Last summer a review for the FastCap tripod with roller was posted and had some product info that was wrong.  I posted a correction to the information. A few days later FastCap contacted me and thanked me for the correction and asked if I would be interested in a set of the Tripods with the Upper hands and the 12” Roller top for free. I already had purchased four 3rd hands and a case/bag and had just purchased a set of upper hands in a bag. The dealer only had one set of upper hands and I was waiting for another set to arrive.

Of course I said yes! They said to use them and report to them or post reviews as I saw fit. They stated they didn’t need credit for supplying or looking for a positive review if the product didn’t do what it should, just post honest reviews about the product was all they asked.

FastCap makes many products that can really save your bacon. A couple of years back I purchased the 3 rd Hands to hold in place upper cabinets, when the lower cabinets were not yet installed. If the lowers were installed I used some ¾ ply on top and some 24 inch push/pull bar clamps to hold and adjust the uppers.

I had to build and install some storage boxes mounted to a cement block walls in the garage. The boxes were built off the wall and had to be lifted in to place. The 3rd hands were too tall and everything we tried was either too tall or too short….  I was ready to cut down my 3rd hands when the Upper Hands were issued.  They saved my bacon …or should I say back! Lifting 200+ pound boxes and attaching them to the wall

The Tripod comes just as one tripod.  You will want to get a pair of them. You will need to add an Upper Hand or the taller 3 rd Hand to make them work. On first blush when the product arrived, I liked the concept but was left scratching my head about one of the parts.

The Tripod will work with the Upper Hand as is. It will also work with new 3 rd hands as is, or modified older 3rd Hands. More about that later.

The Upper Hands come with 6’x6’ fixed non – pivoting pads. The advantage to having them fixed is they will stand on their own and make some jobs a one person thing as you can have them set up and then set a cabinet on them and use the hand clamp adjusters to fine tune position.  Adding the Tripod to the Upper Hand gives you the following
1.   A more stable wider base
2.   Allows you to use attach the magnet laser accessory and have a free standing laser stand. But if you need to put the laser to the ceiling you will want to use the taller 3 rd Hand.
3.    Add the roll top and you have a very useful support for working with the Kapex or cutting sheet goods with a TS 55 or 75 on the MFT/3.
NOTE: These will not take the place of the Kapex side extensions if you are doing a lot of trim. But for a few cuts they work fine and can be used in other situations.

In image 14 you will see a black plug. This is the part that had me wondering what it was for.

The taller 3 rd Hand have pivoting pads. They snap on to a small black ball on both ends of the 3 rd Hands. The bottom ball end is on a threaded rod that screws in to a black plug that fits over the pipe and into the pipe. This black threaded fitting allows you to fine tune the length. This threaded plug is the old style plug and will not fit into the Tripod.

So I put two and two together and thought this must be for the 3 rd Hand threaded rods.  Now my first wife said I was good at screwing things up….so I thought to myself, I should be able to screw this up... well no… seems I can’t even screw things up anymore. It seems that the new plugs had the wrong threads or the new 3 rd Hands bottom adjustable threaded rods are different threads than the old ones.

I called FastCap and the plugs are meant to replace the old style plugs use in the 3 rd Hands. They sent more of the plugs to fix this.  When they came I though Hot Spit this will fix it. Well it seems I really am over my first wife and I knew she was wrong! I just can’t screw things up. For the life of me I could not get the threads to screw in and fit. I tried everything. I would ignore the little suckers and then sneak slowly up on them and wrestle them to the ground but the dang weaselly little things just would not have any of it. So after about 5 months of looking mean at them… I snuck up on my phone and called FastCap. The nice woman is going to send me a new set with the treaded rods already in them….  Who knows I might just make these work yet! The best part of this is it, just proved to me my ex-wife WAS wrong… did I just hear thunder?

Even without the right plugs, I was able to pull the plugs out of the 3 rd Hands and use them in the Tripod. It just would be faster not to have to pull and replace them every time.

After 6 months of use.  I don’t have any issues and find that I’m taking the along on more projects just in case as they are so helpful. As the Upper hands go from 28’ to 60” they even make nice block bars in the bed of a truck or from floor to ceiling to keep things from shifting. The original 3 rd Hands go from 57” to 144”.

As someone that was already an owner of 3 rd Hands and Upper hands. Adding the Tripod(s) and the Roller(s) are a no brainer. As they make the product more useful.

Depending what kind of work you do.  A set of Upper Hands and the Tripod(s) and the Roller(s) make a nice set of inexpensive supports for long material that can do more.

Buy the two back of Upper hands and you have a travel case that will keep everything ready to go.

Cheers,
Steve

Honeydokreg,

Yes I was the one that corrected a fact in your report. I'm total with you that they need to be in the arsenal of tools. They are very helpful for the guy that is working alone or with others.  I will add the little hand as that size if very helpful also.

Just in the last week:

I have used the Upper Hands for one man support under a heat exchanger inside of an HVAC unit to hold it in place while I disassembled the housing of the unit.

The org. Third hands were used to level two 16 foot LVLs, easy to move just a fraction of a mm to hit the laser line.

Used them also as out feed supports.

Also as horizontal supports to hold things against the wall while working on them.

Things that I have found are:

The magnet laser level fits the bottom diameter pole best and when you move up to the smaller (inside pole) it can't have both sides magnets touching the pole. Either a shim or one side hinged would solve that.

All so the tripod legs bottom center poll support has not clamping force to the pole so that can come out and create a unstable situation..... when you are moving and setting it up.  I wish the bottom pole support had a screw clamp like the top does.

Cheers,
Steve