The right hinge on my laptop broke shortly after Christmas. I used traditional gray duct tape to hold things together. My charging cord has two bits of duct tape, one silver and one orange, at opposite ends, holding things together. My disc drive stopped working when I dug out the pre-school and kindergarten computer games for Inge a year or so ago. I guess the old Windows 98 games were too old, and so messed up my drive somehow. My screen flickers sometimes, as though it's about to give out. And there's some sort of fan problem that causes the fan to periodically stop working and the computer to shut itself down. I always try to sit with it propped up so that much air can get in.
And then yesterday my second hinge gave out.
Joe said I could probably get a non-functional case for my laptop, for about $30, and then switch out the innards into that one. But with all those other little things, and the move coming up and ensuing change in income, ... I don't really want to spend the money.
Today, when I probably ought to have been packing, I found myself challenged to do a little engineering. Home computer repair using duct tape and shoe laces. I'm pretty happy with the results. I feel sufficiently ... accomplished. I think it competes well with the steel can/2x4/duct tape cup holder Joe's dad made for our creeper van.
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| view of the top; note the residual silver duct tape peeking out |
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| view of the bottom, featuring the support string for the side braces |
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| Note the snazzy half hitches on the laces that allow for adjusting the angle of incline |
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| Just another view of my masterwork |
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| One has to shape the tape around the various edge portals |
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| The other edge with portals handily exposed |
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| But wait, ... what about that disc drive? I know it doesn't work anyway, ... but still, ... it looks like she taped it shut? |
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| No worries. A foundation layer of tape facing upward keeps the supporting tape from sticking, but still offers a surface upon which to add the vast layers of diagonal tape strips to keep the shoe lace from shifting when the weight of the screen is applied |
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