Remix of Meat Slicer Retainer Bolt and Nut

thingiverse

I am sharing a reworked version of my personal model for a replacement retention bolt for the blade on my meat/bread slicer. As per your request, I have created an updated model of the second part of the retention mechanism: the nut/axle. Unfortunately, I was unable to design the part to perfectly match the threads on my initial model to mimic the factory-supplied nut. As a result, I changed the threads to a different size (13/16 - 12) and applied that change to both bolts as well. Both bolt styles are included here. I have fully printed all parts to ensure they fit in place and fit together correctly, and I am pleased to report that they do. Please remember that the bolt is left-hand threaded ('righty loosey', 'lefty tighty'). You MUST print either bolt in order to work with this part. Then, you can thread it partly. It will feel hard to turn. To get the two parts to wear each other's thread surfaces smooth, slowly rock it back and forth. DO NOT force it on in one go. Do not attempt to do this with the nut/axle mounted in the machine. Instead, do this by hand. It takes a while, so take your time. You may need to spend 20 to 30 minutes carefully working it back and forth. Take them apart every so often and blow out the dust you are creating. As shown in photos, mine is mounted in my machine, bolted in correctly, and the blade fits fine with no wobble. I am going to leave mine in there for now and keep my factory nut in storage in case I need to swap back. I have included the Fusion 360 design files as well, in case you want to modify it or learn Fusion 360 by tweaking parameters and seeing how they impact the model. Material choices: PLA is okay for printing this as a practice run to see if it fits and you can make the threads loosen up. However, PLA is porous and has gaps that bacteria can get into. Want to see for yourself? Take any PLA part (preferably clear or white) and drop it into a cup of coffee (cold is fine) for half an hour or so. Nylon would probably be a better idea, or maybe PET-G... I don't have either and my printer may not be able to do Nylon. I leave it up to you to make your own choice on safety and preventing bacterial growth. Do not consider trying to coat this in a food-safe epoxy, as that will likely gum up the threads. If you know otherwise, feel free to pursue as you desire. You can always tweak the threads to change their type and gap. Print the nut portion with supports. Print the bolt without them (threads facing up). You can print both parts at once in Cura 4.2.1, using the new ability to give each part its own settings. Support for the nut, not on the bolt. There are three alignment pin notches on the bottom of the nut. Make sure you clean those out of any supports left in them, and sand the bottom smooth of any support debris.