remove this. Especially the gears need to be cleaned, since these will need to mesh properly.
All the holes that will have lament hinges and pins in them need to be reamed to 1.75-1.8mm. If you have a 1.8mm drill
or reamer, use that to open the holes to the right diameter. On the gears, linkages, and hinges, a piece of lament needs
to rotate smoothly without binding or big clearance.
Since most people do not have a 1.8mm drill or reamer (including me) there are some alternatives. You can take a 1.5mm
drill that is more common, and move that around the hole to open it up. You can also try to nd a piece of metal tube or
wire of the right diameter and mount that in a drill. In plastic you can make holes with friction alone.
I found a mousetrap with a wire diameter of around 1.6mm. I cut of a piece of wire that I could t in my drill. I pressed the
tip of this wire in a vice to make a wider tip. This created a tip of around 1.8mm which I used to ream all holes.
(If you are desperate you can use a 2mm drill, but this makes the mechanism very sloppy)
The parts in the ngers hinge around 1.75mm lament. However this needs to be xed in place. The easiest way to do
this is to melt the pins in place.
After a pin is inserted, have 1-2mm on each side sticking beyond that part. You can now use a lighter to heat up the end
of the lament. This end can catch re. When it does, it is guaranteed to be molten. Remove the ame, blow out the re
and deform the pin into place.
You can either deform the end of the lament with a wet nger, or a piece of metal. When you touch the end, it should
set almost instantly.
WARNING! You will be melting plastic with an open ame and deforming it. Make sure the parts do not catch re and that
molten plastic does not hit anything important (like your hands). Doing this wrong can lead to burns.
The thumb does not need it's own instructions. The wire hinge and gear mechanism is a one to one match with the
normal nger. The only di erence is that there is no linkage and no hinge after the gear. This is where the thumb ends.
You can print a thumb sized nger and use that as a thumb. However, in real life, the thumb only has 2 joints as well, so it
is more realistic.
Imagine printing the nger extensions and they don't t quite right. What can you do if that happens?
Making parts bigger
Simply printing the parts too small cannot be xed. Sadly a ring several millimeters too small cannot really be stretched
that much. However, there might be sections that need to be moved a little. Hands have odd shapes. The front 2 pieces
are thin walled and can be altered with a lighter.
Simply heating the wall you want to move with a lighter for around 5-10 seconds makes the part malleable enough to be
moved several millimeters. Be aware that the part becomes incredibly hot and easily burns skin.
In my case, the back ring was pressing against the knuckles. Some heat of a lighter allowed me to move these sections up
slightly, making the nger much more comfortable. The thumb actually required me to move every thin walled section
to make it properly t.
Making parts smaller
You should be printing the parts slightly bigger than you think you need them. However this leaves you with parts
potentially too big. Any part too big can be lled with felt, fabric or strips of plastic to make them t. If you already wear
these over gloves, adding extra fabric should be easy.
By default the ngers do not stay in place properly. They tend to slide forward, a bit, and if you hold your ngers down
the nger can fall o . Most people add some sort of wrist strap that holds all ngers in place.
The ngers themselves have 2 holes in them to mount some sort of elastic. In my case I had no elastic thin enough to t
through there, so I zip tied them in place.
For a wrist strap I used a velcro strap I had, and ran the elastic through there. It is a rough looking solution, but it does
work.
The strap cuts into my skin, making it uncomfortable. Also the zip ties look out of place and also push into my knuckles.
Anyone making this might bene t from making a softer wrist strap and using thinner elastic that ts through the holes.
The reason I did not spend much time on the strap is because I intend to integrate the nger extensions into a set of arm
guards that can function as the wrist strap.
I have several ideas on what I can do (or what others can do) in the future with this design.
The rst is to design the parts themselves to match certain style. I myself want a sort of dragon claw for the extensions to
match the scales I already have. I can imagine that there are more styles where this would work. If you integrate the style
with the frame of the extension, it can be made lighter. Some designs like bones are not really suitable for parametric
design in Solidworks, but the les can be exported to a polygonal design program and the nice design added there. I can
hopefully get a friend of mine to help me with the design I would like.
Taking inspiration from the design over on Thingiverse, you can also design skins that t over the extensions. This does
mean more weight, but leaves people more exible in how to design them. I did however make the dimensions of the
extensions variable in the design, so at this moment there is not a universal design for which skins can be designed. If
there is enough interest I can look into locking the extension dimensions so that skins can be made for this.
Hi you file looks amazing, can you help me with this dimesions for my daughter thank you
AFE-Thumb-T20-W21-L18-T18-W21-T15-W19-L15
AFE-Finger-T19-W18-L23-T17-W17-T14-W14-L35
AFE-Finger-T19-W19-L22-T19-W19-T15-W15-L40
AFE-Finger-T18-W17-L18-T17-W16-T14-W15-L38
I made it.
Hello.
thank you for your great work. I have tried to print several articulated fingers and yours are by far
the best. I specially like the wire hinge and the support free printing.
My daughter really wants a set, so if you are still making new sizes, we will be very grateful if you
can make STL files for:
AFE-Finger-T18-W19-L28-T16,5-W17,5-T12-W14,5-L46
AFE-Finger-T17.5-W16.5-L33-T16-W17.5-T12.5-W14-L50
AFE-Finger-T16-W16.5-L24.5-T16-W16-T12-W14-L46
AFE-Finger-T15-W16.5-L19-T13-W14,5-T11-W12-L39
AFE-Thumb-T20-W19-L26-T16-W19.5-T19-W14-L34.5
I have added clearance to all measurements, so it should be print sizes.
Thanks in advance
Your dimensions have been added
thanks a million
Hi,
Thanks for sharing your work, I've been trying to create articulated fingers since getting my
printer but can never find anything that fits the dimensions of my fingers.
If you could please create the models for my sizes below I would very much appreciate it.
Do you have anything like patreon or any other way I can contribute to your work, or maybe I
could make a donation to your favourite charity?
Thanks in advance :)
Thumb: AFE-Finger-T26-W30-L32-T25-W26-T20-W25-L40
Index Finger: AFE-Finger-T26-W28-L25-T24-W26-T17-W21-L52
Middle Finger: AFE-Finger-T30-W27-L26-T25-W26-T17-W20-L57
Ring Finger: AFE-Finger-T29-W24-L23-T26-W24-T18-W20-L53
Little Finger: AFE-Finger-T24-W23-L20-T20-W22-T17-W19-L46
EDIT: I just noticed a previous comment about the source files being unavailable, is there any way
I can get those files?
I have added the 3D prints to the Ible.
For getting the files contact me through the contact form on my website
([Link] I do no think instructables can attach files to messages.
i really appreciate your work, but in the Solidworks source files there're some missing parts, i will
be very thankful if you could reupload them.
What appears to be missing? I have looked at the files, but everything just seems to be there.
Bear in mind that a lot of the features are configured into the parts and assemblies.
AFE-P05 is missing for me.
I appear to have looked over that file. The link is now updated on the page and is below.
[Link]
Thank you :)
Brilliant! I created a similar solution decades ago using thin wood like popsicle sticks and also
rubberbands. In my case, I had a long board that extended up the forearm and strapped on there.
Here is a very rough photo...
That is a great photo. Thanks for sharing. Could you actually move the hands in this costume?
Hi dragonator! This is top class work, in my view: super detailed and clear diagrams/photos, with
very clear written explanations. A great resource to use, adapt and develop. Especially helpful
are the finger measurements and the linkages shown. Thanks very much! :D
Superb mechanism........nice work......
Ooh! Thanks for posting these files, can't wait to try them out! I too saw the Tested video and
hoped someone would make these printable