Eibos Easdry latch fix for when the strap snaps

If You find this design useful, Please consider sharing a Make or leaving a comment. It's always good to see my efforts in use by others out there and it often inspires me to make improvements where I can. Without feedback I just draw a line under a design and move on to new projects.

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TLDR :- Got a new filament dryer. Release strap/string snapped off the latch on first use. I created and fitted a replacement knob (that to my mind is what they should have actually done in the first place).

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So, today I received my brand new Eibos Easdry filament dryer. I'd seen videos, I knew what to expect in terms of the door release being an iffy design. But I didn't expect that on the first attempts to open the door the stupidly designed strap would immediately fail and snap off. But it did just that.

So literally, before I had even opened the door once, it was already in need of repair. I couldn't work out how they had even secured the strap to the thing so it was either time to send it back or work out a fix.  I'd already waited 3 days for delivery, and coupled with how bad I felt the cover release design was and a new one risked similar issues, I opted for the home fix instead.

Despite the strap, string, loop, whatever, being so cheap and nasty, the actual latch mechanism in the cover isn't bad at all. At a guess, I would say from the small hole in the spring loaded latch release that they'd used some kind of bung to just trap their crapola release strap thing in place.   The door on my dryer fits far too tight for that to be worth replicating as I figured it would probably fail again in the same way. So I opted to go a different route. 

Using an 18mm (16mm should also work) M4 Allen head bolt, I drove the bolt into the small hole of the release catch in a way that it cut a thread into the plastic of the catch. Starting the thread was the hardest part, pushing firmly I was doing a Half a turn forward, half back,  forward back and repeat to slowly cut a thread into the catch (there is no room behind the catch to do this with a proper tap, so the screw has to do all the thread cutting itself).  

Once it was deep enough to have a real grip, I continued with the back, forward , back, forward threading motion (while also checking the latch still moved when I figured it near through) until the bolt hit the back of the door and jammed the latch. 

For reference, the door is like a double glazed window design with two sheets of plastic and an airgap in between. and the latch in its own little sealed area.  After the bolt bottomed out I backed it out a quarter turn and tested the latch a few times to make sure it worked as I had intended.  At this point it was obvious that a screw just sticking out of the case looked a bit crap, though it already worked as intended at that stage. 

I figured that having a knob sized to rest flat on the door would reduce the potential bending forces at the point where the screw entered the latch so I did a few measurements and created a simple knob. A five minute print later and Tadah! 3 billion times better than the stock design (a very slight over exaggeration there, but seriously, much better than the original stringy thing design). 

Sliding the screw through the new print, I added one drop of glue to the threads. Be careful here, you don't want to glue the latch to the door, only the thread that touches the latch. If in doubt? Don't use the glue as it's likely just overkill. I then refitted the bolt and tightened it again until it nipped up against the back of the door then finally backed it back out a little to reduce stiction allowing the latch to move freely. For the next few minutes I constantly worked the latch back and forth to make sure the superglue didn't try to stick something it shouldn't. It now feels solid and secure and more than strong enough to pull the door open despite how ridiculously tight the door fits on my easedry.

 One additional note here:- I deliberately ran the screw through to a point where it was causing the latch to bind up. Not so much that it wouldn't move, but enough that when I open the latch, it stays open and doesn't spring back. My reasoning was that in the short term at least, I knew the screw was using as much thread in the latch that it could. But that it also meant when pulling  the stupidly tight door open, any forces were directly removing the door and not also pulling the latch release down. I was probably overthinking it, but it made sense to me at the time. I figure that over time it will loosen up though as the point of contact between the screw tip and door will eventually wear to a point that lets it move totally free again. Either way, this bush fix works as I intended.

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Reviews (if you can believe them) rate the Eibos as being a good filament dryer option. It is definitely built down to a price though. No timer, no Screen (the screen on the front is nothing more than one of those super cheap Hygrometers you find on eBay for the price of a bar of chocolate, but is easily replaced for one that does show heat, though being so low it will likely not truly reflect the temps correctly.  The original stock display had No thermometer to tell you what heat is actually being produced inside (they likely went this route for the reason I just mentioned about height and inaccuracy). But despite the lack of bells and whistles, it is still a fan assisted dryer, and to my mind makes it a better option than the Sunlu V1 and V2 types at least. 

Personally   I don't mind the simplicity of the controls. Turn the knob to desired heat, leave for a while and turn off. It is simple and doesn't require you learn some convoluted and often unintuitive operating system like some dryers make you do.  You can also print directly from the box so it is a functional item beyond just drying (as you would expect these days really). 

So, all that said, this is just a quick fix for a broken release strap/cord/string that also improves on the lousy method Eibos chose for a door release.