Ball and Socket Connector with Clamp Ring

NOTE: This project has been superseded by: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1393617

I've been working on creating a flexible gooseneck for a webcam, and ended up trying to design a hollow ball and socket connector that could fulfill the purpose. My previous attempts using TPU resulted in a workable connector, but it came apart too easily. Making the connector out of PLA resulted in a hard connector that had its own problems, and still came apart too easily.

This is my latest solution. I created a ball and socket connector with grooves that allows the socket to expand just enough to stuff a ball in, and a retaining ring that snaps in place to keep the ball from popping back out.

Once snapped into place, the retaining ring spins freely, meaning that there is no stress on it that would lead to early failure. However, the ring prevents the socket from expanding enough for the ball to escape from the socket.

Just snap the ring back out and it once again becomes possible to