Retrofit window opening bracket for old Navy facility

thingiverse

The large metal tongues on the windows at my workplace are equipped with a long boom that connects to a crank, allowing them to be opened and closed efficiently. This boom attaches to a pivot fitting, which is essentially a wide metal tongue accompanied by two auxiliary metal tabs. Unfortunately, most of these little metal tabs have vanished over time. I was tasked with replacing the missing metal tabs, but they proved too slender for effective 3D printing. In response, I devised a single large plastic component that envelops the wide metal tongue entirely. This part was printed using ColorFabb's nGen material and consisted of four continuous shells, eliminating the need for infill altogether. As a result, it is impressively robust. Fortunately, this solution works seamlessly, outperforming the original in several ways. Notably, it does not squeak, a common issue with the original design. If you happen to work on an ex-Navy base from the WWII era and encounter similar windows, you may face the same problem of missing metal tabs. In my opinion, what makes this project particularly noteworthy is that sometimes 3D printing can yield more impressive results when one takes a fresh approach to solving problems, rather than merely attempting a direct replacement for the missing part.