Hacks. They happen to be best of us. Last week I wrote about Elvira's multiball lock post solenoid's curious failure mode. The metal bracket that holds the coil and rest of the mechanism had suffered a case of metal fatigue. This is very unusual, as this is first of all a very weak coil that is fired very rarely. Apparently there was something questionable about the metal used in this thing. This is such a rare part that it needs to be ordered from the US, which means the double birdie of high tax and high postage fees for something as simple as this. Oh and it takes weeks to arrive too. If I had a laser cutter and CNC bending machine at hand, I'd do it myself. Not wanting to have Elvira down for this long, I investigated an alternative solution. This was such a simple thing I easily modelled one with #FreeCAD to be 3D printed out of ASA. It works fine, with a 8mm bolt head as a coil stop. I'm going to leave this part in even after I get a new part as I'm curious hold long it'll stay intact! #3dprinting