Hinge Replacement Half for Old Locker Cabinets

🔍 The Issue

Many older locker cabinets are equipped with hinges consisting of a metal part and a plastic part. Over time, the plastic elements tend to break one after another ❌, making the lockers unreliable or unusable. Since replacement parts are no longer available, the service life of these cabinets is significantly limited. The new hinge measures 50 mm wide × 41 mm deep × 17 mm high 📏, which is crucial to fit perfectly into the door recesses.

🛠 Development & Objective

To ensure the long-term usability of the lockers ✅, I reverse-engineered the broken plastic part in FreeCAD 💻. The goal was to design a replacement that is stronger 💪, more durable, and easy to reproduce with 3D printing. At the same time, the new part had to remain fully compatible with the existing construction, so no modifications to the lockers would be required.

⚙ Solution

The redesigned component was manufactured using PETG Prusament 🧵 with 3D printing, chosen for its great balance of strength and flexibility. For slicing, I used supports “touching build plate only” with organic support type 🌱, which ensured a clean print and easy post-processing.

The replacement hinge is fully compatible with the original hinge pins 🔩. Alternatively, a M4 screw can be used — without a nut. When inserted into the 4 mm borehole, the screw automatically cuts its own thread, while the screw head sits flush in the recess, so nothing sticks out ✨.

✅ Result

With this solution, the old lockers are back in service 🎉 — durable, precise, and easy to reproduce whenever needed.

🙌 Support my Work

If you like this project and want to support my work, feel free to check out my page here 👉 https://cryinkfly.com/sponsors/ 💙