Uncracking The Case

Anyone watching ebay will see many Cf-29's for sale sporting a crack in the palm rest. Mine was a serious crack so the price was right. Then I bought a lower case and spliced the two.

I don't think there are any good cheap computers. If you find an inexpensive one it will have issues. No hdd, no dvd, cracked case etc. The end result is you spend about what the computers are worth only spread out over a period of time. I speak for myself.

So I ended up with the stripped case and a little time to tinker with it. I wanted to see if the repair would hold up and be inconspicuous from the outside. Plus I intend to use the JBWeld to repair a saddle and I wanted a little experience with it.

Crack Repair

I started the images the second day of this operation.

1. Make up a small quantity of JBWeld. Open the crack as much as possible and apply the JBW.
2. Insert the wedge in the center of the "door" which tends to take the bend out and fill the crack with weld. Then reposition the wedge for the best over-all external fit. On the top scrape the excess off but on the inside leave the little bead of weld.
3. Allow to dry for a day.
4. If the crack is extensive you may want to apply a brace on the inside of the case.
5. I used what I had which was a solid brass dog collar label plate. A lot of brass fittings are coated with lacquer so to be safe I scraped and scored the brass to encourage good adhesion.
6. Cut outs were done by cutting with tin snips and bending back and forth until broken, filing was with a 12" mill file and round filing done with a chainsaw file.
7. A decent clamp would have been useful but I just smooshed the brace down into another batch of JBWeld and then weighted in down with a couple steel blocks.
8. Tomorrow or whenever I will scrape, sand and touch-up paint the visible portion of the outside of the case.

Enjoy.

 

Very nice so far, that's my kind of repair!

 

Nice, but I stopped at the "wedge" step (to-wit: popped it back in place and don't worry about it ).

This CF-29 Mk3 is my "car gun" (Wynn Quantrill {William Daniels} from The President's Analyst), (i.e.: vehicle-installation in Panasonic Vehicle Dock), so I'm not worried about it being totally waterproof.

Besides, with the deck pushed back in place the crack is a tight fit, and is still covered by the deck cover, so "What? Me Worry" - Alfred E. Newman

 

Check the penciled circle where the crack ends and also the straight down that shows the bead of goop. This was a little more than a simple push could fix.

Any speculation as to what causes this crack? I'm betting on the user using the laptop as a prop when getting in and out of a vehicle.

Below see the brace piece and two rows of JBWeld on a piece of plastic sheet. This gives a clearer shot of the cut-outs in the piece.

J

 

I'm sure the severity of the cracking varies from unit to unit. Fortunately mine was relatively minor.

YMMV

Not a clue, as I have seen photos of some of these retired- SBC Mk3's with cracking almost all the way to the touchpad and pushed almost halfway down to the bottom of the WWAN/GPS bay.

 

Nice repair article.

J&B Weld Rules!

 

Thanks Bill.

 

I like jb weld....

Nice repair, but may i make a suggestion? I would recommend drilling an itty bitty hole at the end of the crack before welding it with the backer plate. From an engineering standpoint, it will stop the crack from getting worse, should it ever be dropped or stressed with enough force to unadhese the jb weld.

and yes, itty bitty is a unit of measurement, slightly larger than a RCH, which just happens to be the next unit up from a CH. we use them in construction all the time.

 

Good one......I can do that from the top.

Jeff

 

Little mix-up here. Spark was using my 'puter and left his identity/password up. Missed my chance.

Anyhoo....thanks for the tip on drilling. It's a good one.

Jeff

 

I should try this on my cracked CF-30 outter lid... what do you guys think?...

P.S, I used JB Weld to fix a broken clip on my headlight on my truck this morning... it works great!

 

Hey Rob,
I think you should try it. You can get fancy and leave a pseudo weld on the outside. I forget what it looked like but with a tiny drill hole at both ends and if you have room, some sort of backing plate on the inside it will be as strong as ever. Test it next Super Bowl.
I have twenty or thirty of those brass plates if you need one. I toyed with the idea of using a Popsicle stick but decided on metal.
Let us know.

j

 

I often use desktop Expansion Slot filler plates for such things; I especially like to misuse the ones that have DELL stamped into them...

mnem
"Boy, that shure is purdy..."

 

Well I think that you should TIG Weld it....

 

i KNEW that was coming.

 

there was a seam repair adhesive from 3M that was used in body repair on older model cars(60's-70's) that just required scuffing and smearing it on that was impossible to scrape off when it set up, used mostly in trunk and wheel well areas that got moisture. have used jb weld for many repairs, amazing material. as for drilling the hole at end of crack, SOP for repairing fractures in dentures. sink your teeth in that ..

 

And from my wife, also used in windshield repair. From sparkwrite used in aircraft cowling repair in the frozen north. (And I'm sure elsewhere.)
I considered using JB and fiberglass cloth as I had some "in-stock" but the nature of the crack precluded that.
Thanks to all.

Jeff

 

Yup. :wink:

mnem
'nuff sed.