Discussion on prosthetic-user-repair-kit
Simon
years. One of the commonest issues I've encountered over the years is
harness failure in the suspension/activation harness for my below
elbow prosthesis, and the ridiculous costs of repairs at prosthetics
shops.
Almost every city/town in America of any significant size, and most in
Europe as well, have saddlery/harness making shops that cater to the
horse fanciers of the world. Every such shop has one or more persons
well accustomed to fabricating straps and articles from leather, and
every single one I've ever approached has been quite interested in the
notion of making harness pieces. I seldom darken the door of any
prosthetics shop for repairs of such minor nature, and have on a
couple of occasions had cause to approach such persons in cities I was
visiting when repairs were needed.
Another useful group of people I've known over the years has been
engineering students. While in college I needed a specialized
appliance of my own design for handling laboratory glassware
fabricated, and the local machine shops wanted ridiculous prices for
the work. So, I approached a professor of mechanical engineering at
the university, and he allowed me to present my problem to his
students to see if any were interested in making a fabrication project
out of it. Several were, and I ended up working on refining the
design, then fabricating it, with three of them in a collaborative
project. It worked very well for my purposes, and finishing touches
the students suggested improved its utility markedly. A surprise
benefit was that the cost of fabrication was covered by the university
as a student lab project.
I have designed other such specialty appliances for specific purposes
over the years, and students have always been a ready source of
assistance