My father-in-law is a very talented artist and maker, building elaborate stage sets for his local community and school theaters, among other projects. He has a lovely, enviable workspace a few steps outside his door, stocked with a full wood shop.

He recently contacted me and asked if I could reproduce the Dust Extractor nozzle for his beloved DeWalt DW708. The part is somewhat fragile, and having been knocked a few times, repaired a few times, he discovered, to his irritation, that DeWalt had discontinued the part, classifying it as "obsolete". There is no replacement option.

He lives a ways away, and I couldn't 'pop round' to examine the saw, so we used the mail to send the parts back and forth. I made detailed measurements of the original and then replicated the general shape in Tinkercad.

Tinkercad is NOT the best tool for industrial design, but I am very familiar with its capabilities (and the price is right). I increased the dimensions of the mounting flange, requiring mounting bolts that are 5 mm longer than the original. Not realizing that the overall length is a critical dimension, my first iteration was too long to fit without binding. After some feedback on how version 1 fit, I also made some subtle changes to the the mounting face.

Version 2 reportedly mates to the saw "better than the original"