Tightening T60 hinges with solder
Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:09 pm
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.
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.
