So I came back to the Floodgap Orbiting HQ after visiting the folks, took out my TiBook/867 and promptly dropped it on the floor, right hinge down. I picked it up and the right hinge stayed on the floor, with a nice hole in the display where it had attached, stretching the two halves of the display. Because this is a family board, I will refrain from the
comments made by me at that time.
A quick test showed the display was undamaged internally, but it was obviously unbalanced.
The problem is that the rotating element, which was the one that came off the hinge, is under a lot of tension when the top opens and closes. This should be of little surprise to anyone who has tried to repair them before or used the kits to fix the tension so they stop stripping and cracking.
My first attempt was to use (what I thought was) a sufficiently strong Loctite resin epoxy. After 24 hours of cure, it successfully opened, apparently intact. I closed it and the hinge tore out of the display again. Neighbours learned a few new words.
A second attempt with a different slower-set epoxy, plus some cyanoacrylate to improve adhesion, similarly resulted in lots of cussing.
The third attempt was with JB Weld, which is a metal-reinforced epoxy. I'd used this before to repair a broken Commodore SX-64 handle and it is almost the last word in high strength epoxies (ignore the people saying "Devcon B" in the back, that stuff smells like hell), but I was a little hesitant here because this was a one-way trip; you can't get it off with anything short of a jackhammer. I mixed up a quantity, let it stand for an hour or so, and then scooped a bit into the display to mate with the broken hinge piece, sculpted a "restraining sandwich" around it, and then smoothed the polymer around the sides of the wounded display to hold it together. To prevent it from getting onto the bottom half and fusing the laptop closed, I put a paper towel between the halves (in retrospect polyurethane sheeting would probably have been a better idea), and made sure to scrape away weld compound from the rotating portion of the hinge to prevent it from polymerizing that together too. The first attempts with the resin epoxy actually proved advantageous as they had partially penetrated the display and sealed it internally, safely stopping the JB Weld slurry from entering the LCD or backlight. I let this stand for 24 hours, and here is the result:
http://www.floodgap.com/iv/931
This opens and closes like a charm. No cracks!
After I put it together, I discovered that the impact had introduced a slight bend in the display so it's a touch cockeyed, and it needs "encouragement" to latch. Not much I can do about that, but the point is, it works and I can use the Book again. So if you've whacked your TiBook's hinges and you feel like a challenge, JB Weld is your compound. Just don't expect it to look pretty.
A quick test showed the display was undamaged internally, but it was obviously unbalanced.
The problem is that the rotating element, which was the one that came off the hinge, is under a lot of tension when the top opens and closes. This should be of little surprise to anyone who has tried to repair them before or used the kits to fix the tension so they stop stripping and cracking.
My first attempt was to use (what I thought was) a sufficiently strong Loctite resin epoxy. After 24 hours of cure, it successfully opened, apparently intact. I closed it and the hinge tore out of the display again. Neighbours learned a few new words.
A second attempt with a different slower-set epoxy, plus some cyanoacrylate to improve adhesion, similarly resulted in lots of cussing.
The third attempt was with JB Weld, which is a metal-reinforced epoxy. I'd used this before to repair a broken Commodore SX-64 handle and it is almost the last word in high strength epoxies (ignore the people saying "Devcon B" in the back, that stuff smells like hell), but I was a little hesitant here because this was a one-way trip; you can't get it off with anything short of a jackhammer. I mixed up a quantity, let it stand for an hour or so, and then scooped a bit into the display to mate with the broken hinge piece, sculpted a "restraining sandwich" around it, and then smoothed the polymer around the sides of the wounded display to hold it together. To prevent it from getting onto the bottom half and fusing the laptop closed, I put a paper towel between the halves (in retrospect polyurethane sheeting would probably have been a better idea), and made sure to scrape away weld compound from the rotating portion of the hinge to prevent it from polymerizing that together too. The first attempts with the resin epoxy actually proved advantageous as they had partially penetrated the display and sealed it internally, safely stopping the JB Weld slurry from entering the LCD or backlight. I let this stand for 24 hours, and here is the result:
http://www.floodgap.com/iv/931
This opens and closes like a charm. No cracks!
After I put it together, I discovered that the impact had introduced a slight bend in the display so it's a touch cockeyed, and it needs "encouragement" to latch. Not much I can do about that, but the point is, it works and I can use the Book again. So if you've whacked your TiBook's hinges and you feel like a challenge, JB Weld is your compound. Just don't expect it to look pretty.
