Switch Repair for Olympia ECS71 Paper Shredder

Back in around 2012 or 13, I bought an Olympia ECS71 CCD document shredder from Lidl. Since then, it has performed sterling work, despite occasional misuse by someone who shall remain nameless (but might possibly be me).

Sometime in late 2018, something failed, and there was no shredding despite the motor racing away lustily. Naturally I did what any practical minded DIYer would do, and dismantled it - secretly hoping, of course, that it would be something suitable for 3D design and printing, like a gear or a bearing holder.

But, when I came to remove the covers from the mechanism, the case halves wouldn't separate. The trouble was that the switch was still holding it all together, and it refused to let go using reasonable pressure. I tried levering gently, to no avail. There was nothing for it, and I had to resort to levering forcefully. The case still carries the scars that resulted to this day, and they're visible in the attached picture of the switch hole! But I was finally able to persuade it to give up its death grip, so that I could carry out my diagnosis at last.

The shredder fault turned out to be nothing more elaborate than the motor screws working loose over time, causing the motor to separate from the drive mechanism. This was swiftly sorted with some Loctite and a screwdriver, with no need for 3D printing anything :'c .

But when I came to reassemble the unit, I realised that my "brute force and ignorance" (TM BigCliveDotCom) approach had resulted in the flimsy retaining clip on the switch breaking off: As usual, the saving of a fraction of a penny's worth of plastic - making it effectively into 3 flimsy 1.5mm clips - had created a weak spot. If you look at the picture of the switch, you will see three thin fingers that are all that remains of the the original clip mechanism.

I was actually grateful for this economising by the manufacturers for once, as I doubt if I'd have got the shredder apart without it.

At the time, I simply popped the broken switch lever loosely back onto the shredder, and used it that way thereafter. But the damn thing was forever falling off, or getting sucked up in the vacuum cleaner, and driving me nuts whenever I used it.

Then, as I got into my 3D printer, I made a few attempts to design a replacement switch lever. But the complicated intercepting angles and compound curves involved always defeated me, and I ended up just carrying on with the switch lever as it was - accepting that it would be making the occasional bolt for freedom at the most inconvenient of times.

Until Today. As we're under virus lockdown at the moment, I was able to devote a little more thought to the problem. It didn't take too long to realise I'd been thinking about it all wrong. All it actually required was a small repair piece for the clip, instead of a whole new switch lever from scratch.

After some measuring, and tinkering, it took around 3 iterations to get a result that worked AND I was happy with. It's a nice, tight, friction fit so that it doesn't need glue, so can be easily removed if I ever need to access the shredder internals again - but also not so loose that it can come adrift without conscious effort on the operator's part.

Another bonus is that it used such a small amount of filament (compared to printing a whole new switch lever) that I'm kicking myself for not hitting on it sooner.

So the moral of the story is this: Just because a big piece is broken, it doesn't mean a big piece is then needed to make repairs!

Happy lockdown printing folks!

Category: Replacement Parts