Fortieth drop it broke: CF52

Keep treating it like a hardback book long enough, it will break. Probably happened when I drop my canvas backpack with the toughbook sitting along side paper books. Any hardware store fixes for this ABS damage, that will not run behind (prefer a putty)?

 

Try an automotive body shop supply shop. A regular autoparts may be able to help also. They have real high tech 2 part epoxies. Even make stuff to bond metal body panels together without welding.

Shawn

 

You can probably replace the whole black plastic screen bezel for around $80.....

 

I would use the old reliable, J-B Weld. It will not stick to Polypropylene or Polyethylene plastic, but I belive that the Toughbook Plastic is nylon based.

Let us know your results!

 

I was thinking the same thing.... I use JB Kwik and it works very well for a lot of applications... And it is trimable and paintable.... A very quick fix....

 

Another JB Weld vote, dremel it to shape and paint when done, you'd never know it ever broke.

 

Make sure you put in some "rebar" in the form of mosquito screen, preferably not plastic, copper if you have it. Otherwise on the next drop it will probably just crack open again. The "rebar" will hold the two parts together on all axis'. If you wanted to get high tech and could find some we carbon fibers you could bridge the crack on both sides and that would give it good strength also and be a bit easier to hide. But there is nothing more handsome like a big ugly patch on a Toughbook to give it a bit more personality. Spark

 

Maybe I'm a d!ck for saying this... but... why bother?

No repair you make is going to improve it's weather-tightness or dust resistance; that seal is in the perpendicular plane, and is visibly not compromised in the pic.

If the exposed silver on that corner bothers you attack it with a black Sharpie; otherwise, either replace the bezel to make it pristine or do as I would and just use the d@mned thing.

2 months from now you'll have a matching hickey on another corner anyways...

mnem
ReaL life is NOT for pVssies...

 

One word of warning:

JB Weld takes a whole day to set.
JB Qwik takes less than an hour.

JB Weld will adhere better to products than JB Qwik.

Choose your poison... (I tend to use JB Qwik for most applications, except where it will see repeated abuse)

 

PC-7 will be a permanent fix and is sand-able.

 

The CF-52's bezel is pretty cheezy for a rugged notebook I have some that are developing hairline cracks just by normal use. It seems that Panasonic has been cutting a lot of corners on their newer product lines.