Thinkpads Forum

...blindfolded and shot. (just kidding).

The left corner of my X220's lid felt kinda wobbly, so I removed the bezel.

The plastic part (that houses the webcam and wireless antennas) is held in place by only two screws, one on each end. The mounting points for these screws are on short "rabbit ear" extensions of the magnesium lid; the ears quite narrow, maybe 1/4 inch or less (I didn't have a ruler on hand).

As it turns out, the left "rabbit ear" broke off from the rest of the lid.

Simply gluing it back won't work. I need to reinforce it so that it doesn't break off again, Maybe small angle bar of aluminum or stainless steel, though I don't know where to find one right now.

If you guys have any ideas on how to fix this (aside from replacing the lid), I'm open to suggestions.

You'd be surprised what Gorilla Glue can do!
I had a palmrest where one of the plastic screw-studs had broken off.
First I cleaned the broken bits off the palmrest with an Xacto knife.
Then I put a dollop of Gorilla Glue on that cleaned spot and a tiny bit of water on the bottom of the stud.
Next I "planted" the stud into the glue, so that it was completely surrounded by it, up to about half the height of the stud.
It looked like a small hill with a stud sticking out.
Next I made sure that the stud was placed at the correct spot and properly "upright".
I had a screw put in all the way to the bottom of the stud, to prevent the glue from 'seeping' into the stud-thread.
Put it away and let it sit overnight so it could properly dry.
Next day it was absolutely rock-solid!
Because there was a bit too much glue for the palmrest to properly fit, I used the same knife to cut the glue into shape.
Altogether it took maybe 5 minutes of work and it fits perfectly!

You can make small pieces of aluminum reinforcement out of a coca-cola.
Also the tops from cooking oil are similar material.

If you have enough space, make a laminate from multiple layers 'glued' atop eachother.
I would use a fast drying epoxy, but a CA based glue would be strong enough to hold the webcam/rabbit ears with nominal surface area for the glue's bond.

Carbon fibre is another choice.

If the windows hologram is still on the machine, use that.

I fixed it yesterday, using a small piece of sheet aluminum-- I think it's the RF shield of an old laptop charger.
I didn't take any pictures, because I think it's ugly as hell (inside) and maybe a bit misaligned.
Perhaps I'll take pictures when I find the motivation-- maybe if (and when) I find an IPS panel for cheap.

There's not much free space (the cable for the wifi antenna runs through it) so I used cyanoacrylate glue instead of epoxy.

A stiffer material would have been better, but then I wouldn't be able to shape it as well as the aluminum.