Latch Handheld Vacuum Cleaner

About this part

Printed in ABS to glue on instead of broken off peice (see pictures) Disclosure: This may be as much a repair as a 3D print of a new spare part. Explanation of the problem : The latch for the locking mechanism on the front half of my Electrolux ZB5112E Handheld vacuum cleaner had broken off and the part that broke off was nowhere to be found. Now the two halfes of the vacuum could no longer connect to each other. We solved it temporarily in the household by taping the halves together, but this quickly got tireing. I looked into what a new spare part would cost. I would have to buy a brand new front and had come to terms with the fact that I would have to spend basically half the cost of a brand new vacuum cleaner when I got an idea of how I could fix it. I didn't have the old part that had broken loose, but I looked at how the locking mechanism should work and I then started sketching in Fusion 360. The solution was a very simple 3D printed piece of plastic, printed in ABS with a small chamfer on it (see close up picture). When finished printing I glued on the 3D printed ABS piece using cyan acrylate (see from picture #4 to #6 for orientation of part and and widening of slot), I strengthened the joint with (the help of a little trick I saw on the Youtube channel "Tested" with the host, old Mythbuster, Adam Savage) a drop of quick glue on the surface you are going to glue, then sprinkle a tiny amount of baking soda on top of the drop, this causes the glue to immediately solidify. You can continue this process until you have built up as large a joint as you want. I intentionally designed it so that the glued part was a little too tight for the correspoding hook so that I could file it down with a file to get the fit tight (see picture #7 and #8 ), without any play when the two halves of the vacuum cleaner are connected.