Tightening T60 hinges with solder

[Sunshine701c]

I have a 15" 4:3 T60 chassis that I'm sprucing up for the install of a T700 motherboard from xytech. One of the issues it has is that the hinges are somewhat loose. This is a common problem with older thinkpads, and when asking how to fix it you usually get told to tighten the screws holding it to the rollcage, but more often than not it's actually the hinges themselves that have slop in them from being used so often.

I know that the hinges in the T61 widescreen are a different design, so as far as I know this procedure will only work with these kind of hinges specifically. The issue is that there's a steel shaft that is pressed into the cast alloy part of the hinge (the metal part of the hinge that you can see when the laptop is fully assembled), and with use the cast metal mushrooms out around the steel shaft, making that connection kind of jiggly. My solution to this issue is to

1.clean the hinges with soap and water as thoroughly as possibly
2. use a dremel with an engraving bit to grind down some of the mushroomed metal around the steel shaft to expose fresh metal
3.apply soldering paste flux to the area, and use a combination of a heat gun and a soldering iron to heat the cast alloy enough to get solder (standard 60/40) to flow into the gap between the steel shaft and the cast part

That's pretty much it. It's important to use a heat gun for this, because the hinges have such a huge thermal mass that just a soldering iron won't do anything, it may heat up enough to get solder to melt, but it wont be hot enough for solder to flow into the gap between the steel shaft and the cast metal part. hypothetically you could also use a torch if you wanted to ruin the finish on the exterior of the hinge. afterwards, the hinges are super solid, with no play except for the steel rails of the hinges flexing themselves. pic related (https://imgur.com/a/f6ImDRk) is them after the procedure, but before cleaning the burnt flux off.

It may be the case that the solder will wear out even faster than the cast allow did, as it's a very soft metal, but from what I can tell, the solder wicked onto the steel shaft and the alloy, sort of soldering them together, so hopefully they now act more like a single part. You might also ask, "why not just buy new hinges?" I've heard of some people ordering T60 hinges and the new ones being even floppier than the ones they were replacing. There should be no assumption that any hinges bought online are NOS unless explicitly labeled as such, and hopefully this way they're even better than new.

[kfzhu1229]

Interesting approach. I am surprised you can actually get solder to flow inside the hinges, which does not sound like something easy to do.
I am the one who had ideas of tightening T61 widescreen hinges with that different design, and my solution was to use high quality superglue and use it to fill in some gaps formed by the hinges wearing out (but before you do that you MUST lubricate the hinges, or else your hinge might seize and break everything attached to it). That design is more like a failed attempt at copying Dell Latitude hinge designs.
I have tried the same superglue method on 14.1" ThinkPad T4x hinges (right hinge), which I believe should have the same design as the 4:3 T6x, and those worked for me as well, no dremeling or enlarging the holes needed. There is a small hole on the body of those T4x hinges and dripping superglue inside it solves the problem.

[dr_st]

Another great DIY solution, thanks for sharing.

Personally, I do not worry about hinge wobbliness on 15" T4x/T60, as my experience has been it gets to a certain reasonable point and stops there, without progressively becoming worse over time. The lid is still held very firmly, it just wobbles somewhat around the 90 degree angle mark.

With that said, my experience is limited to just 2-3 samples, although I've received a few similar data points from others.

One Thinkpad of mine where hinges have become weak enough to be a problem is the X32. They don't wobble, no, but past a certain angle, they fail to hold the weight of the lid and it falls. I would have replaced them by now, if I had been using the laptop more than I do. The shape of the hinges is somewhat different, so I wonder if your technique can be applied.

[FranckDeng]

Hi,

I have received your private message, but I am the new member on this forum and I don't know how to reply you, so I am sending you the message here.

I have sent message to the T700 Project initiator 17m19 to ask your shipment issue, he said XYtech is a university student and he will graduate from college this year, so he is very busy recently.

Please contact him again, I think he will reply you soon.

tks.

[FranckDeng]

Hope you already received my last post.

[Sunshine701c]

Hi,

I have received your private message, but I am the new member on this forum and I don't know how to reply you, so I am sending you the message here.

I have sent message to the T700 Project initiator 17m19 to ask your shipment issue, he said XYtech is a university student and he will graduate from college this year, so he is very busy recently.

Please contact him again, I think he will reply you soon.

tks.

What an unconventional way to receive a PM.
I will get in touch with him through his email (xueyao@xyte.ch) and hopefully he receives it. if he doesn't respond, Is there anyone else who I might be able to talk to about this problem?

[Sunshine701c]

Hi,

I have received your private message, but I am the new member on this forum and I don't know how to reply you, so I am sending you the message here.

I have sent message to the T700 Project initiator 17m19 to ask your shipment issue, he said XYtech is a university student and he will graduate from college this year, so he is very busy recently.

Please contact him again, I think he will reply you soon.

tks.

perhaps this will help you with PMing on the site.
https://imgur.com/a/cD9krHj

[FranckDeng]

Hi,

I have received your private message, but I am the new member on this forum and I don't know how to reply you, so I am sending you the message here.

I have sent message to the T700 Project initiator 17m19 to ask your shipment issue, he said XYtech is a university student and he will graduate from college this year, so he is very busy recently.

Please contact him again, I think he will reply you soon.

tks.

What an unconventional way to receive a PM.
I will get in touch with him through his email (xueyao@xyte.ch) and hopefully he receives it. if he doesn't respond, Is there anyone else who I might be able to talk to about this problem?

Sorry I don't know XTtech, do you have a WeChat account? I can help to keep asking the T700 project initiator for this issue. And you can also contact me with WhatsApp link: wa.me/8615705858744

[FranckDeng]

Hi,

I have received your private message, but I am the new member on this forum and I don't know how to reply you, so I am sending you the message here.

I have sent message to the T700 Project initiator 17m19 to ask your shipment issue, he said XYtech is a university student and he will graduate from college this year, so he is very busy recently.

Please contact him again, I think he will reply you soon.

tks.

perhaps this will help you with PMing on the site.
https://imgur.com/a/cD9krHj

Thank you but it still didn't work on my own page, My page dont have that tool.
Tks.

[dr_st]

The inability to send PMs is a restriction of new members in the forum software. It is a protection measure to deter spammers/scammers.

You should be OK now.

[FranckDeng]

The inability to send PMs is a restriction of new members in the forum software. It is a protection measure to deter spammers/scammers.

You should be OK now.

thank you.