LEM Meat Grinder Replacement Washer

thingiverse

This is a replacement washer for the original LEM nylon washer for #5, 8 and 12 Big Bite meat grinders. I needed a replacement nylon washer for my LEM #5 meat grinder but found that LEM wants $5.99 for it. I thought this was too high so decided to try designing and printing one of my own. I just contacted LEM and they said on top of the $5.99 for the washer, they'd charge me $5.99 for shipping. That's ridiculous! $12 for a washer that probably costs them 5 cents to make. I am loving this printer - it's going to pay for itself in no time. So here are the OpenSCAD file and STL file. Dimensions are right on. I'll be testing it out soon. I printed it in PLA so I'm wondering how it will hold up compared to the original Nylon version - we'll see. Perhaps it would be better if I bought some PETG and printed using that instead? It only cost 11 cents to print one out, so I'd be happy if it lasted even 1/4th as long. I printed in "clear/transparent" PLA so it more closely resembles the original one. Print at 100% infill and .1 layer height for more strength (at least my intuition is telling me that .1 layer height is stronger than .2 layer height, but I could be wrong?). I did a dry run and it seems to be working fine. The first few passes it broke off a tiny amount of PLA plastic, but once it was properly broken in it isn't shedding anymore. It only shed a dozen dandruff-size flakes each time. Then it quit. It seems to be functioning like the original. I popped the original in right after and it seemed to behave the same.