Prometheus
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 9,472
Well, today, the inevitable happened. I hadn't used my Pandora for a couple of days, and when I took it out of the bag it usually sits in when I'm not using it, one of the hinge-welts that I'd previously written about had given way, leaving a hole in the casing. I learned from this that Sugru cannot hold together teeny, tiny, super-thin hairline cracks, which is what the hinge-welts were covered with. Not to worry, though - now that there was a hole, it was a better candidate for a Sugru-based fix than the cracks were.
I did notice something when I saw the hole, though;
It seems that the culprit for the hinge-welts is the edge of some sort of clip, stud, or strut. It seems to be part of something else, but it was touching the now-broken (and, admittedly, very thick) layer of plastic that had broken, so I'm guessing it was putting too much pressure there or something. Going on where the welts appear, would I be correct in guessing that three of these are present in the hinge/lid-casing part?
I fixed it quite quickly, and took mental notes of what I did so as to write up a quick guide for the specific technique for fixing these holes nicely and smoothly using Sugru. I was unable to take photos of the process, because Sugru is very, very sticky, and I didn't want to get the stuff all over my camera.
However, I did take a snapshot once it was finished.
1: Before you begin, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE OTHER THINGS THAT NEED SUGRU FIRST. This fix only needs a small amount of the stuff, and since it needs to be applied within 30 minutes, this will result in a lot of wastage if you don't have other things in need of it at the time.
2: Pull of a pea-sized piece of Sugru (this will be more than enough - it's just easier to soften up an amount of this size and break more off from there), and roll it between your fingers to soften it up a bit.
3: Once the chunk of Sugru is easier to work, pull off a third to a quarter of it (depending on the size of the hinge-hole), making sure that it's about twice as much as you actually need to plug the hole, and plant it on the index finger of whichever hand is your dominant one (it'll be easier this way). If you're ambidextrous, just pick whichever one is your favourite. Pick up your Pandora with your free hand, and hold it steady.
4: Flatten the small piece of Sugru a tiny bit by squeezing it between your thumb and index finger, and then scrape it across the hinge, as if trying to remove something sticky from your finger. The idea here is to get a substantial amount of it to stick in the hole.
5: Once you get a bit of Sugru in the hole, push it down firmly with another fingertip, but not so much that it just falls into the casing - we don't want that! If you get it right, it should be filling the hole solidly at this point.
6: Repeat step 4 as many times as is needed to make the filling flush with the casing. Take great care not to pull out the Sugru that's already in the hole.
7: When the hole is completely filled, smooth over it with another, non-Sugru'd fingertip until it doesn't have any annoying markings left on it. When this is done, it should look like the hinge simply has a chunk of a slightly lighter shade of black on it.
8: Put it down to set. DO NOT let it touch fabrics or furniture, as uncured Sugru will stain them. Don't let the Sugru'd part(s) touch any other surfaces, either, as the Sugru has the potential to bond your Pandora to them.
If you need to cover the Sugru'd areas, use cling-film (Saran-wrap, for you North American folks) to protect/cover them, as Sugru cannot stick to this.
9: Put it down somewhere safe, and wait for 24 hours for the Sugru to cure.
This is how mine looked after I'd finished the above process. Below is a close-up;
Mine is now curing. Since the Sugru is slightly flexible, with any luck this should prevent the problem from recurring, even if the strut/stud/clip inside does happen to push against it a bit. At least now I know exactly what to do if the other two hinge-welts break apart like this one did, and it's certainly better than having to send it back!
I did notice something when I saw the hole, though;
It seems that the culprit for the hinge-welts is the edge of some sort of clip, stud, or strut. It seems to be part of something else, but it was touching the now-broken (and, admittedly, very thick) layer of plastic that had broken, so I'm guessing it was putting too much pressure there or something. Going on where the welts appear, would I be correct in guessing that three of these are present in the hinge/lid-casing part?
I fixed it quite quickly, and took mental notes of what I did so as to write up a quick guide for the specific technique for fixing these holes nicely and smoothly using Sugru. I was unable to take photos of the process, because Sugru is very, very sticky, and I didn't want to get the stuff all over my camera.
1: Before you begin, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE OTHER THINGS THAT NEED SUGRU FIRST. This fix only needs a small amount of the stuff, and since it needs to be applied within 30 minutes, this will result in a lot of wastage if you don't have other things in need of it at the time.
2: Pull of a pea-sized piece of Sugru (this will be more than enough - it's just easier to soften up an amount of this size and break more off from there), and roll it between your fingers to soften it up a bit.
3: Once the chunk of Sugru is easier to work, pull off a third to a quarter of it (depending on the size of the hinge-hole), making sure that it's about twice as much as you actually need to plug the hole, and plant it on the index finger of whichever hand is your dominant one (it'll be easier this way). If you're ambidextrous, just pick whichever one is your favourite. Pick up your Pandora with your free hand, and hold it steady.
4: Flatten the small piece of Sugru a tiny bit by squeezing it between your thumb and index finger, and then scrape it across the hinge, as if trying to remove something sticky from your finger. The idea here is to get a substantial amount of it to stick in the hole.
5: Once you get a bit of Sugru in the hole, push it down firmly with another fingertip, but not so much that it just falls into the casing - we don't want that! If you get it right, it should be filling the hole solidly at this point.
6: Repeat step 4 as many times as is needed to make the filling flush with the casing. Take great care not to pull out the Sugru that's already in the hole.
7: When the hole is completely filled, smooth over it with another, non-Sugru'd fingertip until it doesn't have any annoying markings left on it. When this is done, it should look like the hinge simply has a chunk of a slightly lighter shade of black on it.
8: Put it down to set. DO NOT let it touch fabrics or furniture, as uncured Sugru will stain them. Don't let the Sugru'd part(s) touch any other surfaces, either, as the Sugru has the potential to bond your Pandora to them.
9: Put it down somewhere safe, and wait for 24 hours for the Sugru to cure.
This is how mine looked after I'd finished the above process. Below is a close-up;
Mine is now curing. Since the Sugru is slightly flexible, with any luck this should prevent the problem from recurring, even if the strut/stud/clip inside does happen to push against it a bit. At least now I know exactly what to do if the other two hinge-welts break apart like this one did, and it's certainly better than having to send it back!
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