This part repaired an important piece of equipment for Bush Landworks. A small plastic part inside the joystick of their Woodmizer LT70 broke. This is their primary piece of equipment and their production decreased significantly because the emergency repair make positioning the cutting head very difficult. Woodmizer does not provide a replacement for the individual part and replacing the entire joystick was going to cost ~$1000 and thousands for the lost production while waiting for and replacing the joystick. I was able to get them a printed replacement the next day and at 1/20th the cost.

As you can see from the cross sections above, there was a weak point designed into the original part where one section is much thinner than any other point of the piece. This was completely unnecessary as that grooved feature only exists to hold the bottom of a spring which forces the plastic piece down. Thickening that section slightly increases the downward pressure, but not to a detectable degree.

I started by measuring the broken part and creating a CAD model. I then modified the part to increase strength in the weak section and optimize it for 3D printing. The final part was printed out of Nylon to maintain reasonable wear resistance, but I also supplied a couple test pieces in PLA in case the piece in the other joystick broke and they needed something to hold them until I got another nylon print.

GrabCAD Model