WDT TOOL

Origins

Before we get started lets get on thing out of the way…what the heck is a WDT tool??? Well lets break it down. WDT is an acronym for Weiss Distribution Technique. This is the technique of using thin needles to stir the ground coffee in order to break up any large clumps that may occur after grinding and to distribute the grounds more evenly in the portafilter basket.

There has been lots of testing on this distribution method and the data has widely shown that they are very good at distributing the coffee well in order to get the best extraction. There weren’t any commercial solutions available for people to try WDT so many people opted to make their own out of household objects such as paper clips and cocktail sticks stuffed into a wine cork. As more testing happened people realised that the thinner the needles (to an extent) the better and more even the distribution would be. Some of the 3D printing community stepped in to design a better tool that utilised ultra thin acupuncture needles. These products took the coffee community (especially the home baristas) by storm. As a home brewer I was looking into these and wanted to get my hands on one but it was kind of difficult unless you knew someone with a 3D printer. As well as this the needles were kind of hard to come and very expensive. Whilst highly functional the designs of these early tools weren’t that visually appealing to my eye which is why I went on to design my own tool.

My Tool

So I opened Fusion 360 and got to work on designing my own tool based on the 9 Prong arrangement of needles. I wanted to make something minimalistic and stylish that felt good to use. The main requirements for this project were that the tool would fit the readily available acupuncture needles and could be printed well on a hobby 3D printer. The design I came up with was almost all once piece except for the very top part which utilised a threaded lid so you could load the needles.

Once I had designed the tool I decided that I would start selling them on Etsy in a bid to make WDT’s easier to get hold of as there weren’t many for sale at the time, especially in the UK. The tool went down well on Etsy and ended up becoming one of my best selling items. It is so rewarding to see people online using something you designed and created. I still sell the tool both on Etsy and via my online store which can be found here.

Overall, I am super happy with this project and the way this product turned out. I use this tool myself everyday and it is still as good today as the day I first printed it!