12 February 2008

The hinges of doom

Well, they were out of JB Weld at the store. So I bought something called Faststeel, which is a "steel-reinforced epoxy putty." It was only $3 so it's not like it was a waste of money really. But it didn't do the trick. It held great for a day, but at the end of the day yesterday it broke. I'm not sure whether it didn't bond properly to the various materials around the hinge, or whether it failed because of heat stress, or what. But we're back to square one. I do have to go out today in the direction of a different home improvement store, so I'll check again for them.

But Smittygirl had a thought. What about getting some little brass hinges and bonding them to the plastic frame? Then the lid would still be able to close, and I could come up with something else to protect the wiring. Might work. Any thoughts? Will JB Weld bond brass hinges to plastic? Hot glue perchance (ha ha! Battleroach 2000 lives!)?

5 comments:

Lucky Bob said...

Hmmmm. Auxiliary hinges might work.

Anonymous said...

BATTLEROACH 2000!!!

I would give the JB weld a shot and then move onto auxiliary hinges. JB should hold just about anything, and it bridges gaps well. My experience with the putty epoxy is that it works pretty good, but you kinda have to goop it on to get a good bond. JB doens't have many of those requirements. If you can sand the hinges just a little bit, it will help more, but I don't even think it is necessary.

I have a tube of the weld at the house if the laptop is coming along on your trip.

Check Ace Hardware, surely they will have some. The Radio Shack of hardware. At least in Atlanta it is.

Unfortunately, I think for the auxiliary hinges to be really effective, you will need a mechanical attachment in addition to the weld. Not sure if there is anything to screw into without destroying the screen, but perhaps if the portion that connects to the screen could wrap around to the front as well so it holds the edge, that could be a good thing. Might require a bit of hinge modification, but there's all kinds of fun in that.

Unknown said...

Hmm. Was not initially planning to travel with ye olde broken laptop but I may have to. I'll see how the packing goes. If I can bring it I will and we can play.

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