Thinkpads Forum

Hello All
Anyone have any experiance gluing a cracked chassis? It's a 760 and it's broken underneath the battery towards the cd bay opening. I'm thinking about grinding it out some and then epoxying in a thin metal plate. I didn't know whether anyone else has had luck with this.
Also if anyone has the left latch assemlby I'd be interested in obtaining one.

Thanks again...cause everyone here have been very helpful!!

Brian

If the crack is not under constant stress and not spreading, it just might work. Epoxy is a good repair material. I have seen the power connector on a 2611-410 epoxied to the board with a spare piece of plastic to make the connector stronger ... JD Hurst

I'm pretty sure that would work. The only cracks (or at least on a 760) that I can see as a major conern (other than really big ones) are the small ones on the LCD housing. I just replaced the plastics on my 760's screen last week because there was a crack near the area I normally push up on and it was getting bigger by the day, much like Kirstie Alley's waistline.

Thanks guys!!

Been there, done that, epoxy didn't hold. Instead, roughen up the surface a bit with sandpaper (you can use the coarse side of an emery board), and use fiberglass. You can get a little fiberglass patch kit at any decent hardware store. Layer resin, glass, resin, glass, resin, put in a warm place to cure. Sand smooth with your emery board when fully cured, go over it with a black Sharpie, and you're done. I did this repair on a crack that was under stress, near the hinge, and it lasted very well.

Never even thouhgt about the fibverglass route. That way I wouldn't have to try to embedd some sort of plate for strenght. It worked ok on the plastic of the case?

I bought some stuff called "Plastic Surgery". It is a super glue type stuff for plastic and it works pretty well on ABS. http://www.surehold.com/product_detail.asp?ID=15

disneyman wrote:Never even thouhgt about the fibverglass route. That way I wouldn't have to try to embedd some sort of plate for strenght. It worked ok on the plastic of the case?

Yup, worked fine. I had to sand past the coating and into the plastic, I don't remember if it was a 760 but it was an older ThinkPad with a thin rubberized coating. You do need to leave the plastic a bit rough for the resin to "bite." The coarse side of an emery board works fine for that.

Glad someone found a solution here...where do you buy the fiberglass?....I have an older Japanese laptop that needs the same repair....

I would try the super-glue type stuff route, but I've done some of this already without much success...afraid to try this on top of an area of the thinkpad that has already had superglue application and faile.

Any big hardware store will have a "fiberglass repair kit" - it's a box with a small amount of resin, hardener, and thin glass fabric. You can ask for it by that name. It's much more than you'll need for such a small repair. You need to mix the amounts of resin/hardener accurately, and let it cure in a warm place. The resin has an unpleasant and rather penetrating odor but if you leave it in a cool room with a window open it will take days to cure. The process can get a bit messy, don't do it on good furniture, do it over a copy of the Sunday NY Times to keep the resin off everything *g*. Have your glass cut to size and ready to go before you begin the repair.

I don't remember if I ever tried superglue, but I did try epoxy and it peeled right off.