Better glue for case repair

[portsample]

Hey all-

I picked up a T23 on the 'bay a couple of weeks ago. It had a broken palmrest bezel that was cracked into two pieces. The breaks were at the "Fn" key and at the right arrow key. It was a great little piece of info to glean from this forum that when this has happened, often it is the result of a broken Ultrabay housing, because this was the case with mine. So after swapping a good housing from a defunct T21, I used JB Weld to glue up the breaks.

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... 3-port.jpg
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... 3-stbd.jpg

This worked great.

Question: Are there any cements that are known to work on the plastic IBM used in their housings? While epoxy is a great temporary fix, eventually it will break again at the repair site. Are there any plastic cements that have been tested on these housings and that will work?

[craigmontHunter]

A two part epoxy shoud not break again, or if it does, it should break beside the origional crack, in the plastic. I think the best solution would be to get a hard wire (think axles in toy cars), place that underneath and epoxy that in to provide more strength. My grandfather uses epoxy for everything, and I don't think that I have ever seen the epoxy itself break.

Good luck

[nikki605]

I used Loctite All Purpose Super Glue over a year ago to repair my T21 case and it is still holding.

http://www.acehardwaresuperstore.com/lo ... tml?ref=42

[Paul Pennington]

I think the best solution would be to get a hard wire (think axles in toy cars), place that underneath and epoxy that in to provide more strength.

I bought a T-23 from realblackstuff two years ago that he repaired in exactly that way. Maybe he will chime in here and say what he used for the metal rod. It's better than new now. I used a black marker to color the joint and it's very hard to tell it has been repaired.

[RealBlackStuff]

Hi Paul,
Glad to hear it holds up so well.

Couldn't find the thread at first, but here it is:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 2&p=407668

[portsample]

Thanks for the clarification. I'd been under the impression that "welds" were stronger than glued/soldered/brazed joints because the joint is made of the base material that had been liquified w/either heat or a solvent and then allowed to harden. Glued/soldered/brazed joints were always no stronger than either the added material or the interface between the glue/solder/brass and the base material.

I was wondering if anyone had tried any of the plastic cements that join by welding? Examples are model airplane cement and ABS cement.

BTW, the JB "Weld" is working fine.
Thanks.