Pencil grip for people with disabilities

The story behind this model

My wife has a neurological progressive disorder that gives her limitations on things like having a strong grasp on objects. It's common in our house hearing something fall to the ground and most of the times break. When it comes to write down something it's a challenge, also when only she needs to sign some papers.

Her neurologist told her to buy some grips for pencils to have a more firm grasp, but unfortunately we didn't find any that fits her needs, so I took the measures of the best one, and started doing some tests, I bought my first TPU, but it's a 95A TPU which is pretty hard. But didn't give up and after about 80 tries, changing sizes, wall loops count, infill density and pattern, we ended up having the perfect solution for her.

…the story continues…

I had this bunch of test grips on my desk and my sister was visiting me, so she asked what are those colorful things on my desk. I told her all the story and she took them away. She works in a facility for special people with mental disorders or down syndrome. After a week she was back and told me a list of things she discovered after making her users try the grips. So, right now we're studying other solutions, but this one is good.

About the model

The model is intended to be used with standard pencils, it has a hole a little larger than the pencil, but 4 lines in the hole will have a strong grip on it.

The model is intended to be printed using TPU 95A, has only one wall and a 15% gyroid infill. Having only one wall you can see through it and look at the gyroid underneath.

You can opt for having two walls, but I suggest decreasing density to 8%.

Usage policy

If you print this for someone, please DON'T DO IT FOR MONEY. It's unethical. A single grip uses less that 5 grams TPU and takes very little time, so the cost is ridiculous.

If you know of any association that could benefit from this, print them some and gift them, consider it as charity.