repairing a stripped screw-socket in T60 palm rest

[emacsomancer]

So in the midst of tearing down and putting back together my T60 a number of times, I managed to put a too-long screw into one of the holes in the palm-rest and stripped out the hole. So the palm rest (which is still held by a couple of other screws) is a bit annoyingly loose.

What would be the best way of repairing this?

I had seen somewhere for repairing stripped plastic screw sockets to fill them with Loctite epoxy (or similar) and then wrap the screw with teflon tape and insert it into the epoxy and allow to dry (and then, of course, take out the screw, unwrap the tape and screw it into the newly created socket threads).

I saw some discussion about laptop screw-socket repair here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comm ... crew_hole/ (which involved some sort of wool-epoxy strategy I didn't quite grok).

Does anyone have any experience doing a similar repair and/or have other advice to offer?

[olex126]

Hi Emacsomancer.

I would use a spray release-agent on the screw instead of the Teflon tape if you go the Locktite route...better final fitment of the screw to the new threads.

Possibly check on the Forum Marketplace and see if anyone has any extra of the threaded brass ferrules that are attached on the underside of the palm-rest?

Dave

[TPFanatic]

I believe the little gold anchor can be replaced, and if the old one is taken out destructively, the replacement can be epoxied in place.

[emacsomancer]

many thanks, olex126 & TPFanatic - that makes sense. I do have another T60 palm rest (14" rather than 15") - I wonder if I could somehow harvest a ferrule from one of those.

[olex126]

To remove just the ferrule from the 14" palmrest, hold the palmrest upside down and thread the screw into the threads. Then gently rock back and forth while pulling the screw straight up with a pair of pliers, vice-grips, etc. what have you. Once it's out, epoxy it into the 15" holder.

If the plastic ferrule holder itself is farked, either an exacto knife or Dremel can cleanly remove the farked holder from your 15" palmrest.

Do the same with the holder/ferrule from your 14" unit, and transplant it to the 15" palmrest using epoxy.

Make sure you mark the location exactly on the 15" palmrest where to place the new holder/ferrule before you epoxy it in.

Regards.

Dave

[emacsomancer]

Thanks again, Dave.

So getting ferrules out of the 14" palm rest was non-trivial - the plastic ferrule holders always broke, but I managed to extract one from the plastic.

However, it turns out not to be the issue. I had thought I had somehow stripped the ferrule on the 15" palm rest, but I had just 'over-screwed' it - so once I properly aligned things, the proper screw inserted fine and gripped.

The looseness appears to be because of something in the lower right hand corner. The screw there is inserted and screwed in, but for some reason it's not holding down that corner.

Could the 'backing' of that particular screw socket have somehow detached from the palm rest?

[edit: added clarifying word]

[olex126]

Yep....it sounds like it is detached and just twirling around with the screw instead of doing a proper anchoring job.

Epoxy it in and you should be good to go.

Dave

P.S. Afterthought: you DO have the proper length screw in there, correct?