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   Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 02:59:18 JST Rich Felker

   I HATE LAPTOP HINGES.

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 02:59:46 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     So, here's a thread on how to repair the failure mode (for laptop hingest) I just had to repair.

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 03:01:44 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     In this case, the failure mode was that the heatset inserts in the screen enclosure backing plastic *ripped out* of the cheap injection molded plastic where there was only about 1 mm of support holding them in, and broke the plastic they were sitting in.

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 03:05:36 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     First of all, the smart, near-indestructible fix would probably have been measuring the hole spacing, cutting all of that material out, printing a solid chunk of plastic with matching spacing and proper thickness to hold heatset inserts or captive nuts, and epoxying it in.

     I might have to do that in the future, but here's what did work and was much easier:

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 03:10:52 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     1. I put all the heatset inserts and broken plastic around them back in place, and heated them with a soldering iron while squeezing the plastic around them with tweezers.

     2. I put a few drops of acetone on each one to pre-soften the plastic.

     3. After letting it dry, I carefully deposited baking soda around the weak plastic holding the inserts, getting it in any remaining cracks and building it up like chamfers around the sides.

     4. I added drops of ultra-low-viscosity CA glue (Bob Smith Industries super-thin insta-cure, equivalent to Loctite 420 :weed:) one at a time until no loose powder was remaining, and let it all dry.

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 03:13:01 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     So far the fix seems solid, and I would recommend this method (possibly even doing it preemptively if you have to disassemble to replace a screen or anything).

     I'll follow up on this thread if it doesn't hold up to let folks know if it fails and if so how.

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 03:17:15 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     And of course the root cause here is garbage-quality designs, and cheap injection molding being a garbage-quality process.

     To use heatset inserts in a high-stress application like this, you need several mm of solid plastic all around. Which at least AIUI is hard with injection molding because of uneven warping issues when you mix thick and thin parts.

     But the right way to do it is not to have the screen enclosure be the structural part the hingest bolt to. Have a solid frame the actual screen mounts to.

     Here the offender was ASUS, but I've *never* seen a consumer-grade laptop that wasn't at least this bad, and usually worse.

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
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     cliffle@hachyderm.io's status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 05:07:54 JST cliffle

     in reply to

     @dalias neat, so you're basically making concrete using the baking soda as the aggregate? Or is it playing a chemical role?

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 07:01:14 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • cliffle

     @cliffle It also plays some chemical role I don't understand instantly curing the CA glue. But yeah it's like a concrete giving structure.

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     cliffle@hachyderm.io's status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 08:29:44 JST cliffle

     in reply to

     @dalias neat tip, thanks

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     Demi Marie Obenour (alwayscurious@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 10:42:34 JST Demi Marie Obenour

     in reply to

     @dalias What do you recommend instead? Are desktops preferable if I don't need mobility?

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     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Jul-2025 10:42:34 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • Demi Marie Obenour

     @alwayscurious Oh, I don't know that there's anything great. What I have myself now is more of a business grade Thinkpad, which is probably somewhat better but I've never disassembled the hinge attachments to see.