If you’ve ever had surgery, you know one of the most painful and annoying things is figuring out how to bathe without hurting yourself too badly. When I had gallbladder removal surgery, I ran into an annoying problem: I’m a short guy and the shower wand attaches to the main faucet, which is way above my head. I would need to stretch to grab it, which was painful.

The article author, Tom, standing in a shower, fully clothed. He is reaching towards a shower head that has a separate wand attachment near the main faucet head. He has an exaggerated pain expression as he reaches for the wand ineffectually. An accessible waterproof shower seat is to his right. This image humorously illustrates the pain he would have to endure if he wanted to reach the shower wand.

The article author, Tom, sitting on an accessible waterproof shower seat, fully clothed. He is easily grabbing a shower wand attached to the shower grab bar with a 3D printed part. He is smiling and giving a “thumbs up” gesture. This image is illustrating the 3D printed part as a solution to the previous image.

My buddy, Salem, always says that one of the main superpowers of 3D printing was gaining the ability to stick things to other things. So that’s just what I did.

I took measurements of the grab bar and a bunch of reference photos. Then I modeled a simple bracket that I printed in PETG. This is the latest version of the bracket. The original didn’t have the secondary hook, so the whole mount tended to rotate around the main grab bar. This version is a bit better in that regard. Not perfectly stable, but it doesn’t have to be. Its very much “good enough”.

Out of everything I’ve designed and printed, this piece is my all-time favorite (so far). The design is simple-enough and I was able to use open-source tools to solve a painful problem I was experiencing. Today I don’t need the mount, but I still use it for the sheer convenience (much like curb cuts). Accessibility doesn’t need to be hard or expensive, we just have to be a bit more clever than the default.

Shower Wand Grab Bar Mount Pictures

Source Files and CAD

Feel free to use the source CAD and files however you want, its all Public Domain, but I’d like to issue a light warning first: The CAD is rough. The design is parametric, but annoying to actually edit. This was my first more-complex-than-sticking-cubes-together CAD project and I’ve learned a lot since building this. It kinda sucks to edit, but I figured it may be somewhat helpful to someone in the future.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/ddf2cdc7fdc8326141fe9300/w/6087830b46d9750ca0017fc4/e/6ea5e739f9db7d1aafc204af?renderMode=0&uiState=6740cc83687bd540b1895b8f Document

Shower Handle Bracket_v2.1.0.stl

Shower Handle Bracket_v2.1.0.step

License: Public Domain

This article, all model files (STLs), CAD sources (STEP files), and images are Public Domain / CC0. You can use these files and this information however you want, whenever, and wherever you want.

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